Rama IX

January 23rd, 2008 Uncategorized

I am to visit Thailand office on Monday and so have decided to read about the Thai customs and its monarchy on wiki. The Kings of Thailand are generally hardworking, involved and generally want to push Thailand forward. I’m extremely impressed with Rama IX in particular. He paints, plays jazz, writes, sails, invents and in his spare time, performs his Kingly duties and gets involved in the politics of Thailand and is nice to poorer rural communities. He must be a character from some fairy tale.

Dinner with friends

January 19th, 2008 atwork

Strangely, we have moved from talking about our purchases, colleagues, our holidays – our indulgences, in short – to work and family life. On work, assessing opportunities, considering career moves and on family life, more specifically the lack of a complete family life at this age. Z brought it up first. Her mother observed that many friends our age are single or even if attached, not knotted, or even if knotted, childless. We didn’t moan, we merely touched on the observation as though a puzzle. Is it our year? Because, said V., my sister’s friends always come with their husbands and babies during Chinese New Year.

Remember Stanley Tucci who is Nigel in Devil Wears Prada? He said, “Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke. Means it’s time for a promotion.”

I’ve always thought that working hard is always an excuse for single women who are not very pretty or have horrid personalities. My point of view has completely turned when a friend of mine began working hard. Her dating life from a line of chaps longer than the queue at Lim Hock Guan before Chinese New Year become nothing, almost overnight. This is not for the lack of meeting the right people – she’s in front line. I simply cannot understand. I also cannot understand those who have gotten promotion after promotion yet have the right accessories: the 3 caret ring, the landed property, the post-grad on the wall, the fashionably dressed baby on size zero hip and husband’s lightly to moderately hairy arm slung over the shoulder. How did they do it without performance enhancing drug? Perhaps they are truly the abnormalies.

Reading Jolene’s post ‘Less Than‘ – actually, the commentaries – I wondered at first, if wanting to have the above described accessories is the result of me (or my friends) being measured against the standards of the previous generation or us wanting to conform to some norms. I think it is more like this. In the pursuit of happiness, I conclude that certain outcomes result in happiness and therefore want to work towards this imagined utopia. How did I conclude? Not through new age advanced to intermediate soul searching techniques but admiring what some other is having and wanting it for myself. If I am not continually ecstatic in our existing circumstance, a better circumstance will result in me being ecstatic all the time.

Hints for taking the FRM Exam #3, #9, #10, #11

January 13th, 2008 Uncategorized

#3. Bring a supply of No. 2 pencils. Bring TWO calculators that you know how to operate.

#9. AT LUNCH, EAT LUNCH! Don’t go over the questions with the other candidates. They may try to psyche you otu to improve their own chance of passing. Or even worse, you may get depressed and malfunction in the afternoon. Do not drink a few beers to calm your nerves! (Emphasis not mine)

#10. Before Part 2 of the exam starts, go to the bathroom. Even if you don’t have to.

#11. DO NOT PANIC, STAY CALM AND YOU WILL DO ALRIGHT!! (Exclamation marks not mine and shouldn’t the last be in large friendly letters, not Times New Roman Size 11 ALL CAPs?

Bedlam Asset Management

January 13th, 2008 elsewhere

This company has the cutest and most amusing annual reports I’ve seen. Key documents linked here.

On paying taxes:

I am sure that Her Majesty, or more accurately her civil servants, will find good uses for this donation…

On paying dividends:

We regard companies that are able, yet refuse, to pay dividends as the work of the devil himself.

On being good bosses:

Moreover, from the end of 2005 the board took the view that some pay was dangerously too low: it is one thing to

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

January 10th, 2008 atschool

The arcane language of the public policy risk analysts, couched in mathematical formulae, appears every month in the journal of the Society for Risk Analysis, Risk Analysis, where I

Watch List

January 8th, 2008 Uncategorized

Joja Wendt Live in Singapore
Huayi : What Is Man?
Huayi : Like Shadows
Chesty Nutty Bang Bang (Yay!)
Harry Connick Jr (hmmm)

An OMG moment

January 7th, 2008 Uncategorized

I am squealing like a piglet in the office at 10:22pm because one of my FAVOURITE actors commented on this blog.

Please, you must see it here.

Economic Weight Loss Plan II

January 7th, 2008 Uncategorized

The goal, the contracting parties and the amount have been decided. Yet I find myself extremely resistant to put my money where my mouth is.

1. Can I make it? Is the goal too difficult to reach?
2. Is it too much suffering even if the goal is achievable?
3. Will I see a weight gain do I need another contract to prevent weight gain?

I feel anxious just thinking about it.

Economic Weight Loss Plan

January 7th, 2008 Uncategorized

“Economist Weight-Loss Incentive Plan”: I contracted with a friend to pay her $500 if I had not lost nine pounds at the end of 10 weeks. I and a witness (my friend’s husband) signed the pact. My friend similarly obligated herself to take the payment and to spend it on herself. She affirmed her solemn pledge with her signature, witnessed by her husband (with a big grin).

Amazing but true!

Math is your friend – not mine (II)a

January 7th, 2008 atschool

It seems that convexity and subadditivity is linked. Since subadditivity is an issue, convexity will be an issue. Je nes comprends pas!