Now, . . . → Read More: If I Could Start Over]]> First up, a little about what I’m currently doing. I moved recently after getting a new job – I’m now an economist in an online advertising company. What does an online advertising company need an economist for? Same reason why Google hired Hal Varian I guess (hint hint Google Sydney, if you’re ever looking for economists…).

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m absolutely happy with the way things are right now – I get to do the things I love, in a relaxed environment. The question of if I could start over actually stemmed from a question a fellow humanoid asked me, when I explained that I would be pursuing a PhD in the coming years (gotta earn some money and acquire currency first).

He asked – “what would you do different in terms of your education?” My answer is this – If I could start over, I’d have went for a Computer Science-Economics dual degree, as opposed to just reading Economics. You see, when I was younger, I had this very arrogant thought: “I’m good with computers, I write complex algorithms all the time, doing a CompSci degree would be boring – let’s try something different”. And so I read Economics in uni.

To some extent, that is true. I still DO write complex algorithms that were self-taught.  Stuff like data mining are things that were never taught in Uni level economics, but I had gleamed knowledge off the internets, so I am able to use them to my benefit. No problems there. So why would I still do that?

I’ve been following Drew Conway’s blog¹ for some time now, and though some of his topics are distasteful (terrorism, armed conflict), he writes excellently on other things with regards to social networks. His interests, other than terrorism and conflict², resonates with my own interests. Of course, he too, writes lucidly, which is always good.

Drew has a computer science background and is a general math geek, and is using his old background on political issues in his PhD. Co-incidentally, I too met another guy (same train home almost everyday – same guy who asked if I would do anything different³), who has a CompSci background and has a PhD in Economics. And with a grand sample size of 2, I came to the conclusion that if you have a computer science background in your undergrad years, your thought process is slightly different than have you had not.

Right now, my thought process is a mess. In the absence of data, my brain jumps about everywhere, making little conjectures here and there (notice that this sentence rhymes fair). It used to be worse – at one time I could see almost everything I thought about at the same time⁴ – i.e. the way I think isn’t really linear. Now there are benefits to linear, step-by-step thinking, namely SCIENCE⁵
. I know quite a few CompSci people, and they all have fairly streamlined thinking process. Maybe it’s the discipline you learn from having to consistently program a turing machine and think in terms of turing machines over a period of time that causes this streamlined thinking process.

Currently I am involved in a couple of interesting projects (one of which is the reworking of Pressyo and an associated project), and I find, for most of the time, my non-linear thinking to be a hazardous waste of time.  So, when asked, I’d say I would have done a double degree of CompSci and Economics. I’m not regretting my choices I made. I love economics to death, and I can go on and talk for hours about it. I just find that my current thought process to be very messy and could have done with some tweaking. But then again, the next 2 months or so should be fairly interesting. We’ll see what happens.

1. and because I’m a stalker like that, I also stalked his reddit user account
2. I actually think the methods used for conflict modelling is awesomely cool – love spatial regression and other similar methods – but I somehow feel very uncomfortable around the topic itself
3. also, quite a cool story on how he and I struck up a conversation – I was reading Martin Nowak’s Evolutionary Dynamicsand jotting notes down on a train, and started thinking aloud, when he asked if I was interested in these kinds of things (the answer is yes, verily)
4. the time to use the phrase “meta-cognitive processor” cannot be more apt than now, but dammit Daniel Graystone stole it

5. Look at me still talking when there’s science to do.

   When I look out there it makes me GLaD I’m not you.

   I’ve experiments to run there is research to be done

   On the people who are still alive

I finally settled in at my new place. It’s been a mad 3 weeks. That’s all I want to say. What’s the point of blogging then? I don’t know. I will continue to blog once my desk is in place. Until then, read . . . → Read More: Settled!]]>

I finally settled in at my new place. It’s been a mad 3 weeks. That’s all I want to say. What’s the point of blogging then? I don’t know. I will continue to blog once my desk is in place. Until then, read me later.

