my eclectic room

This is a slice of a beautiful corner from my retro teal/white heaven. Right angles are boring...but diagonals are fun. My fish tank is actually in my closet (Yes, there is a huge hole in the wall where the fish tank fits). The story is that the inhabitant of my room was extremely trashed a few years ago and knocked off a part of a chunk of the wall with a sledgehammer. For aesthetic and safety purposes, there's now a fish tank there.

I have a molly, two gold dusts, and one non-functional algae eater. I did have a swordtail and a huge Japanese goldfish, but they succumbed to old age. Only guys have lived in this room before me. Apparently the fish are good for luring girls into the room (like that'll help me), who swoon over the cuteness of a sensitive man taking care of fish.

amsterdam encore

What most of Amsterdam's streets look like. Amsterdam is composed of 100 small islands.

The street where the Anne Frank house is located. The graffiti is courtesy of Neo-nazis who believe that Anne Frank and the concentration camps never existed.

The Anne Frank house is the second building on the right.


Anne Frank: Transported to Auschwitz on September 3, 1944. Died at Bergen-Belsen in March of 1945.

The central square in Amsterdam. The royal palace is on the left.



Tulips...what is Amsterdam without them?
Rembrandt: Along with Van Gogh, one of Amsterdam's gifts to fine art.
Dutch soldiers: Also at Rembrandtplein.

Amsterdam

How I spent Tuesday-Friday of this week: Touring the wonders of Amsterdam and interviewing for Optiver.

slices of pie

I was talking with one of my friends yesterday at 2AM in the morning (what normal person wouldn't be holding deep conversations at 2AM?), and she compared an individual's social network and personal connections to a pie. Her pie seemed to be divided into fewer slices since she doesn't have close family except for her parents and a few good friends. For those of us that are fortunate or unfortunate enough to give everyone large slices of our pie, each connection and each person seems more important. For people with extended families and large groups of friends, there are so many slices to keep track of and each person gets a smaller slice...

But then again, it's not like everyone's pie is the same size to begin with, and not everyone belongs on the same pie. Personally, I like pumpkin pie. Apple pie is also good, but sometimes too sweet. Chicken pies are good too and fantastically easy to make. The only downside is that the chicken pies I make are very heavy (maybe I need to go lighter on the flour). Mince pies annoy me, but cheesecake...mmmmmmmm. Or ice cream...cookie dough, or especially Hagen Daas's Dulce de Leche. Or Toscanini's...If it weren't 2AM in the morning, I'd go get myself a scoop of mango. Never mind that the temperature outside is probably a good twenty degrees lower than the actual ice cream itself. It's never the wrong season for ice cream, nor is ice cream ever too sweet.

much ado about nothing...

Stupid 18.04 pset. I couldn't do it on tuesday, and I still couldn't do it today. Go figure. Why is it that 18.04 is harder than 18.100A? At least I could get through 80% of my 18.100A pset. But 18.04 is just about stupid imaginary numbers. It's 1AM, and I don't anticipate getting more done in the next 11 hours.

There's just so much to learn...so much insanity. Looking forward to a weekend of work, UROP, and interview preparation. Wheeeeeee.

work work work

So...I've been doing my UROP for four days straight. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. I've been running regressions and creating Excel tables all of Saturday and Sunday and part of the time on Monday and Tuesday. My UROP supervisor is on sabbatical, but doing research at Stanford University (how does that work?). I'm convinced that she sits in front of her computer 24/7, becuase she responds to my emails instantly. That might be a good thing, because she's keeping me on my toes. I also sit with my eyes glued to the computer screen. Seriously, my butt hurts from sitting so much.

As a woman in academia (or in lots of fields), I guess you need to be a hardass (note for future reference). Or, as one of my friends put it, it's a self-selection process. It's hard to get to the top and there are just so many sacrifices that you have to make to get there. Allowing yourself to feel or regret or doubt makes it all the harder, which is why the women in academia seem tougher than men. Moreover, there's always the issue of sexism, which I desperately hate and don't see the point of discussing. Women in academia are seen as more extreme because they move further away from the perceived average. I wonder what brought this on?

Roses are red, violets are blue...

The following is courtesy of a friend/fellow humorist:

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.

But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty and so is your head.

I thought that I could love no other

Until, that is, I met your brother.

Kind, intelligent, loving and hot

This describes everything you are not.

I want to feel your sweet embrace

But don't take that paper bag off of your face.

I love your smile, your face, and your eyes

Damn, I'm good at telling lies!

My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife:

Marrying you screwed up my life.

I see your face when I am dreaming.

That's why I always wake up screaming.

My love, you take my breath away.

What have you stepped in to smell this way?

My feelings for you no words can tell

Except for maybe "Go To Hell".

What inspired this amorous rhyme?

Two parts vodka, one part lime.

For all of you young lovers out there, I'm not bashing Valentine's Day. I just thought some of these rhymes were clever/cute.

ihtfp

And so it is...my last semester at this place. I spent the first week shuffling and reshuffling classes. I dropped Developmental Economics and Intro to Java and kept Economics and Psychology, Complex Variables, Analysis I, and Options, Futures, and other Derviatives. I'm also thinking about adding an advanced graduate class in corporate finance. I've also started on two UROPS. I should also look for jobs in case I don't get into any graduate schools (Unlikely, but who knows).

I'm not sure what I feel about these last 3.5 years. Some part of me wants to go back in time. Another part of me just wants it to be over. I just wonder who I'm going to be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years and whether I'd be any different if I hadn't been here for these last few years. Who knows. Let me live to the best of my ability and keep my head above the waves.

v.v. belated birthday pictures

Thank you Yun for the lovely pics!

