I wish

Belize, good times.

My first mid term in N years, not good times.

I wish we were still in Belize!

Oh Flowers

While skeptical about long distance orders of flowers... I think this one turned out pretty well!

Red and White

So, let's settle this once and for all. I AM A RED SOX FAN. PLEASE, no more White Sox questions Oh, you want proof? Here:

Game 1, World Series, White Sox vs Astros. I was at a bar with some GSBers. Here's what I did: I glanced at the TV when someone in the bar cheered. I watched the last two innings. And I ate a boat load of wings.

As I recall from last year, I never took my eyes off the TV for the Red Sox-Yankees series (Had to mention it, I feel good just thinking about it) and the World Series. No way.

Well, I'd like the White Sox to win, so my karma can continue. But that's where the puck stops. It's been a year since Red Sox won the World Championship. A YEAR!

Clarification on Free Beer

A third person asked me why I put the GSB's picture with a title of free beer. Here goes the story: on one fine afternoon, I sat in the Winter Garden doing homework for operations. And then I was offered some beer. AND I SAID NO THANKS! What has business school done to me!?Luckily...

After coming to my senses, I took the beer and continued on homework. Let me just say that operations homework became easier after the beer!

B-school

Man, this is getting ridiculous. I've got so much work lined up! Five classes, one project. Too bad can't really turn back time, so it's suck it up and grind it out. Recruiting season started and everybody is getting nervous. Perhaps I should be too!

Free Beer

 

Life Events

I sit in the car, and tears are coming to my eyes
I am driving alone on a quiet highway
I start the car
I get resume reviews from a classmate
We leave the restaurant
I say "Well, on the bright side, I did finish my homework today"
Someone tells the story of acquaintances catching planes of doom
Someone tells the story of acquaintances missing planes of doom
Someone tells the story of surviving the Asian Tsunami ordeal
Someone tells the story of going to work and therefore not surviving 911
Someone tells the story of missing work and therefore surviving 911
Wow
Someone tells the story of fleeing the World Trade Center
Someone tells the story of seeing people leap from the World Trade Center
We agree that 911 was one of the strangest days in our lives
Someone tells the story of selling a dot com business the day before 911
Someone tells the story of loosing a lot of money... by lack of luck
Someone tells the story of making a huge profit just in time... by luck
Someone tells the story of choosing the wrong telecommunication stock
Someone tells the story of losing $8K on a telecommunication stock
Someone tells the story of reading a "How to play Options" book and costing him big time
Food is finished
I do not tell my most traumatic life experience
I say my most traumatic life experience must be around 12
Someone says the most traumatic life experience happened between 28 and 30
Someone says the most traumatic life experience happened around early 30s
Food comes
Someone tells the story of living off credit cards because of debt
Someone tells the story of gambling on margins and losing his life savings
Someone tells the story of gambling on margins and losing $25K
Someone says that when recruiting season dies down, we will all become day traders
Someone says scandals will be prevalent by the end of the winter quarter.
More scandal stories. In all business schools.
Someone tells the story of relationship scandals in school. Gets everybody's attention.
We sit down at the table and make small talk.
I arrive at the restaurant..

Picture of Belize from the airplane! 

Belize, Pissed, and Red Sox

Here's one picture from Belize. More willcome to my website if I:
1. Learn how to update my flash website
2. Get other pictures from my Belize buddies

Oh... I'm still pissed at Chicago in general. But looking on the bright side, the tow place was close to my home and very clean. I remember Boston tow places located in dangerous dumps with no maintenance whatsoever. I think the idea was that hopefully you will need a realignment by the time you retrieve your car.

Red Sox lost... went down in flames, really. it was a decent year to enjoy. A team that never was the same as last year, both in terms of character and ability.

Waterfalls (2 of Five Sisters) at Belize Resort

Murphy's Law

It all started with dinner at 930. I signed up for a U of C dinner party thing for $20. And then they served us with some take out Italian food. Anyway... the party was okay and I did meet some people. But $20!?

$10 cover charge for a bar!? I paid and stayed for 10 minutes. After a rum and coke, I was on the way out.

Drove to another bar. Parked. Had a beer. Back to my car. It's FREAKING gone! Towed.

$160 parking ticket.

$50 ticket.

I think I hate Chicago now.

