The day

... I can look in the mirror and actually see something of myself. I hope it comes soon.

I'm still in the process of looking for an internship. Have an interview next week sometime, and hopefully it will be smooth sailing from there. I hate how every time I see myself, I see a scared little girl who's barely out of high school, let alone out of college. I miss the days of saturday morning cartoons, of waking up late, of reading comics and manga, of being able to wear anything I want without being judged (when I can wear tshirts and baggy hoodies and people won't question my fashion sense).

I miss being me. It's not that I want to stay a kid forever though. I love the academics/learning/intellectual side of being an adult, but I hate everything else that comes with it. Politics, science, psychology, business and finance all fascinate me. Relationships (for the love of God, this is just scary), networking (...even scarier), fancy parties (what if I say something stupid!), and all of that stuff make me want to run the other way. I would love to be able to hold a job that lets me do all that nerdy finance/econ stuff but without all the repercussions associated with a career in business. /sigh

Did I ever tell you that...

;)

Ah sleep. I missed you so very much. My dark circles are finally going away after weeks of hardcore cramming and energy drinks. I look normal once again.. haha. My summer will look like the following:

- Work... nearly fulltime each week. Derp.
- Games to play/finish: A crapload that I still need to list.
- Shows to watch/finish: See above ^
- Learning flash/html/css. I have the books and all.
- Review two semesters of Chinese material since I skipped grades and still feel lost.
- Read every single issue of "The Economist" that I subscribed to since January but never got the chance to read.
- If I get to it: Buy a keyboard and learn piano~

I think I will separate the posts in my blog between actual serious stuff and personal off the record blurbs such as this one. Murrr.

Arnold, his scandals, and why I frankly don't care

One of the most discussed topics today is Arnold Schwarzenegger and his lovechild scandal, where he supposedly had an affair with his live-in maid and had a son with him like ten years ago. Granted that he is no longer governor, this recent incident along with the scandal surrounding the director of the IMF (where he supposedly raped a maid in a hotel), only contribute to the growing distrust of politicians among the general public.

But the question I propose is: Is it worth all the fuss? Do the characters and morals of politicians reflect on their ability to do their job right? Refer to the following quote I once read:

It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks quite a few martinis a day.

Candidate B
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a great deal of whisky every evening.

Candidate C
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first.















Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler

Surprising, is it not? Although two of the leaders mentioned helped create and pushed forth what we know as the modern world, they honestly do not possess the characters that we idealize and place value into, but it does not make them any less of a leader. I'm not saying, by any means, that we should vote for cheaters, womanizers or people of poor character. But if given a choice between a person who has shown they are vulnerable and suceptible to flaws, but will run a country right, versus a good law-abiding, so called 'God fearing' politician who is screwing up our country behind our backs, I have to say I'd pick the first one.

Rather than focusing our attention on personal relationships that read more like celebrity rumor mill stories, we need to focus on the events that would really impact our lives. I find that Arnold's situation is pretty much private business that should be left to the parties affected, especially since he's no longer in public office. Though y'know even if he was still a governor, I really can't cut Arnold any slack, considering that he played a role in pretty much screwing California over. So sorry Arnold, you are in a lose-lose situation. At least during the Clinton years we actually ran a few budget surpluses...

And as for the IMF guy... Rape is a criminal offense (as opposed to a moral offense). So if found guilty, I hope justice will be brought to you. That's that.

Stop buying food just to throw it away.

In response to: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/13/un-one-third-of-food-produced-for-human-consumption-is-uneaten/

I saw this linked on a friend's facebook page so of course, I had to write about it.

People of this world need to recognize there is never a problem with supply, in terms of ending world hunger. I don't buy into bullshit such as "there is not enough food on this planet". I sincerely believe we have enough food on earth to feed every single person. The US tends to subsidize grain production so much that farmers literally have rotting stocks of grain and other produce sitting around because it never gets consumed. Americans, in general, consume too much food. Not literally eating it though, but buying things on sale, ordering at a restaurant, and then not eating it. You know what gets to me every time? When I see people order like 10 dishes at a local Chinese restaurant I go to, eat maybe a piece of this, a bit of that, and then the rest get thrown away. Literally, if they order 10 dumplings, they eat 2 or 3 and the rest is thrown away.

This also occurs with buffets. Piles and piles of half-eaten food, just because people want to get the best deal, and they have an excuse to not finish everything. I know they paid for it, etc etc, but seriously. It's not money. It's goddamn resources you burned up right there. More examples? I once walked by my neighborhood Duane Reade, which is a pharmacy/drugstore chain in NY that for some reason started to sell sandwiches and other "freshly-packed" pre-made lunches. And on that day, I saw outside, bags and bags of loaves of bread, and boxes of sandwiches. Just thrown out. And a few blocks away, we have homeless and impoverished people who don't have anything to eat. I'm not even talking about inefficient allocation around the world, but in the same friggin city. Did you know 1 of 6 (I believe) Americans go hungry each day? And 1 out of 4 school children don't get enough to eat at home?

Instead of promoting more and more production, can we get more research to fund better methods of allocating food instead? How can we efficiently get more food out to more people? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves..

Tiger Mother, Tiger Children

A response to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

I've been meaning to respond to this article for quite some time now. As a child brought up under both a stringent regime consistent with Asian Culture as well as a more laid-back version that has been slightly saturated with Western values, I feel that neither camp is "right", in the sense that you cannot be too strict with education, nor can you be too lax. Both methods of upbringing taught me important life values that I had only come to realize in more recent years.