The duel of P&Ps

If you're wondering if I spend all my days in front of a tv screen and munching on popcorn and pretzels, I can tell you plainly that it's not the case. I'm just behind on quite a few posts, so...

I finally watched the BBC miniseries of P&P with two friends of mine. The running time was 5.5 hours. Seriously, it was a piece of cake. As an ardent fan of Pride and Prejudice (along with ~50M other females in the US and probably over ~1B other females throughout the world), I wasn't disappointed. The BBC version was extremely faithful to the book, down to the ugly empire-waisted gowns that made every girl pregnant regardless of her age.

Colin Firth was an admirable Darcy...I felt his transition from jackass to moderately pleasing to adorable most strongly. Futrhermore, Jennifer Ehle played Elizabeth extremely well, managing to smile and be sarcastic at the same time. She was quite lovely and didn't look quite as pregnant as her sister Jane.

The acting was extremely good, and the movie, although not lavish, conveyed Austen's sentiments well. After I saw this version of P&P, I immediately realized where 80% of the material came from. I am convinced that the producer and director of the recent P&P sat the crew and cast down in a darkened theater and made them watch the BBC version at least ten times each.

Keira Knightly probably had to watch the BBC version at least twenty times. Her mannerisms and way of speaking imitated Ehle's Lizzy extremely closely. Or maybe it's a British thing. The current P&P has gorgeous scenery and is a more dramatic version of Austen's novel. I really enjoyed this movie as well as the BBC series.

Matthew Macfadyen was wonderful as Darcy. He and Keira Knightly had so much more passion than Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (The only complaint of the BBC version). He's so gloomy and passionate and dark and moody...except for the last few scenes, where the whole thing dissolves into a puddle of sappiness. The last scene (US version) was positively vile in its sappiness.

On the whole, I loved the BBC version, adored the current version, and am still deeply in love with the paper version.

24 Part II

Hmmm...I guess I can be described as a critical person. It seems irrational for me to actually invest 18+ hours to watch a show (not to mention recovery time) that I'm critical of. Don't get me wrong, 24 is the best TV show that I've seen to date, and it is vastly superior in its ingenuity than anything else to date (Lost comes in at a distant second). Unlike Lost, 24 is self-contained within a single season and is significantly less convoluted. It's also a long action movie that doesn't pretend to be anything else.

The second season bothered me a bit because the cast and the writers became infected with a mild strain of that insiduous bug known as self-importance. Nuclear weapon threatening the lives of over 2 million Americans? Check. A president threatened to be impeached? Check. Starting a potential war against Middle Eastern countries suspected of harboring terrorists? Check. I wonder if the Bush administration watches TV? The writers are quite clairvoyant, considering that the second season aired in 2002.

I appreciate the importance of all the issues that are brought up in the show, but it was too heavy on politics and too light on Jack Bauer. The man can act and rightfully should be at the center of 24. As to all the critics about Kim and the cougar and Kim and the boxes and on and on...It wasn't clear to me that Kim was more stupid than she was in the first season. On the contrary, she seemed stronger. The problem was that her storyline wasn't connected to the main plot. When a nuclear weapon is set to denotate, the trials of a girl in the wild might just be a bit trivial.

Nevertheless, the acting ranged from decent to good, and the story was much better paced than last season. This season was more solid than last season and retained the quality of acting for the most part and the constant surprises that makes 24 tick.

more 24 goodness

Yayness! I devoured the second season of 24 last Sunday/Monday. ETA: 18.5 hours. 12:00PM-6:30AM. This little show has definitely replaced an entire class of TV shows to become my new obsession.

Season 1 was better than season 2. However, I have to admit that I'm far from being an unbiased observer. Considering that I had never seen anything like 24 before and I didn't know what to expect, the first season was a really good surprise. For season 2, the characters were already known, and I was expecting the unexpected (To be fair, I already knew some of the plot lines as well).

Compared to season 1, season 2 was definitely more polished. Whereas season 1 started out with a bang and lost some momentum halfway through, season 2 started out with a slow burn and slowly worked its way up to the climax (Or several climaxes, as is the usual fare of 24).

Once again, Kiefer Sutherland carries the entire show through his dramatic persona of Jack Bauer. The rest of the acting is still above par, with David Palmer reprising his stoic, moral compass-like guiding role, this time as the president of the United States. Kim Bauer continues to get herself into impossible situations, though really growing in maturity (and balls) in the last episode. Sherry Palmer was better this time around. Instead of the one-dimensional bitch that she was in season 1, she shows some small amount of empathy and good-will in season 2.

Nina Myers also returns in this season, and I am of the firm opinion that this woman needs more screen time. She has amazing chemistry with Jack Bauer (especially in the interrogation scene where she collapses). Paula and Michelle Dessler are nice, but extremely bland when compared to Nina. The other development I liked were those in George Mason's character. The comic relief that he provided with a dry wit was precious, as well as his exit.

The Warners were relatively weak, with Kate doing an average job (just compare Kate Warner and Nina Myers) and Marie trying especially hard. However, Marie was just too instable and weak for the audience to believe that she was really a dangerous terrorist. Furthermore, I don't understand the obsession over Tony Almeida. Although he's easy on the eyes, Tony is about as interesting as the metal tables positioned in CTU's interrogation rooms.

The second season of 24 focused more on government politics than Jack's personal struggle to rescue his family. I didn't enjoy this shift as much, although I recognize that it would be stupid for Kim to get kidnapped again and again. There were more episodes in season 2 that were weaker than the episodes in season 1. Granted that some of the melodrama in season 1 was absolutely ridiculous, season 2 seemed relatively flat by comparison.

There were some golden moments in this season. Scenes that come to mind are all of Jack's scenes with Nina, Jack piloting the plane, and Jack instructing Kim how to shoot the gun in self-defense. It would've been more enjoyable if there had been more of these moments.