Alan's Brithday

He'd be 24 now...

And I look forward to all the good and bad moments today. I'm so busy with business school these days. Funny how I can always find time to grief, but I can't find time to have fun. Isn't that one of the biggest ironies in life? We spend our lives seeking meaning and happiness, yet what our natural instincts focus only on sad events - the brain thinks (knows?) that that is the most important.

On ESPN, the program ran a special on a kid - a Notre Dame fan - who was dying from a brain tumor. The mother said she felt "so selfish for wanting him to live" because he "wanted to be with the angels." Perhaps one day I will reach that stage.

National Day!?

Well, what do you know... it's October 1st and nobody made a fuss in Chicago. National Day, baby! I almost didn't notice that it was October already!

My First Week at the GSB

Wow, I've been warned many times... this is what transpired in my first week of classes:

Thursday: wake at 6, school at 8, microeconomics class at 830, lunch at 1130, home at 430, failed package pick-up at 6, furniture pick-up at 630, dinner at 730, TNDC (Thursday Night Drinking Club) at 1000...

Friday: sleep at 1, wake at 8, package pick-up at 11, haircut at 12, school at 1, regression class at 130, LPF (Liquidity Preference Function) at 430, Regents Park at 7, killer card game at 930...

Saturday: wake at 8, school at 9, club presentations at 930, home at 3, TV fixed at 5, dinner in Chinatown at 730, Regents Park at 9, poker game at 10...

Sunday: second place in poker game at 230, home at 3, sleep at 330, wake at 11, football/baseball/homework/reading at 12, success with baseball and football... not much with the rest. Sleep at 11.

Monday: wake at 6, school at 8, operations class at 830, lunch at 12, regression homework at 1, accounting assignment at 3, study group for regression at 430, dinner at 8, home at 9, accounting assignment at 930, resume update at 11, application for BSG (Business Solution Group) at 12...

Tuesday: sleep at 1, wake at 6, school at 8, accounting class at 830, lunch at 12, LEAD assignment at 1, LEAD class at 130, resume update and application for BSG at 430, pub with LEAD classmates at 530, home at 730, microeconomics homework at 830, operations homework at 10...

Wednesday: sleep at 130, wake at 830, school at 10, study group for operations at 10, lunch at 12, study group for operations at 1230, study group for microeconomics at 300, home at 7, dinner at 830, study group for microeconomics at 1000...

Thursday: sleep at 1. And here ends my first week... way too much stuff going on with way too little time!

Almost over...

My first official week at the GSB is almost over. I will recap my week end of tonight... not looking good, that's all I can say!

Mid Autumn Festival Gathering

Well, after multiple bidding rounds, I got what I wanted. Well, almost. And hey, if you want some action: Monday morning Operations, Tuesday morning Accounting, Wednesday off, Thursday morning Microeconomics, and Friday afternoon Regression. Having some butterflies for my first class in... oh, I don't know, five years?

Better late than never...

Help Katrina victims here. So sad to see New Orleans in its current state. Kaleen and I had a lot of fun at the Big Easy. Maybe a bit too much fun. It's a fun city with the best live music you can find in the US.

Hurricane, ironically New Orleans' most famous drink

The Road to...

Railroad to Lhasa
This picture sort of reflects my sentiments for school right now: long, continuous, and an existing destination that I have yet to see. Today is the second to last day in orientation and school will start in a couple of days. I'm pretty sure the rails aren't going to be straight for me, but at least I can aspire for such a road and make it happen.

BID it!

Today at orientation, we all learnt about the UCBS, or Unnecessarily Complicated Bidding System. In a few days, I'll see if my understanding of the system works for my desired schedules and classes. I'm struggling a bit between 3 and 4 classes, but 4 seems to be the way since I (probably) don't have to worry about recruiting in the Fall quarter.

Anyway, still struggling with this bidding system.

Wedding Crasher...

Man, I've never laughed so hard in my life... okay, rephrase: I've haven't laughed so hard in my life for a long long time! Excellent movie except for the last 10 to 20 minutes when they ran out of jokes and made it a chick flick. But that's okay. Hilarious movie.

The theaters were showing Crash (Movie that explores racism) again. I love that movie. Absolutely positively love it. Go see it.

