And Roanna thought the wombat was cute, so I present you with more pictures of wombats, as well as some other animals from Oz. And now, to take a nap….

Listening to:

Take Me to the Clouds Above – LMC vs. U2

Do you ever get little tunes stuck in your head all day? Yeah, that’s me with this weird track. So I had to come home and listen to it to get it out. Exorcise my dance track demons.

Finished the very rough draft of the macro paper in almost no time at all, I mean, only something like 6 or 8 net hours. It’s suprising how much an outline can help with these pseudo-scientific works. Now, it’s only the Analysis and Probability/Statistics sets to do before my escape.

Oh yeah, I’m also turning 21 on Thursday, so I’m going to run the hell away from the house alcoholic who will inevitably try to pour liquor down my throat and then take photographic evidence. Nah, it’ll be a very mellow birthday with no such celebration. Probably just some shopping and a bit of laundry. But all for a good cause.

Ugh, today is the day when I got all my exams back. Lucky me! The Corporate Finance turned out surprisingly well, as did the Analysis, but horrible Macroeconomics has decided to take on full responsibility for causing me the MIT-minimum level for pain and stress during a term. Aside from the horrible exam, there’s this 25 page term paper… and I need to turn in a draft by Thursday, after which I’ll be free and happy, and able to quickly pack up for a much-awaited weekend away. But until then, here I’ll be here, analyzing World Bank data on economic and financial development for my favorite Southeast Asian economies! And afterwards, I get to write something really crappy before my TA hates me.

But here’s the amusing tale of the day. As I stumbled into the Sloan building, walking into the EFA office to pick up my Corporate Finance exam, I realised in my mildly sedated state that instead of standing comparing answers, I should quickly leave. It would be pretty bad if my research advisor saw me within 25 m of his office. We wouldn’t want him to actually ask me about my work, now would we? And we definitely don’t want our research advisors to actually see us actively running away from them. *shrug*

I really don’t want to go back to school. Sydney was so nice and beautiful and warm… I am so going to live there one day, just you wait!

All MIT students love to go Harvard bashing sometimes, especially during the height of midterm season. So here’s a little something to fuel your fire. But aside from all the interschool rivalry, I do believe the author poses an important question, which I found myself discussing not 24 hours ago.

“If you could either go here and get no diploma, or not go here and get the diploma, what would you do?”

…

The answer, in the end, is the difference between a great university and a brand name.

Listening to:

Jocelyn – Jocelyn Enriquez
02 – A Little Bit of Ecstacy

How many exams can I fail in one week, do you think? I just took an exam in my Human Diseases class yesterday, and that was just… painful. People should never make exams that are multiple choice, but ask, “Which of these statements is not true? (More than one, maybe. Ha, you sucker! And I’m not giving you partial credit either, so there!)”

Then there was the Macroeconomics exam today, which was… haha. I don’t even want to know how badly that turned out. Thank goodness the TA isn’t going to have it graded by tomorrow because tomorrow, there’s the Analysis exam, which I haven’t begun studying for because I’ve been too busy failing my other classes. And getting my disgustingly low grade back would just have this detrimental effect on my psychology. After all, who wants to leave for spring break in a fit of tears?

I recall having a nice discussion about the concept of race this summer, over the heaping bowl of salad that became a common lunchtime distraction during the course of my stay. So when I found this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today, I couldn’t help recalling that sunny Californian day, seemingly so long ago. And since I know I’ll forget to send him the link when he comes online again, I’ll post it here for everyone to enjoy. Besides, just look at this quote. How could you not love it?

The identification of racial origins is not a search for purity. The human species is irredeemably promiscuous. We have always seduced or coerced our neighbors even when they have a foreign look about them and we don’t understand a word.

I finally took my Corporate Finance midterm today, and it was… surprisingly similar to the practice midterm, which is not to say that I did well. At all. Now, all I have for the rest of the week is the Probability midterm Friday and the Analysis problem set also Friday. But then, I have to deal with next week, which means 2 homework assignments due Monday, one day to study on Tuesday, and three midterms: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Lovely.

Thankfully, my research advisor has given me two weeks to learn Stata. And thoughts of wombats keep me going.