Paul's recommendation of the week

I had a pretty interesting conversation today. As I was walking back from class, I met Mike (a.k.a HK dude, remember him?). So we do the casual small talk, I asked him:

Paul: So where were you from?
Mike: Lunch at the union.
Paul: I didn’t know you had lunch here, didn’t you have breakfast this morning.
Mike: No, woke up at 9.
Paul: Dude, you got to eat your breakfast, that’s 5 dollars down the drain man.
Mike: No, it is not! In business terms…have you heard of “sunk cost”…

Mike then proceeds to fill me in on the concept and implications of basic economics and this mysterious thing called “sunk cost”. Yada yada yada…was a fairly long conversation, would not go into too much detail. But in a nutshell, “sunk cost”, apparently is cost that cannot be recovered, or something like that…read the following….

Paul: So what you’re trying to say is that since you paid your fees in advance (i.e. a full semester)…that means you won’t experience a loss, because whether you go for breakfast or not, that money can never be recovered…hence, it would not affect your decision on having breakfast or not…thus rendering the idea of having breakfast or not irrelevant in terms of cost…HOWEVER, if you were to pay your fees in a daily basis, and somehow not choose to go for breakfast (after paying that particular day’s fee of cause)…that would be a sunk cost…which in terms equate into a loss…hence making ones decision to skip breakfast more relevant…

Mike nods…which means…I nailed the idea of sunk cost dead on…I don’t know about you…but something fishy is going on if that really translate into modern economics… I wonder…

He proceeds to ask me what does a profit mean?

Paul: When you record a turnover in your business…i.e., recover the losses from your previous expenditure of setting up the business (including on going expenditure)… passing the point of sustainability.

Mike: Wrong, it means, if you want to earn 10 dollars, and in fact you do, you have no profit. But, if you earn 20, you have a 10 dollar profit…

That smells even more fishy...someone in the business field…enlighten me on this subject…

Anyway, as my title head suggest, I have 2 recommendations this weeks (not that it’s going to be a weekly basis thing)

“Enron: The Smartest People in the Room”…This documentary is based on the book of the same title…it chronicles the rise and fall of one of history’s biggest corporate scandals…I was always fascinated by this subject ever since I saw the Hallmark movie about the same subject. This documentary reveals some shocking revelation about the scandal in detail. The ambition, greed, deception and lies of a few men (maybe more)…I highly recommend this documentary to people in the business sector…or those who are just interested in the subject. Might be hard to get your hands on a copy though (especially in Malaysia…I think)

“Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use”, by E. Von Weizsäcker, A.B Lovins, L.H Lovins. This book is truly a gem. Its the “unofficial” text we use for our PHIL3910 course…we don’t have to read it, but it’s recommended. At first I was skeptical, probably because I didn’t really want to bite more than I could chew… but I was really taken by surprise, this book is really interesting…the gist of the author’s idea is that, quote “Resource productivity can-and should-grow fourfold. The amount of wealth extracted from one unit of natural resources can quadruple. Thus we can live twice as well-yet use half as much”…one of the key topics is energy and resource efficiency…a lot of examples are given for the construction sector…I highly recommend it to engineering (generally most), especially those in the construction field (reasons as stated above)…and also urban planners and designers…Sam, I think you should give this one a shot…could be useful information, it does touch in the subject about sustainable architecture. I know you have a lot of reading loads…but still I think this one is worth while…some things are very technical, but you’re a smart boy, you should get around that one easily…and Dad, I think this book would might be of high value to you, especially since you have so much experience in this field…you will definitely find this book relevant and possibly a revelation…at worse, would be very interesting to read about, and have a few debatable points…though this book could be hard to get your hands on in KK…but if you could…
Anyway, that’s about it…long post No.2.