Off to White Sox game now. Yup, that's right: baseball games are part of orientation!

Back in Chicago

Just returned from a three day trip to Geneva Lake, Wisconsin for GSB's orientation. Fun trip, highlighted by a high ropes course and more alcohol consumption. There were a couple of team building activities as well, which I thought were extremely useful. Definitely worth another try. Let see, what did I learn: loud hot heads can still be a benefit.

Anyway, it's nice to be back in Chicago.

500am

It's 5:30 am and I've already showered and ready to leave home. Well, it's only natural to ask "WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU UP SO EARLY!?" I ask myself too. There's a business school outdoor leadership thingy in Wisconsin that requires us to be at school by 6:00 am and then be bus-ed over to the Wisconsin. Argggggg.

2 in 1

Well... I tried to post yesterday and didn't realize I didn't publish it. Here goes again.

Dry!

Yay, I stayed dry for two days. Hm, let me see, what was the difference...? No hanging out with business school students! haha.

On home improvement, I got myself a kitchen rolling cart for my rediculous cabinet-poor kitchen. I think I've also found my coffee table/foot rest from Jennifer Convertibles. No bookcase and media rack yet. No sofa either.

The Streak

Chicago is obviously treating me "well"... last night (Thursday) was my 13th consecutive drinking day/night. At this rate, I'll become an alcoholic before school even starts (Sept 26). I'm also going to be downing 40 shots a night (every week, I've added 2 drinks to my night) by the end of the quarter (10 weeks). Ah, the life of a business school student!

Not sure how long this is going to last. Some students already know about my "streak" and there's peer pressure that's mounting. You got to think, however, that it's got to end somehow! I was hungover at accounting class (and late) today. By the way, accounting is still boring even if you have the best instructor.

Accounting class will be over today. Orientation starts next week. Good times.

First class finally...

Not that I'm particularly looking forward to them, but it was nice to finally get a class under my belt. Harsh reality check though, as I had to wake up at 630am and take the train to school. So far so good... accounting maybe boring, but it's quite the necessary evil. I think I now have A = L + SE down and the credit debit situation. What I really don't get is the naming of line items... it seems like people just make them up. The flexibility of the so-called definitions are worrisome as well... but hey, without those flexibilities (and the evil corporate world that took advantage), I wouldn't have had such a nice job at the Analysis Group!

Back from Belize

Good week of vacation in Belize. Now waiting on accounting class on Monday. How fast things can go in a downward spiral!

The Belize trip included visits to Mayan ruins, cave tubing, wind surfing, and snorkeling. Loads of fun, plus I met some great people down there. Pictures will be on later with full descriptions at www.josekin.com - which now has a new starting page that is subject to change!

I think I learnt more about U of Chicago and its people on this trip more than I ever did from the few trips I made down there. While not exactly looking forward to school, the chance of meeting 500 plus awesome individuals and learn from them (and hopefully them from me as well) is exciting. Tomorrow will be the first day in years when I am required to be at some place at some time for a class. Let's hope I survive.

Morning Viewing

Waiting for the RCN guy to come to my apartment to give me modern life (TV and internet, that is), I popped in the Red Sox World Series DVD. Ah, the joy of watching this over and over again and imagine that we (we as in the Boston Red Sox and yours truly) won over and over again. I would especially like to point to Kevin Millar in the pre-game sounds when he warned the Yankees about the importance of Game 4. In retrospect, Millaaaaah was quite the genius!

Oh, and the link points to my next possible DVD purchase: 35 hours of Red Sox material in 12 DVDs. Maybe, just MAYBE, I can watch them all in one go. Hopefully with Matt Volinsky, whose up and down in the office was a clear indication of how the Red Sox were doing.

Oh, the picture

It's a really cool picture. At first sight, I was thinking of Absolut Vodka ads. Then I thought about aliens arriving on Earth. I think my mom put it the best: seems like a lighted match/flame!

Picture taken by Ricky in NamTso

Not only have I almost moved into my new appartment, I also had time to do a little furniture shopping! I rearranged some furniture to (almost) complete my bedroom. Now all I need to do is do the living room.

Bed! Table! TV!

I can't stress how happy I am with all my stuff arriving today. Finally I can sleep on a bed.