I notice I have changed quite a bit in . . . → Read More: 2010, Huh?]]> First off, Happy New Year. I’ve had a fantastic 2009. Comparatively to countless many other people, I have had a relatively very good year. There were many things I wanted, but didn’t get; but there were many good turn of events that I have never thought possible either.

I notice I have changed quite a bit in the past one year. And this change is quite evident in this blog. Once upon a time, I used to talk a lot about everything – everything I have knowledge in, I’d blab them out. Heck, there is even a category called Articles in this blog, where I would devote a lot of time writing what I know about issues I care about. Lately however, I have not done any long articles. It’s not that I have ran out of topics to write about – there are so many topics I can think about and write bloody long articles of, but I have not.

This year, I think, I have to write more. I spent most of 2009 thinking and formulating ideas, and 2010 is a good year to get all these ideas out as fast as possible. I believe I have finally read enough to consider myself fairly qualified (as opposed to my younger, very unqualified, random blabbings off mouth self) to comment on more issues that I care about.

Whilst 2009 was a year of introspection, let 2010 be the year of exposition for me. Here’s to a fantastic 2010.

Now that I am older, I discovered that not only my order of doing math jumps about at random, my order of . . . → Read More: Learning Order]]> I seem to have a learning order problem. Even when I was young, I remember my dad repeating himself hoarse, telling me that I mustn’t jump about when doing mathematics (not physically… just my steps).

Now that I am older, I discovered that not only my order of doing math jumps about at random, my order of learning and understanding things too, jumps about at random.

Case in point, at my advanced ‘metric theory class last week, I was the matrix retard. This week, I was the matrix genius in class. Why? Last week, we dealt with stuff like rank and basic operation of matrices (there are such things as pre- and post-multiplication of matrices!!). This week, we dealt with stuff like finding minimas. I was clueless last week. I was struggling with basic matrices when everyone went ahead doing their tutorial questions, I had to stop my tutor everytime she walked past me. This week, I was the only person who knew how to differentiate a matrix properly.

Wait, that doesn’t make sense, you say. How can that happen? Well, I learnt to differentiate a matrix long ago, in a game theory class, when we had to do funky stuff like minimax theorem. As it turns out the matrices learnt in game theory had no such things as (X’X)^-1X or stuff like idempotent matrices, or I didn’t encounter them.

But anyway, I guess this sums up my learning style. I jump into the deep end, and then find my way to the shallow end, and proeed to drown there. Another example is eigenvectors. I learnt about eigenvectors some 3-4 years before I learnt them formally (and using eigenvectors to determine price in Pressyo is used 1 year before I formally learnt them). And while I could do the more crazy stuff with eigenvectors, I struggled with basic things.

This has got to stop.. really. Maybe I should be less bored with the shallow pool.

Tell me what do you think

This monster/plant has been occuring in my dreams for 4 days in a row now. Every dream was similar: I would sit in front of a field full of these monsters/plants, and they would open their jaws, and out pops a smaller version of itself. This happens recursively until they’ve reached the skies. And then they’d . . . → Read More: Recursive Monster of My Dreams]]>

This monster/plant has been occuring in my dreams for 4 days in a row now. Every dream was similar: I would sit in front of a field full of these monsters/plants, and they would open their jaws, and out pops a smaller version of itself. This happens recursively until they’ve reached the skies. And then they’d stop moving, and I’d still watch them.

Every night, I’ve watched them grow with a separate person, some of them, I know. One of them, I knew, but cannot pinpoint who it is. We would just watch these plants/monsters grow and grow.

It happens infinitely, this dream. Even the dream is recursive. But ah well… All these has happened before, and will happen again, and again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again… (Gods dammit, I sound like a Hybrid)

Tell us about the first time you met and your first impression of her: It was a long time ago, . . . → Read More: Lame Couple Meme]]> I’m not one for memes, but I need to keep up my blogging habits. And since I’m too busy to actually think up new comments, I shall just copy something from my sister’s blog and post it here…

Tell us about the first time you met and your first impression of her:
It was a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. I boarded a pirate space craft named after some bird and went to a space station that is no moon. I rescued her from her captor, a dark masked person…
My first impression of her? Dramatically boring. I tried small talking her, but got small talk back in response. Turns out, later, she was extremely smart. And I dig smart chicks

Tell us something funny about her:
She’s quite lazy in using her brain (ahem, sounds like all my friends it turns out). She’d rather get answers than figure it out herself – which she can do it quite quickly. So the funny thing was everytime she had a problem, I’d lead her in a roundabout way so she did figure it out herself.