That's me on the left (obviously), Chiko (I think),

Karen (fellow Civil Eng.), Chris and New Guy

The Death of Week 4

Phew...(taking a deep breath)…what a week it’s been, both socially and academically… as, some of you might be aware of, I just concluded week for (also known as hell week, at least in my case this semester)…I can’t help but feel a sense of relief after toiling and slaving over the previous week. I feel like a boxer, receiving several japs…but in the end I came up trumps…still standing…hahahahahha, take that week 4. Some of the stuff included a lab session, our 1st philosophy group tutorial (which involves group discussion and presentation)…and to top it all, 2 assessments…I must say, I feel very physically drained. Lab was pretty good (but that’s not the hard part…the report is)…we did our thing…finished and left…tutorials was a whole new experience for me…I never really had to do any serious group work before…but to make things even more interesting, we had to do a group presentation…man, I was really worried at 1st…my group seem really slack…in the back of my mind I was thinking…oh no, doomed…I never really liked group work, especially those that you have to depend on people…the idea that the fate of my grades rest also in other peoples hands irritates me a lot…which is probably reflected in why I always excel in single matches (tennis)…cause winning depends on me and me alone…but then again, in the working field, I would be forced to work coherently with the other bodies (i.e, architects, contractors, developers…etc etc), so it’s probably why they made us do all these in the 1st place…well, but in the end, we did deliver a pretty decent presentation, and our lecturer looked satisfied…so yeah…good on us, maybe we work well with pressure. Assessment tests were good, I think I did alright…should be good, anyway, test are normal for me now, we get them so much that you sort of become immune to all the emotions affiliated with it.
Well, that was a mouthful, having said that, my weekend was pretty productive, I went for this event called “Jazz In The Park” at King Edward Park…it’s basically an event where people go to that park to listen to a band play jazz music…I have a funny story to go with it, when me and some friends reached Civic Station, I clearly said, “Follow the formal dressed people”…and so we did, once we reached the top of the hill, Mike (HK dude), said that we were going in the wrong direction…so we headed back down wondering aimless to other parks around the area…so frustrated we were that we ended asking one of the station workers the location of desired destination. He kindly, pointed us in the right direction (which to my dismay), was the exact path we were taking before old HK dude opened his mouth…see, never trust a business person to do an engineers job (not really an engineers job, but we certainly have a better sense of direction than our business counterparts). I have to say, JITP was awesome, I’ll be the first to admit that jazz isn’t my cup of tea (unlike my other siblings), but there’s something about life music playing in the night…it sort of lifts the atmosphere. Sadly most of my closer friends weren’t able to share the moment with me, cause I couldn’t really convince any of them to go…not really their culture…so typically, I got replies of, “Lazy” or “What for”…most of my night was having small casual conversations with other people that I know. Still, it was great to say the least…the band played classic jazz number by crooners like Frank Sinatra, Sam Cook…to their own jazz renditions from Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, and even Patti LaBelle…I wish there were more stuff like these in KK, would definitely love to go to events like those…the only one I can think right off the bat would be “Christmas By Candle Light” in Sutera. Even that one is in principle, meant for the Mat Sallehs staying at the resort. Disappointing to say the least. Still, I only missed that event once since it’s interception, so I do treasure that event a lot.
Well, weekend was pretty much doing my lab report…proud to say…I’m finished (well almost)…all that is needed is some revising and editing…plus a front cover and a table of content page…I feel good…that’s probably one of my biggest assignment this semester…so yeah…good…oh, and I’m proud to announce that I’m now a member of SSA (Singapore Student Association)…hahhahahaah, it all started when someone told me there were free pizzas at the common room tonight…I thought, this was a college event…well, I was wrong…still joining the thing only cost like 5 bucks…and I ate like maybe 15 AUD worth of pizzas…moneys worth…oh yeah…I might joined them for the winery tour at Hunter Valley…I went last year…it’s a good trip…maybe might buy a bottle or two…
Anyway, this is a long post to make up for my negligence…Week 5 is way less stressful than 4…just another number…good time for a breather…
P.S, Federer won again, Pan Pacific/ Pan Pilot…or was it Pacific Life…well, it’s a “Masters” event, so…it’s big…at this rate…World no 1 again?...
Dad, I must make you swallow your own words…recall “I think 2006 will be the beginning of Federer’s downfall”…you thought wrong…you thought wrong…