I woke up at 9 to go talk to my neighbor about using the elevator. She has reserved it for the entire morning (9 to 12) for her moving out. My movers (yes, they are mine) told me that they would arrive around 11. So I needed to see if they would be finished by then and, if not, whether we can share the elevator since we're going in two different directions.

Anyway, no trouble at all. Moving out was done by 11 and my movers arrived at 12. All is now in the apartment. I spent the next few hours unpacking clothes and small stuff. Tonight I will try to get my entertainment system going. I also need to assemble the bed. I don't know what to do with my books. Probably will make a book case using bricks and wood later on. They really are last on my mind. Okay, I'm rambling... BED! YES!

Review on Time Traveler's Wife

I finally finished the book. It was rather long and not the most straight-forward reading. Anyway, I got the book from Kaleen right before I left for the airport. The girl sitting next to me on the plane was reading the exact same book. Except that she was on p318, and me on p1. She said it's a good book.

Now this is a completely guy thing to do, but I noticed the love story insofar as the logic of the events. Not to spoil the book for you, but when the writing is about time traveling, you wonder if the author worked out all the kink of time traveling. A great love story, yes. A great set up, stronger yes. I wonder if the story will unfurl as it is had our hero not been able to time travel. Did he make things happen? I keep scrutinizing the story up till the end so it wasn't much fun for me. Perhaps you should keep an open mind.

Anyway, deterministic world or free will? I've always been the proponent of determinism. Science rules all.

In town...!

Finally, I seem to have started my next phase of life! The flight from Hong Kong was uneventful unless you count the fact that the girl sitting next to me was reading the same book I'm reading! Time Traveler's Wife. Book review coming soon.

In other news, I found my new Chicago bank, which was acquired by my old Boston bank. So I don't have to do anything. All account info the same. Even got cash from the teller: I've lost my ATM as well as my cash envelope (probably still in Hong Kong). I found internet, cable TV, and phone through RCN. I found electricity.

My two problems: One, I was under the impression that movers would arrive on Aug 10. Turns out it would be Aug 20! After some bitter arguments, it became Aug 15. Internet will "arrive" Aug 15 as well. Two, I need an adaptor for my phone charger. It's on its last leg right now and that is not good.

One more minor problem: Cingular SIM card is temperamental.

Otherwise, life is good. I hope I can last a couple more days in Chicago in an empty home!

Website operational!

Yay! www.josekin.com
It's really hard work to start something like this, at least for me... I wonder how well I will be maintaining this in the future. My next trip will be Belize and I am already looking forward to adding a new section!

Well well well... finally!

Let's see... couple of finalys today:
1. I finally got around to finish pre-LEAD online assignments for the University of Chicago.
2. I finally cashed all my traveler's checks.
3. I finally registered and paid for my own website!

You could say that 3 is the only one that matters. YAY! Now I have to put information onto it... as well as suffer through the learning process of making a website. As for the domain name, I will let you know soon!

Prayer Wheels

Picture I took in Tibet. The week before, I was in Philippines visiting my bed-ridden grandmother. Since there wasn't much to do other than accompanying her to the hospital and eating lots of fresh food, I spent most of my free time writing my own website. That's right: with home page and travel page and all that good stuff. Right now, I'm learning how to use Picasa (I love google products. I'm not Ben, I swear) and Hello along with this Blog site. Very convenient so far.

It's been two years...

July 23rd, a day my family will always remember. We visited Alan this morning. I went back home with my parents after dropping James off for an mock SAT test. Anyway, a blog happened. I went back to emails and other writings that I wrote immediately after Alan's passing away. There were a lot. I suppose I recorded them then for a reason... I cannot remember what it was. Nonetheless, a blog is where I want them to be now. So, two years after Alan (AA2? As opposed to AD2005), the blog is born. A website should follow, and that is when I'd tell people about the blog.

I'm BACK!

At least I survived the Tibet trip... I will put the details of the trip on a website with all the pictures. Must do this before I leave Hong Kong!

I'm OFF!

Tibet, here I come...!

Birthday

Just like any other day... I mean, what's the big deal anyway?
Met a few friends, had a few drinks, enjoy a good night.

Pics from SH

Museum of City Planning - which ironically does not have a curator, judging from the lack or organization in the building. Bits and pieces of information scattered around 5 floors. On their own they are okay... put them together? Disaster. It does, however, look extremely like the new Chicago GSB building!

