Jan 19

这几天几乎天天晚上没有睡好觉,做了几件事情:

第一,把我的四个手机中的两个卖了(第三个没人买,型号太老了吧),因为最近真的是捉襟见肘。现在才知道自己很不会理财,有钱的时候就拼命花,现在就只好到处哭穷了。

这个学期其实应该出去工作的,毕竟现在加元比美元还要高。结果老爹就把我的budget砍了不少了(新币的汇率几乎是和美元走的)。唉,算了吧,课都上了两个礼拜了。。。

第二,就是改网站,改resume,申请coop工作。

昨天晚上为了给我的PDA升级(顺便说一下,我的IPAQ hx2495b现在已经是Windows Mobile6了),弄到4点钟才睡,早上十点老姐的电话就来了,说她看了200多个coop工作里面没有一个actuarial science的。

当时我就傻了,次贷危机再严重,加拿大的保险公司也不可能不招人了吧。特别是我们这些coop,又便宜又好用(廉价劳动力嘛),这些公司不可能不要我们吧。

结果吓得觉也不敢睡了,马上爬起来找。结果是老姐错了,我至少能够shortlist出来50份合适的工作。

上个work term在reinsurance里面干了一个学期,本来说这个学期应该focus在direct companies上,结果给一群人说的我又开始对finance 有点痒痒了。

可是只剩两个term了,我还要找full-time啊!

唉,要是我们有8个work term,六个study term该有多好啊。

LSE不就是6个study term嘛,最后不还是一样造就了一堆Nobel奖获得者和政客?

看了半天,发现里面竟然有一个Merrill Lynch的工作(就是美林啊,那个这次次贷危机中和Citi并列最惨的公司,当然,它的write-off比Citi要小很多)。天啊,它们竟然在招coop,超高兴的。

其实我也不知道为什么就喜欢上Merrill Lynch。不过最近它们在报纸上可是占尽风头。先是把它们的女CEO炒了(那个CEO好像去年是Forbes世界最有权力女人中的一个吧,和HP的那位齐名), 后来又是次贷。Citi虽然也炒了Charles Prince,可是好像媒体就没有那么关注。

当然了,Merrill要不要我这种人还是一个问题。老天帮帮忙吧。。。。

第三,就是又报了SOA的考试了。对于我这个穷人来说,又是一次钱包出血的经历。还好上次MLC过了,MFE只要120美元,要不然的话我就真的要去借钱考试了。。。。。

希望这个term可以顺利过去,事情真的蛮多的。

给自己加油!

Dec 31

To those who have been reading my blog all these days, you must have found that I have not updated my blog for a while.

And the true reason behind it, is simply there is nothing to write.

I know I may be weird when I am saying this, but somehow my mind will only run wild when I am busy or under pressure and felt helpless, I would then look at my blog and tell myself:”mmm…it is probably the time I need to add something to my blog…”

However, I do know I owe a lot of people some form of gratitude, such as my dear goddaughter, who was nice enough to support me throughout my entire struggle of the final exam, thanks a lot Dewi :) (and the list will go quite long as well)

The main reason why, though, that I am typing on my keyboard at 2am in the morning, is that I really thought it would be a great time for me to think about Year 2007, which is waving its farewell to us pretty soon.

On the up side, I have to say that I have accomplished some things in 2007, including get my first ever coop job in actuarial science field, but those are just some trivial things that I would be more than reluctant to mention the details.

On the down side, however, many things that I hope have not happened have happened, and many things that I have hoped for their occurrence did not.

If I’ve made a list for all those things, I am pretty sure they will fill up 20 pages, However, there are just a few words I want to say about.

To the friends of mine who mentioned that my stubbornness have hurt so many people who loved me and wished me well, all I can say is that once I’ve decided to do certain things, I just go ahead and do them. I confess that sometimes I did not recognize the cost of them, and most of the time I tend to underestimate them, but unless one day I own a time machine, there is simply no way of going back.

To the friends of mine who mentioned that in my world, there is only black and white, and no grey, all I can say is that I tend to look at things to extremes, but those are just measures to protect myself. It is weird for me to say this, but I think one thing about Cancer people in general, is that we are willing to try out new things, yet we are so afraid of getting hurt by them, and once we are hurt, we reject them for a long time before we could convince ourselves that it is safe enough to pick those things up again.

To the friends of mine who mentioned that I am not trying hard enough (on certain things), all I can say is that the only reason why I am not trying hard is because I am not interested in them. Well, I know someone is going to say that I am saying that only because I can not get those things done, and I would agree if the word “only” is removed. That is one of the reason, because I do not, as someone who is studying in a field that has all about investing and return, do not want to invest on things that offers me zero, or even negative returns. However, the even bigger reason is simply the fact that I think I’ve found some sorts of balance in my life, and I hate to disturb the balance.

To the friends of mine that I’ve lost in 2007, please accept my apologies if I’ve hurt you by any means, but this is what I am after all, and some times, I have to say that I tried to pretend to be someone that I am not, but it really does not work well in the end.

To the friends of mine that I made in 2007, thanks a lot for your tolerance to accept the most outlandish person with the most cynical view in everything as your friend. (No, I am just kidding…)

To the friends of mine that stayed with me throughout 2007…well, good work buddies!

Oh, finally, to the friends of mine who mentioned that I am not confident enough, I am not sure whether if it counts, but I bought myself a Calcite crystal ball yesterday, which, as the salesgirl claimed, will improve my memory and self-confidence.

And to the friends of mine who mentioned the opposite…well, you can guess the answer

Happy Year 2008!