As a child, grades were important in the sense that your entire life, starting from Pre-school, was a form of preparation for college and beyond. I went to pre-school in Asia, and they were ranking kids by academic performance even at the age of 4 or 5. This sort of competitive environment was completely normal, whereas in America, the introduction of such fierce competition between peers might be seen as damaging to a child's development of confidence or self-esteem. In Asia, there are winners and there are losers. In America, everyone, it seems, is a winner (or at least when you are a child).

There are good and bad aspects of instilling the importance of "being on top". Obviously, in the real world, people are going to step all over you to get to the top of success, and it would make sense to prepare kids by having parents adopt a stricter control over their education. However, being strict means not going soft. At all times. You see your kid cry? You can't give in. I can't even count the times I cried in front of my parents because they were simply too strict. The idea that it's either success or nothing, has been drilled into my mind. I don't even know what the consequences of failure is; I just know I have to avoid it at all costs.

Which brings me to my next point. As I grew older, and life takes greater and more frequent unexpected turns, I have come to realize that failure is not only an inevitable part of life, but that if you don't experience it enough, it will actually hinder you as a person. A more lax style of parenting allows for a child to have that bit of wiggle room of experimenting, of risk taking, of learning how to fail. If you don't follow a strict policy, a child will be MORE prepared in the sense that they will learn how to deal with failure as it occurs in life. It's kind of strange, how you might actually be more prepared for life by being more accustomed to the idea that you will not always be the best in everything.

Yes, it is obviously important to have a child understand the importance of success, but you should not have that factor be the sole determinant of their self worth. What I have always admired about other people, that I can never find in myself, is how they deal with failure. If something in my life doesn't go as planned, I admit, the first thing I do is freak out. Even if I calculate everything to a t, there's always the possibility of something going wrong, either within or beyond my control. You cannot simply treat life like a math function: to plug in the numbers, run it through a formula, and expect a certain result each time. This is one of the lessons that a "Tiger Mother" style of parenting would not factor in. On the other hand, if I had not gone through a stricter view on education in the past, I don't think I would have developed such a strong work ethic, which is so ingrained in me that I will carry it with me even if I'm not under the watchful eyes of my parents.

The best style of parenting? First get your kids to understand the real, true meaning of being successful. If they can appreciate it without incentives (like rewards for good grades), then you can deviate and be more lax about the rules. Set the rules, then let them break as necessary.

I support rising gas prices

In response to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110514/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama

Obama has recently announced that he will expand US oil production in order to combat rising gas prices and reduce dependency on foreign oil. However, the sad truth is that even if we drain the US oil reserves completely (I believe we have around 20 billion barrels in reserves), this will just put a tiny dent on oil prices. Even if we double the amount of oil we produce from 2 billion barrels a year to say 4, this would maybe lower gas prices by a whopping 4 cents on a global market level.

Let's face it Americans, gas prices will keep going up whether you like it or not. Unless the US government is willing to heavily subsidize gas prices, we are not going to see a significant reduction in prices any time soon. This is not a supply issue as it is a demand issue. It's not that we are running out oil, but that the demand worldwide is going up much faster than supply is. With the rapid developments in countries like China, the demand for oil will be going up faster than ever, and this is what drives up the prices!

We produce 2 billion barrels a year as Americans but consume more than 3 times that amount... 7 billion barrels. Do you really think you can continue to consume this much indefinitely without facing higher prices? Unless you want to curb development efforts in pretty much every 2nd and 3rd world country in the world, you will have to deal with it.

There's a reason why cities in other countries are so densely packed compared to those in the US. People simply drive less and live closer to the central city. Suburban life is truly an American phenomenon... what is so attractive about driving 2 or more hours to and from work every day... all for the sake of a backyard, a white picket fence and a 3000 square foot home? This type of life style, aka the American Dream, is not sustainable. Rather than trying to fight the upward pressure on gas prices, why not let the market do its magic? Higher and higher gas prices will lead people to substitute -away- from the suburban life, move closer to the central city, and actually make them more productive citizens since they do not burn as much resources and time commuting each day. For a country that so heavily promotes the ideals of the free market, we are intent on subsidizing an inefficient lifestyle.

Please, curb your consumption levels today, and perhaps your children and grandchildren will have -something- left to consume in the future. Yes, I support rising gas prices.

Does Meritocracy have any meaning in life anymore?

I know what people tell me. Connections are important. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Yet why do I not take these pieces of advice to heart as I head towards my fourth year in college with what seems like nothing but my own two feet?

The idea of networking continues to frighten me. I imagine horror scenarios where I have to wear a fancy evening gown, making my way around a cocktail party as I introduce myself to people who are deemed important. I have to put on a smile as I try to sell myself, who I am, and brand myself as someone as important and worthy as they are. Is this what society considers to be the right path to success? That instead of improving my efficiency to do the job right, I should focus on how I look, and how I should shake my hand the next time I talk to someone?

I get it. Impressions are important. But what am I impressing you with? My 5'1 height, baby-faced face won't impress anyone, I can tell you that. Can I impress you with my GPA instead, or the fact that I can multitask like a god, or that I will actually put every bit of effort into my work, even if it means staying overtime or not taking vacations? But you can't see that by looking at me. You will probably just see a very awkward person who's merit-oriented attitude stands out in a society that puts emphasis on charisma and personality.