What’s a weird habit or quirk that she has?
She absolutely has to be early for anything. I prefer to be on time, but she has to always drag me early. When she goes to work, she arrives at work 1 hour early. Me? I arrive at work on the dot. Or 10 minutes late. Depends on the damn bus. But I like that about her. She keeps me on my toes and keeps that feeling of being rushed.

What makes her happy?
What kind of happy? She has the happy-clappy kind of happy; she has that internal glow of happiness kind of happy; and she has that skippy-chirpy kind of happy.
New shoes and clothes (like sundresses) make her happy-clappy. When she is able to be true to herself in the presence of someone, she has that internal glow of happiness. And when she’s on a picnic, she’s skippy chirpy.

What makes her sad?
When she feels she’s unappreciated. Which is once every month. She cries very easily though, and most of the time its because of any possible futures she’s thinking about. To get into her brain and see how it works, you need to at least understand continuous time markov chains.

What excites her?
Stuff in general that she wants to learn about. Recently its RFID. Previously it was ROHS compliancy. She’d go all chirpy and talk about the things she learnt recently. I absolutely love that part.

What’s she like at home?
Clean. Neat. OCD. Until you open her closet, and her clothes tumble out. But I’d argue that’s not because she is messy, but that’s coz her closet is ridiculously small.

What’s she like at work?
One word – efficient. Ok, maybe a little too efficient. She’s the kind that raises the bar for slackers like us, and I’d frown if I’m in the same office as her. She gets bored when she has nothing to do at work, and she’ll read blogs.

Describe her room:
Pink. Audrey Hepburn poster (hah, I have a Wolverine poster). Damn bloody neat, except for the undone bed. Luminous glow-in-dark stars in the ceiling would have made her room perfect at night. I’d go “look, that’s Orion’s Belt, and the galaxy is in Orion’s Belt”.

Do you know who she hates the most?
Hate is a strong word for her. None so far.

Do her parents like you?
Um… this should be a lesson learnt to all you readers – never leave a hickey where a parent can see it. I guess in her mom’s eyes, I became the lowlife scum who left a lovebite on her daughter’s neck, and possibly didn’t use protection.

What’s the first thing she would do or say if she fell down and scraped their knee:
Oww oww fuck. Fuck fuck oww.. *whimpers and looks with a puppy eyed pout*

What would she do in an emergency situation with other people involved:
Like the engineer she is, she’d device a plan out. And then present the plan to someone in charge. And gets approved. And carry out the plan.

Which shop would she spend the most time at in a shopping mall?
Any clothing shops, from Valley Girl to Target. She doesn’t (yet) go into places like Rockmans or Portman(?) because they’re too expensive for her. Also, if there are vintage clothing shops, she’d stop there too.

What would she have for a typical breakfast?:
Healthy stuff. Last time it used to be two apples, tomatoes, etc. Recently its Weetbix. She’s not averse to stuff like toast though.

Where would she want to go for dinner?
Her preference would be towards western meals (wtf, steaks and all). She also likes exotic meals (exotic in her eyes, common to me) like Korean food, or Japanese food.

What kind of movie would she choose at the cinema?
Quirky movies. Stuff like Amelie, The Boat that Rocked (that was the most recent movie we watched together). She also likes chick flicks like Bridget Jones’ Diary, but I doubt she’d watch that in cinemas.

Describe her taste in music:
Dreadful, disgusting, atrocious. Human voices in songs (with exception of Opera and choir) are ick.

If she wasnt going out with you, who would she be going out with:
Someone with a more dominant personality I guess? But she’s intelligent and smart, so she’d need someone to be able to match up to that part of her as well. Hmm..

What item in her wardrobe would you like to burn:
Hmm, she actually looks good in the stuff she wears. But if a gun were forced on my head, I’d choose 2 of her floral print dresses – they’re way too old (as in worn way too many times).

