1min's Blog

I saw the movie Margin Call yesterday night. It was a pretty suspenseful movie that dramatized the recent financial crisis of 2008. At the very least, the cast was very well selected and every actor was incredibly professional. While I don't fully understand the financial crisis, nor am I claiming to be an expert on economics or finance, but the movie made me feel a little weird--especially at this point in my life where a lot of my peers in school do in fact go off in search of finance jobs. One particular scene struck me--the scene where the character Seth Bregman (portrayed by Penn Badgley ) is crying in the bathroom stall because he's afraid of getting fired. A little background info on Seth before I tell you how I felt. He's a 23 year old working in the Risk department at a large unnamed corporation who made $250,000 last year in bonuses and salary. I was a bit annoyed as to why he was crying. Here's a young fresh graduate making six figures with an abs...

Left - Shuffle, Right - Smart-shuffle Wouldn't it be nice if all media players, iPods, Android phones, or whatever you use to listen to music could all sync? I would love to look at the statistics on my music listening habits. Which songs get skipped one second in? Which songs have I listened to the most in my lifetime? Which songs are never played? Which songs are over-played? This got me to thinking about a smarter way to shuffle songs. Let's just assume that somehow, music we listen to was kept track regardless of whatever device we use. Some magical tool that we shove in our ears, I don't know. Think of the possibilities! Music that was recently added to the library have heavier weight. Songs with high play-counts can slowly decrease in weight à la diminishing returns. Lower play-count songs will be favored over higher play-count songs. The same song will never play back-to-back. An option to have smoother transitions from song to song so we aren't listening...

At school, I currently work part time (9 hours / week) at the school eatery as a cashier. It's not the most glamorous job in the world, but I find it incredibly relaxing and fun. Which is contrary to general consensus--that a minimum wage job cannot be anything but hell on earth. I brought this up to my dad, proud in my unique ability to see the silver lining on what is considered to be a dark cloud. He then suggested that my part-time job didn't sound like a job, but rather an escape. An escape from the ordinary and mundane life of a student. Is that true? Was working a cashier job an escape to me? It's true that the money doesn't really matter to me. If I think about it, what's truly special about working is the interaction I have with the countless students who pass by. I have more fun in those 3 hours of interaction than I do in any class or study session. I guess it was  an escape after all. This led me to think about what else in my life is an escape? ...

Whenever I return home, I always get struck by a incredible sense of laziness. For some reason, sitting in my room just suppresses any sort of productivity that I try to muster up. It's a bit frustrating. And I've also noticed that my mental health seems to diminish when I am not productive. I get stuck in a depressive spiral downwards when I am not doing anything useful, but I cannot do anything useful in my room. Twilight zone of the internet. Then I try to fill this empty feeling inside myself with useless things on the internet. Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. Combined with the mouse gestures program I have installed on my computer, procrastinating has never been faster or more easily done. I check the same webpages constantly throughout the day, devouring any new piece of information that I come across. This is why websites like Reddit or StumbleUpon are so addictive, they are a constant stream of distracting and counter-productive information. I have devised...

Huzzah! It's winter break! Like many semesters before, this semester was also very hectic and eventful. Many things happened in my life and hopefully I've become a better person through it all. Anyways, I'm back at home and trying really hard not to fall into the lazy trap that is my room. (And maybe Reddit). I made a daily checklist of things I have to do so hopefully it'll be easier to get things done. For example, writing a blog post is on that list, although the last time I tried to write a blog post a day was a complete and utter failure. But we'll see. I have a few ideas cooking in my mind that I'd love to try out over the next coming weeks. But for now, I've completed my task of writing a post. I'll see you later! On a side note, I really want to try doing more animations or sprucing my site up a bit design-wise. It's getting a bit boring.

 A few weeks ago, I participated in a Microsoft raffle at my school and won an Arc Mouse . Before this mouse, I always used a Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse  I bought with my laptop over two years ago. Here’s my review of the Arc Mouse. The Microsoft Arc Mouse. Name: Microsoft Arc Wireless Mouse What: A surprisingly comfortable wireless mouse which folds for ultimate portability. Why: You need a mouse with your computer and you are on the go a lot. Folded view. The key selling point of this mouse is that it folds up, reducing the size of the mouse by effectively 50%. The portability is definitely a huge plus because you don't want to be carrying a giant mouse everywhere. But the Arc Mouse fits snugly in any pocket. It runs off two AAA batteries and uses a small USB transceiver to wirelessly communicate with the computer. Conveniently, there’s a groove where the USB attachment fits in magnetically. Magnetic groove, side button, and battery cov...

Last year, around this time (or earlier, I don't exactly recall) I was struggling with my life. New surroundings, tough academic pressures, extracurricular responsibilities, internship hunting, all added to create a rather stressful environment. I was also a part of the Brown University Debating Union. Every few weeks, I would go to a tournament for the weekend and debate with other teams from different universities. Most of these tournaments were held in Boston since there are many universities there. My friend from high school, Carol, also went to Boston University and I figured that we'd meet up since it had been a while since I saw her last. We made plans to meet up after my last debate round. What is stress? When I saw her, she gave me a hug because, well, that's what friends do. It wasn't a special hug in any way. It lasted the same amount and probably had all the same intentions behind it. But I felt so empowered by that simple gesture. The instant she hu...