Listening to:

Garbage – Garbage
07 – Vow

Oh, the joys of my last finals week at MIT. You know, a sophomore came up to me and said, “You have a final on Friday afternoon? I didn’t even know they scheduled finals for Friday.” It’s especially upsetting because I’ve had a final on Friday afternoon every single term except last term. Even during the term when I only had one final, it was Friday afternoon. Someone up in the registrar’s office must think this is funny.

Anyway, the MIT Alum people have decided to include this page in its spotlight, so if that’s why you’re here, I apologize. You’ll be sorely disappointed, I’m afraid. I would try to live up to expectations and say something witty or deeply enlightening, but my creativity just isn’t with me today. It must have gone with the Econometrics exam.

In about 12 hours, I’ll have to take my Behavioral final. So in preparation, I’ll just read through my notes and transcribe my beloved professor’s infinite wisdom. How does that sound?

Gold prices are counter-cylical, but gold has consistently underperformed stocks and bonds historically.

Don’t do gold. That’s just crazy.
…
Well, if you think a nuclear war is starting, then maybe you want to invest in some gold. Imagine that all civilization collapsed. We would expect gold to do very well, where as your Google shares would be worthless.

After trying to peel back a projection screen unsuccessfully:

Maybe I shouldn’t destroy MIT property….

Why have US stock markets performed so much better than other markets around the world?

War is almost always bad for business. You get bombed. Factories get destroyed. It’s especially bad if you lose.

Isaac Newton lost a lot of money trying to ride the South Sea bubble. He, like many others, failed to get out in time.

Isaac Newton had some reason to believe that he was smarter than other people in Britain, but just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you’re good at everything. In fact, sometimes over-confidence can make you do worse. Like Larry Summers….

Don’t worry about the final, he says.

Nobody has failed. Well, one person has failed, but that person grossly misbehaved. So some sort of justice was served there.

Awww. No more Behavioral Economics. It makes me sad. Who else will say things that amuse me?

Rain: You know what’s terrible about Asian parents? They try to help you in your love affairs. Help as in set you up.

V Annoyed: It seems that they spend the first 20 years of your life telling you that you should have nothing to do with boys because they distract you from more important things.

Rain: and once you hit that mark…

Rain: they worry about grandchildren

V Annoyed: then they spend the next 10 years convincing you to settle down and reproduce.

Rain: it’s so wrong

When my friend told me earlier today about her parents trying to set her up with random men, I was amused. Mostly because sometime last summer, I was hit with the same reproductive pressure from the extended family. When I told my uncle that I wanted to go to graduate school, all he was interested in was whether I had a boyfriend. Apparently, if I didn’t have one going into graduate school, I would never marry, the world would end, and my parents would never see their third generation.

But really, for goodness sake. Exponentially increasing risk of serious birth defects isn’t going to hit for another 10 years or so, and hopefully by then, medical science will have made significant improvements. Right? I have lots of faith in my pre-med classmates.

In between my massive shopping spree at Victoria’s Secret, I spent my day studying on and off for final exams. After placing my huge order at 3AM, I checked my email for a confirmation and ran across my childhood friend’s Xanga post: Someone Called Me a Chink. I was then so traumatized by his description of his high school years that I suddenly felt sick.

…with a single phrase, my words of mediation turned into, “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY? YOU ARE FUCKING DEAD. CALL ME A CHINK AGAIN. SAY IT TO MY FACE. I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU. KILL YOU!”

Sure, kids are brutal to one another. But when it comes down to it, I have to admit that I don’t really recall being picked on. The subject even came up in a conversation just last week.

“Did they ever make fun of you, call you any names?” he asked after sharing his amusing high school stories.

“I went to a nerd school. We didn’t really make fun of each other. We did, however, have horrible math jokes like, ‘I’ll take your mom to the limit,’ ” I laughed.

When I think about it, yeah, maybe it’s a bit odd. I spent so many of my formative years in the Midwest, yet I have so few memories involving serious racism of any kind directed towards me. Maybe I was just lucky to have left at the right time and to have returned to a school with a 35% Asian population. Or maybe I really was, and still am, just that oblivious.

They say that ignorance is bliss. I don’t know who they are, but today, after having read that, and after trying to understand, I think they might be right.

Listening to:

Comfort Eagle – Cake
09 – Love You Madly

It was an unexpectedly beautiful last day of classes filled with sunshine and hints of summertime. It would have been wonderful, had it not been that time of the year when I get my annual eye exam. It turns out that the doctor I saw was a professor in Rigid Gas Permeable Lenses, just my lucky day as I’ve worn RGPs for the past 10 years. I was really starting to bond with him… Until he decided that my eyes needed to be dilated.

So I walked around like a zombie who couldn’t read for about 7 hours during the first really sunny day since… who knows when. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than vibrating for 7 hours after one caffeinated drink.

PS: Welcome back Enigmatic. I missed you.

It’s not everyday that I hear compliments like these.

As we were walking home from brunch:

Mimi: Why are you always so hot?

From the vantage point of my futon as I changed into PJs:

Indy: You know, you have really nice legs.

Step 1: Garner compliments
Step 2: Garner compliments from those other than my closest girl friends.

Hey, that’s still progress, right?

Listening to:

The Tension and the Spark – Darren Hayes
05 – Dublin Sky

Senior Ball has come and gone, and that means a couple of things. Well, mostly it means that I’m only a month away from graduation. It seems as if I’ve been yearning to leave for so long, but now that it’s almost time to go, I’m hesitant. After nearly four years, I’ve finally learned to appreciate this city. Maybe it’s springtime and beautiful when I walk along the river on my way home. Or maybe it’s only when the countdown begins that I come to realize all the things I wish I’d done earlier, all the opportunities missed, all the things I’ll never quite have a chance to do.

What is it that they say? You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. I suppose at least I’m a little tiny step ahead of that. I don’t know what I have until it’s almost gone, until it’s almost too late. Although, I really don’t know if that’s better or worse.

Someone once told me that work expanded to fill all available time, and I’m starting to believe it. But recently, it hasn’t been schoolwork expanding to fill all my time, it’s vacation planning. I hate vacation planning. I think I’m a natural planner (read: anal-retentive control freak), but all this visa, plane ticket, and hotel reservations business has been giving me a headache. But hey, if anyone has recommendations for hotels in London or Paris, by all means, do share.