What is she good at?
Plenty of things. From mundane stuff like cleaning up the house to actual stuff that uses the brains, like RFID frequency troubleshooting. See why I love her so? I’d argue she’s more capable than me in some sense

What is she totally horrible at?
Small talk. I feel more comfortable with her sitting in silence (staring into her eyes; or her head on my lap) than trying to small talk. Haha, we’re that boring a couple.

What’s something about her that is annoying/infuriating?
She worries incessantly. Worries too much. Live life a little, silkrose. Everything must have a Plan with a capital P. If there is no Plan or there are some Deviations then she’ll start twisting her panties into a bunch and worry.

What’s something that you two fundamentally disagree on:
Photography – what makes a good photograph
Art – what makes good art (music included)
Shopping – I like doing my research before hand. She likes browsing
TV shows – She likes Sex and the City¹; I like Battlestar Galactica
If she’s been a naughty girl – I keep thinking she is, she likes to think she’s been a good girl.

What’s something that you two agree whole-heartedly on?
Our relationship is perfect, with caveats. Our love for one another.

Why would she succeed in life?
She’s smart, beautiful and tall (my height). Brains and beauty is an awesome combination. Our babies will be smart and beautiful, and not to mention totally not imaginary.

What is the coolest gift she has ever given to you?
A t-shirt with the word “Geek” on it.

What is she obsessed with?
Fleeting stuff. Mostly me, I think. Then again, that’s my ego speaking. I found out recently that she’s a gadget freak too, being one of the few people in high school to have a PDA (like me!!). She’s also obsessed with the whole 1950s culture. I like

Why would she be dangeorous?
When she’s angry, she demands things her way, and is quite bratty. That’s hardly dangerous is that? In some cultures, they’d just toss her in a cage and wait for her to cool down . She’d be a dangerous combination when with me – think robot armies conquering the world!

What does she avoid at all costs?
Things that wouldn’t fit in her moral compass. Basically, I think, its generally the Five Precepts with lesser intensity. And also, coffee (which she failed to avoid 4 weeks ago).

What does she spend most of her money on?
Clothings, and good food.

Describe her typical sunday:
Laze around the house. Last Sunday, we cleaned up and had nice dinner – that meant going to Coles in the cold. And then we forgot the wine. -___-

Tell us a time she looked absolutely gorgeous:
Anytime she’s lightly made up. Or in a picnic. Or in bed, sleeping like a baby.

What’s something about her that would surprise all of her friends:
Oh you don’t wanna know. It’s a deep dark secret that we both hold dear to. MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHA

What do you love most about her?
She’s very honest with me. Very. She’s very intelligent and can banter with  me on stuff. I absolutely love those. And those sudden “ding” connection where she automatically gets me without me explaining the references.

The biggest lesson you’ve learnt from loving your partner?
Hmm.. I wonder what that could be. She makes me happy, makes me alive (not unlike how you can use electricity to reanimate dead bodies). And I appreciate her for that.

1. I watched an entire season and no, I still didn’t like it

I usually dream in English. Occasionally I dream in other languages. For example, if I do happen to watch a Japanese drama before I sleep, I’ll dream in Japanese, and wake up the next morning only to gain the temporary ability to speak Japanese. It lasts for about 20 minutes only . . . → Read More: Dream Language]]> What language do you dream in?

I usually dream in English. Occasionally I dream in other languages. For example, if I do happen to watch a Japanese drama before I sleep, I’ll dream in Japanese, and wake up the next morning only to gain the temporary ability to speak Japanese. It lasts for about 20 minutes only though.

These are the languages I dream in:

1. English (about 98% of the time)
2. Mandarin
3. Japanese (thanks to the crazy amount of J-dramas I watch)
4. Cantonese
5. Hokkien

Also, I once did a very interesting experiment – that was to record my own sleeptalk. Apparently I dream of techy stuff quite a lot (a lot of sum of errors squared, ciphers, locks and stuff). Also, quite a bit on money. And of course, no dream of mine is complete without her (I did wean off a bit though in the past few months). And when I was watching Liar Game, a lot of my sleep talk involved being methods of conning people.. in Nihongo naturally.

