How Incredibly Keen We All Are

Follow-up on Textbooks

One of the disadvantages of getting second-hand textbooks is that they sometimes do not have the glossy, colourful pages of the newer ones, hence causing frustration to their readers.

Observe page 47 of my Econ book: “The blue arrows in the upper half of Figure 2.9 indicate the flow of labour… the red outer arrows represent [blah blah blah]” Great, my Figure 2.9 is black and white and filled with grey arrows of different shades *sulks*.

In other news, the $12 book I ordered from Powellbooks.com got here in one piece. This hardcover on a Civil War battle looks like it has began to turn yellow from sitting in the warehouse for too long – what an exciting item to receive the first time I buy something online! (That’s sarcasm, by the way).

Lyryx Labs

Speaking of Econ 101, Lyryx labs are slowly becoming the bane of my existence! We get unlimited tries on these online quizzes, and Lyryx just records and sends in our highest score. It took me 5 tries and 3 hours to get 64/64 on the first lab (okay, maybe I should’ve read the chapter BEFORE attempting the question, lesson learned). From the data Prof. Lemche showed us, an upward of 800 students took the quiz, with an average of 96%+ on most questions. The average attempt number was four.

Can you imagine the scores for a quiz like this (worth 1% of final mark) in high school? No doubt most students would’ve been happy with an 80% and wouldn’t even bother retrying. It’s a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that as much as my peers announce how we should skip lectures, we are all secretly working our butts off trying to get a high mark.  Academia is an awesome thing. Almost makes my daily two hours pole-dancing-on-the-bus commute to UBC worth it!

VIDEO LA LA LA

On a completely unrelated note, here’s a short video. It’ll make you smile, I promise (if not just watch it again). TURN ON SPEAKERS.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk[/youtube]

Cheers.

The Vultures Descend

Currently: burning the midnight oil in my bedroom, with five articles open on the New York Times.

Meltdown Monday

Blame it on the timing, or the economic downturn. Whatever the reason, the sale of Merrill Lynch for $50 billion to Bank of America and the collapse of Lehman Brothers caused Wall Street to experience the worst losses this Monday since 9/11. With all the drama surrounding the sell of the brokerage firm and the bankruptcy of the 4th largest investment bank in the US, I have to wonder, what does this any of this have to do with me?

I have to first admit that much of what I read on the topic are corporate mumbo-jumbo to my ears. “Subprime mortgages”? “Repo market”? Oh my! I have lots to learn, guess I’m right the right faculty, or am I?

New York Stock Exchange

The future isn’t looking bright for commerce students, to put it bluntly. And the party just started (tea and crumpets with AIG anyone?). These hotshot Wall Street firms are where many of us anticipate Sauder grads aspire to work in ten, twenty years’ time.  They are supposed to be the fast tracks to success, and along with it, wealth, power, 80 hour work weeks, and high blood pressure.

Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy, leaving with boxes

Seeing photos of suits leaving the office is ironic, and somewhat amusing. A few days ago they were ruthlessly playing the field with millions of dollars at stake for the clients, now they’re just like the rest of us – carrying belongings home in cardboard boxes. That white picket fenced house in Suburbia. The cottage in the Hamptons. What’s to become of them?

What’s to become of us?

I could be just getting absorbed into the O!M!G! HYPE!! … but look at the effect of the Dot-com bubble on the entire generation before ours. Even if we don’t go into careers in financial services, the lawyers, real estate agents, publishers, and accountants of our generation is nevertheless affected in this chain reaction.

We can’t ignore the present.

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