April 5, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

On this trip to the US, I will spend much less money than I did the last time I went. This is for two reasons. First, the university is paying for my flight (as I said in an earlier blog post). Second, I won't be staying in a hotel. Instead, I'll be staying with my uncle, who lives in San Jose.

My uncle's house is close to the university I'm interviewing at, about fifteen minutes by drive. In addition, it's about an hour's drive from UC Berkeley. I'm really excited about visiting Berkeley because I hope it will help me make my decision. I get to meet some professors, attend a couple classes, and also meet with current Berkeley students. It'll be fun! 

April 3, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Well, here I am again. I feel like I can't catch a break! I'm going to the US on Wednesday morning for yet another scholarship interview. This time, instead of Southern California, I'll be heading up north to Santa Clara and Berkeley. I'm lucky that I don't have to add a whole bunch of flight costs to this month's budget. The university I'm interviewing for is paying for my flight!

For the interview, I have to read a book. When I'm there, I'll be having a discussion with other interviewees about the book and what I learned from it. I'm a little sad that I have to take a break from Name of the Rose to finish this book, but it's important that I finish this new one. It's actually quite interesting, so far. It's about a man named Gregory Boyle, who started Homeboy Industries to provide gang members with job opportunities and such.

I'll keep you updated on the interview! 

March 30, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Name Of The Rose is slowly becoming easier to digest. The words are still difficult to understand, so I stop every fifteen minutes or so to understand everything. I use that break to look up the words I don't know, or to translate the Latin parts I have trouble comprehending. There's been a new development in the fifteen pages I read during class today. Another monk has been murdered, and now the main character Adso is on the case. 

Tonight, I research index funds. While I think I might wait a bit longer to start investing, it's definitely a good idea for me to research now. That way, when I go to the US for college, I will already have a diversified portfolio to invest in. I won't need to wait even longer researching then, too. I do want to wait until I go to the US, though. It would work better for me in the long term, as I plan to be there at least until I finish my Ph. D.

It's exciting, choosing where to go to college, but it's also a difficult decision. We'll see where I end up. 

March 27, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

Today, March 17, is the day I present for TEDx. The theme of the event is "Prism of Possibilities." I'm speaking about the Digital Divide. The Digital Divide is generally described to be the gap between people who have access to technology and those who don't. It's a serious global issue that puts some countries decades behind others in terms of development.

I really enjoy giving presentations, so I'm excited about today's. At the same time, however, I'm nervous because I worry that I might not have memorized it well enough. I've been practicing for a while, though, so I hope I'll be fine. I'm also the first speaker, which adds to the pressure. I'm glad I'm getting it over with. That way, I'll be able to enjoy the other speakers without being nervous about my own.

March 17, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

I've been thinking a lot about something you said last class, Mr. Bisset. You told us: "Guess what I did last night? Sold all my stocks because I think the market's going to crash." Today I read an article about the man who predicted the last crash; he thinks that Dow Jones is going to fall significantly soon. The close proximity of both things - your statement and the article I read - was rather striking.

How did you come to your conclusion? I'm interested in learning this because I want to have the same kind of insight in the future. What warning signs do you look for? What are some signs that I, in the future, should be aware of? It's really an interesting topic. Please let me know!

March 15, 2017 Reflection (Personal Finance)

I'm really getting into the new book I'm reading. It's titled The Name of the Rose and it's by an Italian author named Umberto Eco. It's quite a difficult book to read, especially because of Eco's writing style. It's long, unwieldy, and sometimes a single sentence lasts longer than two pages. However, I'm enjoying the premise and the words that Eco uses.

The story takes place in a monastery during the 1300s. It could be characterized as a "14th Century Murder Mystery," which is really interesting. I'm learning a lot about monks and what life was like for these religious people during the 1300s. Now that I'm learning a lot more about personal finance and the idea of wealth, I've been wondering about how people managed their wealth in the old days. Especially for these monks, who believe that frugality is important. Yet, they live in a monastery that is beautiful: floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, painted with various scenes from the Bible; a library that is overflowing with books made of vellum, a luxurious and expensive material. How do they balance their aim for frugality with the magnificence of their monastery?

I know that this is a novel, and fiction, but I'm sure that in the 14th century monks and monasteries indeed looked the way they do in the novel. It's an interesting question, and one I might investigate.

On Mini-Workshops, Weird Months, and Rambling Past Midnight

In my sixteen years, February 2017 was the weirdest month I have experienced. I visited three countries in three weeks: South Africa for Interim, the US just a day after I returned from Interim, and Bangkok for IASAS CulCon two days after I came back from the US. It took me all week to wrap my head around the correct time zone.

With all my traveling, I missed eight days of school. One of these days was the class we spent in a mini-workshop. Kamille and Jiwon were in my group. I was lucky that they spent time reading my piece and giving me feedback while I was away. They emailed me their comments and questions, feedback I took into consideration when working on another draft.

I already knew that my first draft, the one I shared with Kamille and Jiwon, was awful. I even emailed you, Dr. Clark, before turning in my radical revision, letting you know that I hated my irreal element. 

Jiwon's comments

Jiwon's comments, especially, helped me realize two things. The most important was that my conflict needed to relate to the irreal element. Even though I hated my irreal element, and even though I knew in the back of my head that this was crucial to sticking with the genre, the fact that conflict and irreal element needed to be related was largely absent from my story. With my radical revision, I made sure that my irreal element, while unexplained, dealt a lot with the conflict.

The second thing I learned was that while I had strung together a bunch of pretty-sounding sentences, my plot was virtually non-existent. I think I had established a conflict well, but the way my story ended at the time did not resolve that conflict whatsoever.

Kamille's comments

My radical revision took into consideration all these comments. While I know that my revision still requires some editing, I'm much happier with the irreal element and the effect it has on the story.

Kamile and Jiwon's feedback helped me focus my own story, which was extremely helpful. However, with all my traveling I didn't get a chance to give them feedback. I'm sure that they gave each other helpful feedback that allowed them to make their story more important, but I wish that I had had the time to give them my perspective.

Early draft feedback is important. It's on rare occasion (non-existent, maybe) that we see a perfect first draft. I think I speak for most of the class when I say we all know our first drafts are not great. We know we're going to change it, that we have to change it. But at least for me, I often don't know where to start in terms of changing or fine-tuning.

Three days before the draft was due, I still had no idea what I wanted to change my irreal element to. I disliked my one at the time intensely (I believed I called it "useless" in my email to you, Dr. Clark). But take a look at this exchange Wanling and I had in the comments of my story. 

Wanling, at 2 in the morning, commented something in her delirious sleep-deprived state that ended up changing the direction of my entire story. (I was considering titling this post "Ramblings Past Midnight: How a Random Comment Might Save Your Life").

That small piece of feedback was immensely helpful. If I had been around to give early draft feedback that helpful to Jiwon or Kamille, maybe their stories would be different than the ones we'll be reading on Thursday.

I don't know the current state of their drafts, but I'm sure that the feedback they gave each other was useful. I just wish I'd been there to offer my own opinion.