So… this morning, I woke up to my housemates talking outside, and the TV being turned on. I dreamt in Mandarin last night (a large part of the dream involved me being scolded by her mother for not taking care of her – weird, because her mother usually speaks Cantonese).

Anyways, when I woke up, the people outside my room sounded like they were speaking Italian. I knew it couldn’t be right, because none of my housemates spoke Italian (they speak English, Mandarin, Hmong, Japanese, French… none Italian). I knew they had to be speaking English, because one girl is American and she can’t speak any other language than English (and French).

But it sounded like Italian. In fact, everyone sounded like they were speaking Italian. It took more than half an hour before my brain settled down from the Mandarin dream when their language became English again. And when the languages transformed, they actually sort of warbled in my ears.

This leads me to one conclusion: I have a babelfish in my ear. Hope I never get exposed to Vogon poetry. Har har!

Now, what language do you dream in?

In my dream, I was in a strange place, like a cross between the UT3 maps DM-Shangri-La and DM-Rising Sun, without the weapons or powerups. An old man walked up to me and smacked me in the face. I was angry and quickly retaliated. I tried to shove the old . . . → Read More: When the Rules Break Down]]> I had a nap. And I dreamt.

In my dream, I was in a strange place, like a cross between the UT3 maps DM-Shangri-La and DM-Rising Sun, without the weapons or powerups. An old man walked up to me and smacked me in the face. I was angry and quickly retaliated. I tried to shove the old man but nothing happened to him. It was like whatever physical attacks I did to him had no effect. So I shouted at him: “What the hell is wrong with you!”

He pushed me down, and I was sitting on a chair (that apparently popped out of nowhere) then he asked me in a very calm tone: “What’s wrong with you?”

I said: “Nothing”

Then he said: “Let me tell you what’s wrong with you. You think prices are being set by supply and demand”

I said: “And?”

He said: “I’m the administrator of all the markets in the world. I run them. I’m the final boss. Let me show you who demands what and who supplies what”

He then proceeded to take a plastic cylinder of sorts which unrolled to be a screen.

“Look at the number of players and investors” he told me. I looked at the list. It wasn’t much of a list. There was only one name there. Mine.

“I don’t get it, I said”. And he quickly rolled up the screen and whacked my bald head again.

He paced around me, and asked: “If the demand of a good increases and the supply decreases, what happens?”

“The price goes up,” I replied.

“What about over a period of time?”

“Either the demand goes down, returning to equilibrium point, or the new price becomes a new equilibrium point” I replied.

“What does the equilibrium point signify?” he asked, still pacing in a circle around me, like a tiger waiting to pounce

“The willingness-of-pay of the consumer. How much they’re willing to pay, or valueing a good as an aggregate”
“What do you mean by an aggregate?”

“Many people’s decisions cumulated and consensused?”

“Look at the list again,” He thrusted the list at me.

“How many people are there in total?” he asked. Again, I saw… there was only my name.

“One”

“So, if prices in a market were set by an aggregate of consumers does that mean you’re the aggregate?” he sneered.

“What does this has anything to do with me?” I asked.

“You’ve been living a lie. Prices are not set by supply or demand. The stock market, the iPod you bought, that book you bought, or any goods at all, they’re not set by the market. There is no such thing as a supply and demand you fool. The market is made up of one person – you. You perceive supply and demand, but in reality there isn’t anyone else in the market! It’s only you!”

I felt a rumbling in my stomach, I felt sick.

“There is no supply and no demand; no equilibrium point. The numbers you see? The graphs you learnt? They’re all lies! Just out to get you! There is no supply or demand. They’re fake!”

He then pointed to a potted plant nearby.

“You see that potted plant? That’s fake! That’s actually a camera. They’re watching you all the time. And that!” – he pointed at the ceiling – “yet another monitoring tool!”

I was feeling really sick by then. He stamped on the floor

“Quick question: what force makes me stand on the floor and not make me sink through it?” he asked me. And as sick as I was, I replied him, “Reaction pair force of your weight”

He seemed impatient, and hurriedly asked me another question “Yea, but what kind of force is it?”

