Uni and results = bad :(

Hahahahahaha.

I'm so bored.

And I have a big headace.

Dad wants me to go to Cal State Uni LA because it's near my relatives and I can stay with them.

But CSULA seriously isn't that great a uni... and I want to go to a better uni... but I don't want to ask dad for more money for a better uni...

Another sad thing is how my grades are getting bad, really bad.

I didn't do too well for the 1st of 2 tests in physics. It'll seriously make it harder to get an A. Worst thing is it's supposed to be easy and everyone is supposed to ace in it.

So I'm left to think that I'm either not that smart to begin with, or am getting stupid by the day. Sad :(

First design work by myself for the college mag

This is my first ever completed design work for the Editorial. I didn't enter to be a designer, I wanted to only write. But with a sad amount of staff working on design, I'm left with no choice. Sad :(

This is going to be the page on Bon Odori written by Natasha Brothier (she has since transfered to the USA). Many thanks to her and to the many others who have contributed as well!

2008 Resolution

It's a bit late now but I just only figured out my new year resolutions. For too many years, my wishes was always for something academic. But I'm getting old and I can't help feeling how academics isn't really that important, even if it meant the size of your paycheck and the university that will admit you... hmmm I guess it's important anyway.

I'll try to be more sociable. But how?
I'll try to be more intelligent. But how?
I'll try to be more patient with people that irk me. I'll try not to let my anger overcome me but since I'm on it already, I'll just try to refrain from being angry.

Last year I had only 1 resolution - to improve my grades. I was only half successful at it.

If you kill 1,000,000 people, you're a respected historical figure

I heard someone loudly saying how Hitler was very respected at the end of the day in a public commuter today. Seems like:

If you kill 1 person, you're a murderer. Everyone else wants you hanged or locked-up.
If you kill 1000 people, you're a martyr who fought for a cause. Some will respect you and hold you as a hero.
If you kill 1,000,000 people, you're a respected historical figure.

What happened to the root cause?

Today I stumbled upon an article by ex-prime minister Mahathir concerning values of leadership. No, this piece is not going to be about that article of his.

Back when Mahathir was the prime minister, he frequently spoke against US foreign policy and on terrorism, stressed on how it is more important to deal with the "root cause". You can't hunt down every single terrorist in the world, so to stop terrorism you have to deal with the root cause or causes. Taking military action is an action, but it isn't an action to deal with the root cause.

That was back then. Now, US foreign policy isn't any longer an issue. Everyone seems to be more concerned instead with safety on the streets, evidently because there seems to be more and more cases of child abductions. To deal with the problem, the police are to be more diligent and more surveillance cameras are to be installed in public areas. The general public are also asked to be more cautious and vigilant while on the streets and to keep the children safe.

But those are steps taken to deal with the prevailing situation. What happened to dealing with the root cause for a more effective solution?

But perhaps people have realized that it is impossible to deal with the root causes of our unsafe streets. How is one supposed to realistically deal with bad parenting or bad circumstances in life that led one to commit crime?

How then is one able to deal with the root causes of terrorism?

By giving the would-be terrorists an independent Palestinian state? Wouldn't this be like giving the would-be criminals a candy bar?

I thought the only thing in the article written by Mahathir worthy of some thought would be something along the lines of "some potential good leaders will never succeed just because circumstances don't favor them". I hope that he actually knows now how some root causes simply can't be dealt with, realistically.

The relationship between risk and returns

I was thinking about how higher risks are almost always related to higher returns. Most people if not all take it as a matter of fact. But my thoughts are that it is not, that when for example it concerns investment, investments involving higher risks usually have higher interest rates (returns) not because it is matter-of-fact universal law, but because people's behavior.

Higher interest rates are always attributed to investments where there are fewer buyers. If an investment is heavily bought or demanded, its interest rate would experience downward pressure to settle at a lower rate. Think about prices.

So the only reason why returns for riskier investments are higher would be because most people are risk averse - they don't want to take riskier portfolios. This naturally causes interest rates for higher risk investments to be higher than average.

But what if people, for whatever reasons, love risk? Then higher risk investments would have lower returns compared to lower risk investments and it therefore would have been "lower risks are almost always related to higher returns".