Kaleen and I in front of LuXun's Former Residence. Lu was a revolutionary (I did not know that before) and quite the writer. His place has been kept well. I would highly recommend making the visit to the residence and the nearby memorial museum.

Shanghai

First of all, thank you Kwun for hosting me. Despite not spending much time together, I greatly apprecaiate the entire trip you planned for me! And since it's not a secret anymore, Kwun is heading to Chengdu in July to be the big boss of that port. She will have two cars and three servants - one of them a driver - and live in a big house with a Panda in the backyard. Okay, I made up the last part. OKAY, I made up all the parts except her moving to Chengdu. =)

Congrats.

Couple of Shanghai observations... if you HAVE to compare it to Hong Kong, here's my assessment. It's less tidy, less clean, less civilized, less orderly, less polite, less international, less expensive. It's also more progressive, more cultured (note: different from civilized!), more dynamic, more versatile. Definitely has a much higher ceiling - in almost everything except for language - than Hong Kong. Or at least that's how I subjectively feel. The less and more comparisons are quite objective! And as I've told Kwun many times, it's basically HK smashed on top by a hammer - everything is a little shorter and a little flatter. The appearance of the two cities - infrastructure and people - are extremely similar!

All in all, comparisons with Hong Kong are, I guess, unavoidable. From Shanghai's point of view, what city can they look up to? It has to be Hong Kong. Anyway, I shall not make any more comparisons. Here's my summery of Shanghai. I liked it a lot. I feel really sad that this is my first time in Shanghai. Had I been there 10 years ago, I could have witnessed the greatest change in a city in the shortest period of time! Although I did all the tourist stuff, I was quite impressed with how the government has done with those spots. Despite all tourists and locals being attracted to the same places, it still felt okay. In China, my experience is that whenever there is something good, the entire city will be there. Maybe that's the case in Shanghai, but I don't feel that way. Still a lot of people though.

Shanghai doesn't have much of a history. So its revolutionary history is rather contemporary. With all the foreigners roaming the city and all commercial/tourist activities kissing up to them, it does indeed still have the 1930s Shanghai Tang feel to it. Sad? Or not? I don't know.

Ooops, running out of gas already. Maybe should do day-by-day trip description... until next time! Oh, I highly recommend visiting former houses of Lu Xun and Sun Chong Shan. Gives me shivers just thinking about what great minds they possessed! Gives me even more shivers on how little I have accomplished with my life at 25. OKAY, 26!

Crash (Movie)

While I've seen quite a few movies lately due to my lack of busy time, I have only seen one worthy movie: Crash. As such, I will have a short paragraph dedicated to it.

The premise of Crash is very simple: racial discrimination could be what it looks like but could be not what it looks like. You know, I can't even really type about it because the movie is such a simple one. Go see it. I highly highly highly recommend it. It's written by the person who wrote "Million Dollar Baby," except that this script makes much more sense. It's an ensemble cast which means not one character becomes fully developed. Usually, I feel very unsatisfactory with this type of movie - characters played by good actors but never have the moment to really shine. But in Crash, I was very happy with what little time each character was given.

Go see it. While I can talk about racial discrimination all day in an email and bore you to death, seeing the movie is a much more powerful tool. I guess we discriminate against many people all the time... with or without reason. The key is how we deal with it when such circumstance actually happens.

Men are from Mars

"Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus"
This book is a gift from Kaleen... presumably to tell me that I need to learn more about her and the female animal in general. I found it to be the pinnacle of irony!haha. In the first few pages, the books says "men and women are different... men don't like to read self improvement books and believe it is a waste of time." I almost wanted to just stop there. haha. A few chapters later, it indicates that "Men do not like to be criticized directly." Instead, the women should "use less direct methods to criticize men." At this point, I'm flipping over my stomach and calling Kaleen, accusing her of using a less direct way to directly criticize me. Anyway, I then found that I did the wrong thing because the book says "women criticize became they love their men; any brush back would be viewed as unloving." Man, I am totally stuck.

Anyway... would I recommend the book? Yes and No. You can guess what's the No? NO TO MEN! Enjoy the read. A load of bull crap but could be funny if you can "apply" many of the warnings/suggestions to your own relationship.

