Bored

I am bored... I am just so bored. And tired. Of all my modules. The exams are so hard. Sometimes i wonder what the hell am i doing. Seriously, why am i doing this? Afterall, everybody out there seems to know more about economics then economists.

People who know nothing about economics, except what they think is right, go on and on about how things should be. But in reality, that will not happen. Cos economies do not work the way they think it does.

I just wanna go home. I am tired. I am worn out. I need out. I know the ideas behind the economics, the mechanism. i just do not know how to get it to work.

Help me

Study study

I am now looking at this huge text books that screams out intorductory Econometrics. A part of me is happy that i do not need to do well, just well enough to pass and i am free of econometrics. A part of me is however, dreading the exams in two weeks. Sigh.

Anyway i am packing up my room, my place where i slept, kept my stuff, went online and stuff for the last 3 months, coming to 4. IT has been a home, a great quiet place. And truly enjoy time here. It is not perfect, nothing is, but it beats living on the streets.

Went shopping today. ha ha my friend was kind enough to take me out, dorve about looking for gifts for people. But it was a good morning. Bought almost everything i need.

In two weeks, i will have finished my exams. In two weeks, my SEP comes to an end. In two weeks, i will no longer be a student of the University of Canterbury. In two weeks, i will not be an occupant in University Hall.

Time here is great. Really gonna miss New Zealand. Was it good to come? Definately.

Before i leave, a tour of NZ is in place. ha ha. will get to see so much of the country, though i have seen a substential amount of it, and not like singapore where everywhere is no more then 2 hours away, sights are spread all around this great country.

Ok then, econometrics. Making sense of statistics.

beliefs

Where is your security? Is it in material possessions? Is it in knowledge? In science? Is it in the power that one wields? Is it in the faith of one’s ability?

Any of the above or even all of the above can serve as a person’s security, that special place where we run to to be safe. To feel comforted by being in a circle of control. A place where we are in control, insofar as we are not called out of the comfort zone. We are safe.

Of course, that means we need to defend these bastions of hope. They were constructed by us for ourselves. They are built up from within our hearts to keep us sane, and we have to defend them to death, lest we find ourselves broken and without shelter. A man will fight for his land, for his rights, for his life. Then that is what we fight for, the right to live to have beliefs that sustain us in our lives. We find our strengths in our beliefs.

When the beliefs come under attacks, we fight back. There is nothing else to do. Beliefs serve more then just a bedrock of actions, they serve as the foundations and the reason for the actions. The purpose of life is defined by your beliefs, nothing more nothing less. A person who does not belief, cannot live purposefully; he has no reason to.

Christianity can be called that safety grip Christians cling on to. If it is nothing more then a belief, then agreeably it is nothing more then a backing on which Christians live their lives. But that makes Christians no different from atheists nor scientists.

I believe God is real. I believe that my God lives. He reigns. In him I place my hope, my security, my dreams. My life, as we sing, is in him. That means living life planning for the future with God in mind, but not hesitating to drop it all for him. Crazy living? If you are not ready to defend your beliefs to the death, to the insane limits that the world shouts for us to test, then those beliefs will not stand very long. Even if the beliefs we have are wrong, we sometimes have to defend them. For in them, there is our soul.

I think humans are very interesting creatures. We want to believe what we want to believe. Anything that shows us to the contrary must be wrong, or at least have some flaw. We reject like a virus any alternative ideas. A defense mechanism we have to protect ourselves. So how did we ever progress to this point.

The only way to go forward sometimes is to admit you went wrong.

Returning to proceed

Back. BAck from a quick trip to Tekapo.

FIrst, let me just take you through the wonders of a Subaru. Why? BEcause that was the car i drove.

I rented a MAzda 3 from Eurocar rentals at a steep price of 73 a day. Unfortunately they did not have a Mazda. SO they offered me a new volvo s40. Sadly, it's fuel gauge was down. So they offered me the subaru legacy.

car on the top of mount St John, where University of Canterbury has an observatory


So anyway nice car!!!

Well the trip was fantastic. I went on hikes, got to see a magnificant view of lake tekapo,

Lake Tekapo. A glacier lake



where a famous church in New Zealand, the church of the good shepherd sat comfortably beside the lake.

Church of the Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo



Inside the church



Beautiful view. People from all around the world came to this place to get married.

Anyway i learnt a lot of things from this trip. Like, well, one hour hikes are doeable. Like when we drive, look to ensure that we do not make the wrong turn or end up in the wrong place.



I put up the picture of this road for good measure. It was where i did 100. 100 mph. My passengers were less then happy about it. But hey, the legacy takes corner very very well, and it does go very fast. But it does not overtake very well.

Oh, and we were blessed by god. First, no rain. Secondly, we managed to get a house to stay in at a dirt cheap price (we were lost and needed lodging) of 40 for three people in a huge house. Thirdly, we got cheap cookies from cookie world. Nice cookies too!!!

Well that is it people. I have many more pictures, but as it is scenery, you might not be too keen on seeing all of it. But let me tell you this, NZ is a beautiful country.

Back to studying about contracts, property and the like. Economic analysis of law...

On ward we walk

It has been a long time since I blogged.

Well, today signifies the end of the semester. And tomorrow is get drunk day. Libraries are closed for security reasons, i.e. drunks roaming the school at 3 p.m. For tomorrow, alcohol is permitted all around campus, and not just in the rooms. But in the parks and the walk ways. So loads of people will be getting drunk, screaming, and well, a few more streakers I think.

Today also signifies the start of the end. The end of the journey from Singapore to New Zealand. The end of the journey of learning to be independent. The end of the journey of leaving your home to go to a different land. The end of a journey to learn that alcohol need not be so expensive, cars can be cheap and sheep is not all the New Zealand has. It has loads of cows too.

A part of me is empty. Empty because I know that I have no more opportunities to enter another class to attend a lesson on Monetary economics, nor see the different mechanism that we have to manipulate the data that we get.

It has been an educational and fantastic time. I enjoyed myself in class, the highlights being Monetary economics and game theory. The rest of the classes were good, but not as memorable as those. I really think that Singapore Teachers should learn from the lecturers here, who can use real life events to teach us the practicalities of economics.

Well, now it is time to study. To buckle down and being work on the exams coming up on the third to the tenth of November. Then it is onward to see the other parts of NZ that I have not seen.

But first, I have a trip on Monday!!! It is to tekapo. I am not excited by that primarily, but by the Mazda 3 that I am going ot drive!! Because this is the first time that I get to drive a NEW CAR!!! Muahahahahahahahaha.

Ok sorry, I really need a break. It has been assignment after assignment after essay this semester. Been a tough time. Fun, but tough.

Will see you soon.

9+5=14

I made an error.

I took five economics module this semester.

The problem is i have taken nine economics todate.

The huge issue is i am allowed to take only 14 economics module.

That means i need to do six modules next semester because i planned my modules wrongly.

To make matters worse, i cannot do transport nor health nor public economics. And to rub salt, i need the level 3 modules in order to do the level 4 modules.

SO in essence, i have to take six modules next semester. In honours year, beg my HOD to allow me to take the level 4 modules of which i have no background in whilst everyone else has the background to do.

Sigh. 9+5=14. How could i forget?