3 Post In 2 Days (that's more than i've done in the past 4 months)

I’ve been tagged by Iris…well, she tagged me a long time ago, but I only found out a few moments ago, basically because I haven’t been blog browsing outside the family circle lately…I should do so more often, or at least periodically…it’s always pleasant to see how my friends are doing…and, sometimes funny stories appear which can be amusing, and quite often I find something inspirational…food for the soul…
Anyway, Sam’s blog – brutally honest…

TAG: Five Simple Pleasures in Life

1. Relaxing with a nice warm drink of ginseng (or hot choc)

2. Smelling the cool, crisp and fresh air of early spring (at least in NSW)

3. Long hot showers (do a lot of my thinking there)

4. Beating Sam in a game of bball ( I would have liked to have said tennis, but since he hasn’t found a way to beat me yet…picking tennis would be like picking up a cat fight with a 5 year old…hahhahahaha)

5. A good and stimulating conversation

*6. Sleeping in...

*7. *Calculus*…hahahahah, nah

Well, that’s about it, got more but have to limit myself to the very good ones…I tag, eeeerrrmmm, my whole family…this could be very interesting…

Entropy: the secret of life...

End of the day, feeling good…just had dinner, a rather late one, no reason other than the fact that I can…hahahahahah…no more 6:30 dinners for me anymore…Had fried rice… Kylie Kwong style…feeling mighty proud of myself…I’m full, satisfied and contented… On another note, I was reading through some of my philosophy lecture notes…this subject is like nothing I ever done before…it’s abstract and lots and lots of text…very uncanny for an engineer…had to read through say…40 pages for week 2 lectures…very intense stuff, and confusing…after all, it’s philosophy…and because of people like Plato and Socrates, philosophy subjects are always very mind blowing to the simple minded (like me)…but, because of modern technology and people with a lot of free time, there are lots of places where you can find external reading…hence “Wikepedia”…that’s one very handy tool, I was finding it difficult to understand some of the concepts there, but through “wikepedia”, most of my problems are solved…anyway, just to give you guys an idea of what this course is about…we’re studying the effects of modern technology upon human civilization and society…e.g like how technology effects societies’ economic, politics, culture…etc etc. Some of the things we learn are quite interesting…like how life can be explain by the 1st law and 2nd lar of thermodynamics…I won’t go into it, simply because I don’t think you guys want to hear it…and it’s quite complex at a certain level…even I don’t fully understand it…well, now I’m just gonno chill out, watch a flick and drink my ginseng…

The Weekender

Week 2 has just ended for me…now begins the second of my long weekends…in case you don’t know by now…I have Fridays and Mondays off…which translate into…well, long weekends…nothing really much to say, but I guess, life here is getting better by the day…my first week was just a disaster, full house lectures…odd hours …lecture materials I didn’t understand…it was intense…everything was so hectic…I never had to go through 8 hours of class in a day before…well, not since high school…I’m in uni man, give me a break…but on the bright side, 2 days off…anyway, first week was really hectic…couldn’t help but feel overwhelm by the whole task at hand…so much work, assignments…and knowledge to comprehend…did feel a little deflated by the end of the week…man, I need to be inspired…somebody, inspire me!!! Hahahahhaha…which I could buy inspiration from the supermarkets…maybe I’ll just listen to Bach…
On the other hand, week 2 has been really good, starting to slide into the whole system…real smooth baby…started to have an understanding of what the lecturers are talking about…and getting use to the whole 8 hour thing…must be the first week syndrome (did I talk about that in my last post)…anyway, life is sweet…well, sweeter than a week ago…oh, and I’ve been eating much healthily, had two proper meals already…courtesy of Bobby, my room mate…which is good, he cooks to release his stress, I eat to survive…sounds like a perfect match…
Well, Bob’s going down to Sydney this weekend, which means I’ll have the whole room to myself…gonno be good, will have some personal space to chill, play the guitar or something…or watch a little NBA this weekend…good match, Wizard Vs Sixers (Sam will probably listen to it over the radio…poor kid)…other than that…nothing much…will just plan to kick back and relax this weekend…meet up with some friends and all that…till then, we’ll see what the weekend will have installed for me…