For example, when Kaleen asks if I know my directions to xyz, I say "the book you gave me to criticize me indicats that you should not ask me if I know the directions. That implies that you do not trust me and that would really upset me. Instead, you should have said 'I want to get to xyz on time.' If you said that, according to the book, I will take it on as a challenge to not get lost and get you to your destination in time no matter what it takes. I might even look at a map because I don't want to disappoint you." At this point, she is rolling her eyes and don't ask anymore.

Good stuff.

Goodbye, Boston

Remember I once said that waking up to inspiring emails is the best way to wake the brain up? Still true, still true.

I've spend 10 years in New England and 8 years in Boston. Strangely, I don't feel too attached to either place. I will forever be grateful for my experiences at Kent School. If you remember, I was quite a wreck in SPCC. Kent School set me straight. Sort of rediscovered why I should study hard and the fact that studying can be fun. Tufts was an easy four years where minimal effort was rewarded with maximum grades. Made a lot of friends. Turns out that most of them would be just that: friends. I thought I made a lot of good friends. But as people came and people go, good friends became friends became acquaintances.

Carrie Lee, a good friend of mine at Tufts, left Boston after a year working for Arthur Anderson and never looked back. Yvonne Tung, occasional email. Karen Lau, another good friend, kept in good contact and I hope to visit her soon in DC. Bruce Kessler/Won Lee/Anthony Tesssler, good friends for a long time. Mike Leung, only because I am in Chicago now.

Ah, the list goes on. Even Vincci, whom I've seen so little since she came to Boston. I've honestly spoken to her voicemail more. And yet, this all means nothing. Without contact, it is my belief that very very very very very little parts of the friendship is dropped. With contact, it doesn't mean any friendship is strengthened. I guess due to this mentality, I stay in contact with people but don't really think much of it. So what does leaving Boston mean to me? Right now? Absolutely nothing. Maybe when I start a new life in Chicago, the first time I get lost on the streets and take the wrong train, I will note that I am no longer in Boston, a city that I know inside out!

So. Bye bye Boston. Analysis Group, by the way, deserves it's own paragraph. Short, I promise: if it weren't for the 4 years of working experience, Boston would be much more forgettable! Analysis Group is a great company - I suppose you all know this by now - they take care of their employees with faith and expect the employees to do the same to the company. Of course, this model doesn't exactly work out perfectly. You'll certainly have people who work 9 to 5 and call it a day. I think AG knows but doesn't care. As long as there's a percentage of people who are grateful and put in the extra mile of work, the firm will ride that effort into profitability. People - that is the most important ingredient in businesses.

Anyway... the last advice I got from my peers: don't underestimate yourself.

What news source do you read in Hong Kong and China? Do you just read the newspaper? Just internet? Chinese? English? I ask because living in the "free and democratic" nation of America, it is almost comical to read news from both sides. On one hand, I have the free press of CNN, NY Times, WSJ, and so on... on the other hand I read Mingpao.com.

The "free" media spends about 70% of the press discussing the demonstrations and how demonstrations work in China, mostly implying that it is state-controlled. The rest of the coverage turns to the cause of the problem and indicate that the demonstration "was triggered in part by a new Japanese history book that PROTESTORS SAY fails to admit the extent of Japan's World War II atrocities." At this point, I don't even have to turn to MingPao to see the other side of the issue... I believe my own gut feeling: that Japan needs to shed those rightists and hawks and actually feel sorry about what it has done to not only Chinese, but mankind. Most of the Japanese I've met in the US are really nice people. Most of them don't talk about WWII, but every now and then you see the remorse they have and the extra effort they take to say what we did was so very wrong. Anyway, my point is that I am not anti-Japanese... I am anti-Japanese hawks... actually, you can even narrow that to non-apologetic hawks (I wonder if any are apologetic...).

Oh, and add one more thing: I am anti-one-sided-non-objective media.

More food for thought: I'd like to see the Chinese history text books and what those say about 1. Tibet, 2. Great Leap Forward, 3. June Forth, 4. The Nationalists, etc etc. Ah, the IRONY!

