Friday, May 28th 2004, 22:13
The problem with being an atheist:
- Humans like to appeal to emotion, not reason.
- It's so difficult to understand compared to it's alternative, theism. It's such a beautiful truth, why are you turning away from it? (style over substance)
- Atheist, in comparison, are such ugly, unpopular, nerdy-looking, cold-hearted bastards! (argumentum ad hominem)
- if a person hasn't actually reasoned their way *in* to a particular position, then it is unlikely that you will be able to reason them *out* of it.
- There are so few of us around, our voices always get drowned with sheer numbers and volume. It's a democratic society man, majority vote rules! (argumentum ad populum)
- Or, with verbal abuse and/or death threats from religious fanatics. (argumentum ad consequentiam)
- Of course, social pressure from family and friends also helps (argumentum ad baculum)
- Everyone just loves the Medieval times too much, especially the romantic history of the religious persecutions, the witch hunts, the crusades... ah, the good old times, when good men and women were pious, faithful and loving.
Just some random thoughts.
Wednesday, May 26th 2004, 00:08
<edit2>That's it, time for instant noodles. I don't care if they're unhealthy or whatnot, I've just had enough of BAGEL TORTURE!!!</edit2>
<edit>Slept at 1 last night, and woke up by construction workers working 2 meters across from my room, 7:20am, today. Third night of sleep deprivation in a row due to unnatural causes. Not that I ever had a good night of sleep during these two weeks because of the cold weather and a centralised air-conditioner that I can't switch off. I really starting to hate my life. </edit>
I really hate not having a cafeteria, fridge, microwave or even a source of hot water for instant noodles. That means I am expected to spend lot of money to eat in campus food outlets/restaurants for my three meals, which will make me feel very guilty. The alternative choice, of course, was to eat cereal without milk for breakfast, and plain bagels with nothing on for dinner, and eat out in campus restaurants for one (salad being my only source of vegetables) meal a day at most, still cost me around eighty bucks since summer school started ten days ago.
Generally speaking, having satiation levels being kept slightly below physical comfort levels with very basic foodstuff for prolonged periods of time usually pisses people off. I know I'm more lucky than most people on Earth, but I'm sure most people don't have to pay so much for it either.
Neither does it help when I have to walk or run around the campus everyday, since buses come at such infrequent intervals during summers. Nor that the toughest professor and the worst TA in the whole dept. of economics "happened" to be teaching the course that I'm doing.
Seriously though, what the hell is wrong with my life???
Wednesday, May 19th 2004, 22:35
SOA/CAS Course 1 today. Damn it was so hard, heck I had to literally guess a quarter of them! The funny thing is, it's hard for different reasons for different people. For most (like myself), the math is just too hard, and we usually only pass the second time around. For math majors that wants to take exams to help out their careers, they find it very hard to focus on statistics, since they much rather spend their time with pure mathematics. And then there's always a few losers that thinks the Actuarial Science program is (slang starting with "g" and meaning "heterosexually challenged") and walks into the exam thinking it's easy. Unfortunately, they don't curve their tests, hence we can't utilize these valuable resources like we do in some of our lower-level core courses.
My probability professor for this semester was also doing it, but the reason why she found it difficult was because she's dyslexic, and can't read the questions quickly enough (when asked how many times she did it, the response was "not the first time"). Also, as she puts it, "I haven't seen numbers in a while; I'm not very good with them". Not surprising, considering that she specializes in algebra. Now my only question is - why is she doing it in the first place?
Unfortunately, there's no way we can know what the passing scores are, and how they determine it. It's one of the their greatest secrets, and only a few professors knew a little bit about it. The official catalog only says "...demonstrates adequate knowledge of the syllabus...". Basically, the passing scores vary around 60-65%, and around 40% pass this exam. The scores are also more bimodal than normal. And if you try to approximate things using various distributions (I could do it, but I've really had enough of this crap for a while), you will find that basically each question is answered correctly by less than half the candidates. Personally, I think those exams are there just to knock people out, and it will take more than the express and repeated denial of the Actuarial Science professors to convince me otherwise.
It also takes a long time to know your results. That's one thing I don't like about them.
Monday, May 17th 2004, 00:54
I moved to my summer housing. If anyone wants to give me a call, it's (217)-332-5063.
<edit>If anyone thinks summer school is fun, just because I'm only doing one course, they're in for a rude surprise. The lecture's 9-12am, discussion section's 3-5 pm, and an "optional" office hours 5-6pm. That's six hours of class a day, four days a week. My only hope of relaxation comes from having something fun to do during weekends, but then most people I know aren't even here. Oh whatever.</edit>
Saturday, May 15th 2004, 22:31
Finished my finals on Wednesday. I can't rest though, because there's still SOA Course 1 to deal with on the 19th. I don't really expect to pass the first time, but I still got to work for it. And then I'm doing summer school for four weeks too. Why can't I take a break like other people, or at least find a job so I'm getting some extra lines on my resume? Damn, wasted another year.
A lot of little ups and downs are happening with me right now. Don't wish to list then all, but at least I'm surviving through them. It's not all bad news, but as they say, no news is good news. Sometimes the little things in your life everyday gives you more stress than the big things for some reason. I wonder why though.
Packed up my room to move into my summer dorm. Only four weeks, damn all this packing and unpacking. Also managed to recover some of my laptop's files from before the apocalypse. I just realised how double-screwed I am. On one hand I don't really know how to pack my stuff, so plates and cups are just being crushed beneath by hardcover books and shattered glass objects are mixed with my underwear (not really, but close). On the other hand, my SOA course 1 exam is on the 19th, and four days before the exam, I realised that I forgot all my first and second year calculus!!! *sigh*
Monday, May 3rd 2004, 22:32
<edit>Added some cool links. Go figure.</edit>
April showers brings May flowers, as they say. Unfortunately, my month began with a soar throat, a terribly-hard finance exam that I just messed up, and a really weak body and a lack of sleep. Also skipping most of my lectures during the most critical time of the year. Plus, it's raining like crazy. Oh whatever, June flowers then.
Before I continue, I feel like commenting on certain individual's weblogs. With no names mentioned, please do not write extremist things with "unconventional" assumptions unless there's a reason, that you can justify it, and that there is no better way to get the message through. Because some of the things that I've read in some KGV Xangas just... well... shouldn't be there. If those ideas are so important to you, please do more research so that you actually know what you're talking about, and instead of having a loud voice, please reflect it in your lifestyle and everyday speech instead of taunting everyone with bovine manure. And I won't hesitate to start a flame war either.
Anyway, nothing very interesting is happening with my life right now, certainly no more losing money in poker or anything. Successfully organised a Mahjong competition on Friday, where I got a lot of beginners to learn the game, paving the way for the Mahjong club to get members next year. Also finished my proud research on proper HKOS mahjong rules, which I'll definitely show everyone that wants to see it. Trying to fix my living habits in time for my exams and summer school again. I'm so tired, just so damn tired. I just want to lie down and rest once I go back to Hong Kong, but I know I'll feel really bad about myself after 15 minutes, and then I'll get myself tired again. Whatever.