“Electrostatic”

“And the force pulling me down?”

“Gravity”

“HAHAAAA! You still believe in gravity and electrostatic forces?”

And then I sank through the floor, screaming. Then I woke up.

I don’t know… I’ve always had this irrational fear that things aren’t real and they are prone to breaking down. Also, another irrational fear of mine is that I’m living in some sort of Truman-show-esque situation. Everything I’ve been taught and exposed to is a lie. There is no gravity, no electrostatic force. No supply no demand. Just me. And I keep mentally preparing myself for such an eventuality.
I’ve always imagined a day where the laws of physics, economics etc broke down. And when that day comes, you suckers won’t be prepared. But I will. MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHA

Here’s a before and after picture:

Yep, ladies and gentlemen, I’m now bald. And obviously, the Venus Breeze was to shave my head. . . . → Read More: Bald-om]]> A few days ago, I posted a teaser picture of a female shaver. I asked my readers to guess what I was going to use it for, and offered a prize. Well, now it’s clear.

Here’s a before and after picture:

Yep, ladies and gentlemen, I’m now bald. And obviously, the Venus Breeze was to shave my head. Why did I shave my head though, you might ask. The reason is simple. I shaved my head to raise funds for the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia, in lieu of the World’s Greatest Shave 2008.

The prize was a $25 donation on behalf of the person who won it, and since nobody claimed it, it’s going to go to the most outrageous answer- Xingyi’s. Her answer is as below:

Knowing him, it’s probably to track the difference his purchase would make to affect Australia’s economy and its effect on the GDP. Then he’s going to draw a couple of graphs to illustrate why we should vote for him as King of the World.

Sorry, babe. I already won the position without contest.

I first heard about the World’s Greatest Shave from Natalie Tran, and proceeded quite immediately to join it. Cancer is something I identify it, with two women whom I absolutely love having had cancer, and having had to suffer through chemotherapy and lost their hair. I identify with the depression and the despair that can come, especially when they’re women, as its not socially acceptable for women to be bald.

Though personally, I find myself quite powerless to do anything to prevent them from entering a mental slump, I thought I might do something to prevent other people from having similar problems. And I decided, for reasons none other than that, to shave my head to raise funds. I must say I did quite well raising funds, though I believe I didn’t raise as much as Hugh (from Hugh’s News). Ah well.

Here’s a video of the shaving (sans the part where I actually got shaved by the razor, because I was running out of time to render):

I planned to record it live to YouTube, but sadly TPG had to go throttle my connection (serves me right for using 150GB a month), so after some thought, I thought of using the V mask instead of my typical headcrab zombie. And yes, I know, it looks quite a bit like Andrew the Angry Aussie at some points.

Before the shave, I looked up a few sites, and found HeadShaver to be a very comprehensive information site for shaving heads. I had decided to use a female shaver (and got a good case of the nerves trying to buy one – I’d never be caught dead buying a female razor!) because I’ve noted that they tend to be more gentle on the skin. Also, I found that the Venus Breeze is indeed a breeze to use. There was no need for any shaving liquids or anything. Just wet and shave. And oh, it was also very clean and smooth.

A day after, I met a friend of mine who had come to see my new hairstyle. She had just went to Hungry Jack’s and had a Bacon Deluxe with her. This was our conversation:

Me: You went to Hungry Jack’s?! And got a burger! Is it for me?

She: No. Monks don’t eat meat. No Hungry Jack’s for you.

Me: -_-”

Finally, I’d like to say a big thank you to these people (going in accordance to number of letters in name): Tou, Cat, Ash, Alan (who did most of the clipping and shaving), Amy, Suba, Kelsey, Vincent, and Jasmine for appearing and supporting the shave initiative (and also shaving me, and not nicking me, thankfully). Thanks to Shyuing and Liss, and Tim, for your support, even you couldn’t make it. Thanks to Stanley who made a very long distance TT.

p/s: See if you can spot the World’s Greatest Shave badge in the picture in a previous post of mine.