Some of my personal feelings. Being Chinese, it's impossible to ignore what has been happening to Chinese in the last 200 years. In particular, Nanjing Massacre, Great Leap Forward, and June Forth rank as the three worse things that's happened: one was a by-product, the other two caused by man. Should the communist party apologize their
errorenous judgement in the Great Leap Forward? I think they need to (and have) admitted error. The other two events: I think since a human decision was involved, they need to admit and apologize.

And change. Like the Germans. So remarkable... is this a fundamental difference between the West and the East...!?

Predictably, I wasn't admitted to Harvard and Stanford... tough choice between MIT and Chicago then!

I got admitted to University of Chicago GSB... just yesterday I was
almost sure I was going to MIT. How life changes within a phone call!

Random thoughts:
Sometimes, no choice is a good choice.
Human mind is funny, I've been convincing myself that MIT is the best
possible situation with the best fitting program for me. Now it's
trying to convince me anything away from Boston trumps MIT.
I can watch the Bulls play ball!
The Bulls!

I have a weird vibe from the people I've met at Chicago...

Somethings never change...

I'm almost accepted that I will be spending another two years in Boston, going to MIT Sloan. No complaints, obviously, but just slightly disappointed that I couldn't go to sunny SF.

Anyway, met up with Ben Luk at his hotel two days ago to transport him to McWing's home. Our first conversation. Some things never change:

Me: Dim ah, lei?
Ben: noise
Me: Mut yeh wah?
Ben: noise
Me: Can applicants even understand you?
Ben: Yes.
Me: Really...?
Ben: Diu. Noise.
Me: Mut yeh wah?

Reality: I've been working on creating a table for our clients lately... the numbers are hard to get so I've been working a lot in the office to get them. Anyway, I found a short cut to the problem and did it.

Dream: Walking by the CEO's office, I overheard my boss talking with the CEO, basically indicating that Eric seemed to have use some shortcuts that were wrong. The tables are out and the clients are pissed. I panic. I FLED to the top floor of the building, hiding in a shaded corner. Somehow, our HR person was able to track me down and bring me back down to the office, where I meet with the CEO, my boss, and a bunch of analysts in a meeting room. The CEO fired me, said I was careless and wrong, and then indicated that she would retract her recommendation for MIT and make sure I don't get into any school. I cry and I beg for forgiveness.

Reality: I woke up, sweating profusely and obviously stressed out. At 5 am.

Damn work.

A series of unfortunate events

More MBA news. I sent in "extra material" to Chicago and they decided to interview me (after refusing to do so the last 4 months!). Still waiting for Stanford, though chances are smaller as time passes.

I visited MIT last weekend. Basically it's the school's sales pitch to us, so they bring out the best professors, the best speakers, the best students and try and wow us. On the other hand, there's also the people who attended the event, my potential future classmates. Obviously a very impressive list of young people. I wonder if thinking everybody else is so much smarter than myself a common phenomenon for all people? I don't think my work requires a lot of intelligence, and I defintely know that I'm not very smart (see A-Math results from HK, haha!)... but somehow people at MIT think I'm smart and my job is cool. Meanwhile, I think they are very very smart and I'm just lucky to be there with them. It was a weird feeling.

Some after comments on MIT. It's obviously a good school... but it also impressed me in other ways. The people are great. All very down to earth and adventurous. Numerous activities for students to keep them busy. Generally, although I am bored with Boston, MIT will make staying in the city a little less painful. Despite being in Boston, going to business school, I think, would give you a completely different perspective on the city.

You know, at first I wanted to talk about bad things, but now I don't anymore. In short: report due on Tuesday, so I planned to move my apartment on Wed. (New address, by the way: 90 Summer St Apt 2, Somerville, MA 02143. Same as McWings) Boss said everything is fine, so I didn't even plan to work that much. Friday night, stuff blow up and I have to come in on Sunday (Saturday I was at MIT). Got sick on Sunday (from MIT, I think). Damn, this isn't short! All day Monday working franctically. Tuesday come in at 7am, report not going out, delayed a day. Work all day Tuesday. I STILL HAVEN'T PACKED MY APT! All night working. 3am, got home, pack some more, 6:30am back in office for meeting. 12pm I absolutely had to leave to office to move apt. 6 pm done. back to work till 9 pm. report delayed again. back to
new apartment to unpack till 12am. got in this morning at 8am to continue finished up the report. It's out now. I think. Hence I can email.