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Archive for December, 2005

Christmas presents from lovely sister

Posted in Daily Life on December 15, 2005| 2 Comments »

New Camera
Just received a parcel from my lovely sister with a new laptop, camera, nutritious snacks, and oher interesting stuffs. For a poor and starving student trying to survive what my professor called the ‘darkness and drizzle’ of the English winter, these gifts are godsend. Now I got a fry pan to make some food and a computer that boot up in no time compare to my ancient one that took ages with keys falling apart; this new one also came with lots of movies and software I needed (LT’s cool).  But the most exciting one’s still the new Nikon D50.
I lost my camera about two years ago so haven’t take much photos afterward except once when I borrowed a camera from a friend. Now I got my new camera. I can’t wait to go out and shoot.  My first photo trip will probably be places around Cambridge.  Come to think of it, I haven’t had chance to take a good look at this city yet.  My time here has been spent mostly in my college and the economic department, and I seldom go out except for getting groceries and foods. So this vacation’s definitely a good time to go out and see this place with my new buddy.
Many thanks to sister and LT.  

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Are choices good for us?

Posted in Reflection, tagged , on December 14, 2005| 3 Comments »

People usually like to have more choices, but are they really good for us?

From what I heard from a few relatives and professors in my parents’ generation, it seems that their lives are pretty straightforward: study hard, get a good job, and work hard to support family.  Although they may have personal interests and hobbies, but those are luxury and usually don’t come into consideration in their career choice or overall life plan.

As countries get richer, most people have more time and choices available. With more options, life also becomes more complicated.  Now we’ve to think about what we want to do with our time, what careers to pursue, and what kind of life we’re mean to live. More choices thus mean more responsibility on our part.

Maybe life would really be simpler if we’ve limited choices.  We would still have to work hard in those situations, but at least we don’t have to worry about the big question such as what to do with our life.  But given a choice, I’d still preferred to have more options rather than less, it may mean more headaches, but it probably make life more interesting and fulfilling especially if I were able to discover and live the kind of life I want.

Here’s an interesting side story related to the topic but deals more with freedom than choice.

Often, when people are forced to follow a certain path, maybe due to financial hardship or family’s decisions, they usually become better at what they do because of the narrow focus. An interesting example came from a recent discussion with a friend on a Business Week’s article on Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star playing at NBA. It’s written that Yao Ming’s parents were both professional basketball players, and they encouraged and trained them to play basketball since he was young. My friend said Yao Ming’s mom makes all decisions for him since he was young: what to eat, how much to practice, what not to do, and even what girlfriend to make–she’s a professional basketball player, which is not a surprise (things about her mom are not mentioned in the article though). It seems that he’s designed to become a basketball player from the start. I don’t know whether he enjoys his ‘designed life’, but does it matter, people usually enjoy what they do when they become very good at it. So again it seems that limited freedom may make life ‘easier’ and even ‘more efficient’.

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Ways to Get a Distinction

Posted in Daily Life, tagged on December 13, 2005| 1 Comment »

For people not familiar with the UK education system, a distinction is similar to an A grade.  It’s the highest possible title one can get and is required for people who want to go on to do a PhD in Cambridge.  Although I don’t plan to do a PhD for now, I do aim to get a distinction (the title sounds too cool to be given up).  But as I go through my courses, I realized it wouldn’t be as easy as I thought.  The economics program in Cambridge’s tough.  For reference, no one in the program get a distinction last year.  And on average, about 3 to 4 students get it per year (for the Diploma, not Mphil course).  With the odds against me, I figured that I’ve to devise some strategies to achieve my goal.

1) Study like crazy (not too constructive, but necessary)

2) Aware of my learning; stop when get lost; don’t waste time on unproductive activities

3) Analyze problems I have and find ways to tackle them

4) Find out what parts are difficult and what parts are easy for me and why

5) Practice past exam papers

6) Think about the implications of things I learned

7) Relate what I learned to my experience

8) Reflect on what I studied and consolidate the different bits

9) Summarize what I read (with book close)

10) Jog down questions, and discuss it with others

11) Get organized and make notes easy to review

12) Keep my energy level high (eat healthy and stay fit)

13) Enjoy it (or for some topics, find ways to make it interesting)

Let me know if you got more ideas or suggestions.

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Christmas Vacation Plan

Posted in Daily Life on December 10, 2005| 1 Comment »

Most people are going home for the vacation as Christmas is a big event in European countries.  It has always been my favorite holiday as well.  Christmas carols, beautiful decorations, and warm supper in the snowy weather are some images I’ve for Christmas.  The romantic and warm feelings it conveys are good contrast to the long, gloomy winter.  This year’s Christmas I’ll be staying in my Cambridge dorm and away from most of my close friends and family as usual.  But I probably won’t feel bored as I got lots of things to accomplish.
 
Here’re some of the things I plan to do:
 
1) Study Economics
2) Work on Maths
3) Get back in Shape (workout in gym)
4) Travel around Cambridge and improve my Photography skills
5) Sports-Basketball, Snooker, Badminton, anything
6) Drawing and Design
7) Relax and Reflect
8) Chill out with my friends who’re staying around
9) Keep this blog alive
 
So staying alone in Cambridge for the Winter doesn’t seem to be too bad  afterall.  Merry Christmas to you all.

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Reflection on 1st term

Posted in Daily Life on December 9, 2005| Leave a Comment »

My 1st term in Cambridge finally ends.  The term’s only two months, but it seems like a long time for me.  Lots of topics have been covered in this short period, and I’ve spent most of my time studying and doing assignments.  The economics course’s rigorous and every week there’re three tough assignments to submit. The stress level can be phenomenal especially when I don’t have a clue on how to do those assignments.  Although I learned a lot this way, I felt that I need more time to consolidate what I learned and to fully absorb the materials.  So far I haven’t found the teaching here particularly useful or enlightening, but I’m not in the position to give my definitive judgement on it yet.
Besides studies, I’ve also attended a few concerts and parties,  played in the Wolfson basketball team, and took a few dancing lessons. But since I was quite busy during the term, there wasn’t much free time to socialize.  So it’s great that in the past week I finally have chance to get to know some of my friends and classmates better.  Several Thai friends cooked Thai food and invited me over, and I also got treated Japanese foods from a nice Japanese couples (good foods really make life so much better). A few days ago people in my course had a gathering, and I found that there’re many cool people in my class:  we got a great cook,  mathematical genius who enjoy spreading his communist manifesto around, and a philosophy graduate who see world in very interesting way (I just had several nice discussions with him over beer).  I’m looking forward to know more of them better.   One memorable experience in this term’s meeting my primary school classmate in a consulting seminar.  I’ve lost touched with my Hong Kong friends and  never thought that I’ll meet any of them again.  So it’s interesting that we’re able to remember each other after 12 years (she recognized my name) and also studying the same subject in the same university. Isn’t life interesting, you never know who you’re going meet and under what circumstances.
Overall I’m satisfied with my life here.  Cambridge’s a nice place with lots of learning opportunities and interesting people around.  Although teaching is not as good as I expected, it’s still way better than where I studied before, and the resources available here are very good.  For the coming term, I hope that I’ll be on top on my studies and feel less pressure than what I experienced this term. For that to happen, I probably need to use this Christmas vacation wisely.

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