Thursday, August 31, 2006
Interview
Yeah, just finished a 30-minute phone interview. I am not sure how I did this time. I think I did well, but according to my last year's experience, my own sense of how interviews went did not predict the outcome. So get my figure crossed.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
web tracking
Pretty cool, right? That's my newly-installed webpage tracking on my blog. Readers, now I know who you are, haha. Today, one from China and one from East Coast (I thought that my site is blocked in China). Maybe more though, as I still do not know how to read the report.
Well, I actually have no interest to see the stats on my blog. I do not really care who is reading and who is not. The real thing is that I need to learn webtracking skills for my internship, and my blog is the only site that I manage right now. (Well, let me take it back. I actually care about my readership, as I feel that is a great way that my friends and strangers know my life. However, I have no intension to change my way of writing just because of my blog traffic). Anyway, I think I need to let you know that I am tracking it. But you probably do not care anyway.
You may ask, why learning webtracking? Well, much is business secret and since I signed a confidential agreement, I do not think I can say too much. What I can say is that we are going to launch an advertisement campaign for some sort of online competition, and I am in charge of managing the whole campaign, especially buying ads from Google's Adwords. So I need to know how to track the clicks from the ads.
That's the perk of working in a start-up. Just think that I have only worked there on and off for 40 hours, and now I can be in charge of a project. Calling shots in a company. Isn't that cool? As I was interning in this start-up company, all of a sudden I found out that I really loved technology. Here, everything has, or will have, a technical solution. Among solutions, there are good ones and bad ones. It is very different from sociology, where everything is messy and sometimes politically charged and your intelligence sometimes is not respected simply because you will in a different sub-field. Well, I have a phone interview with a big-name company for a permenant position..... Well, you can see that I am steering away from sociology, even though I have two (actually three) single-authored paper for submission this month or next.
Betalian is as crazy as before. She will demand all kinds of statistical tests. Some of them are just trash, but she won't listen. I then just learn new things and log in hours. Not bad for me either. Do you know cluster analysis, contingency analysis, multidimentional something (I forget the name)? Now I do, thanks to Betalian for these stupid learnings. Now she is out for vacation, so my email box can be quiet for a while.
What else? Nothing too much. Well, I am also learning HTML code when I milk my time during the internship. I feel 10 or 20 years down the road, I might have my own business, and that is a good way to prepare.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
My friend (Betalion)
Let me sketch her real quick. Betalion is a law school professor. She is a straight talker. She say a lot of "F&*%" on the cellphone. She is demanding, as I can see from her interaction with her husband and RA. She just cannot shut up, not in a bad way though.
I work for her recently on a project she has to finish soon. In fact, I need to work on that tonight after the blogging. She is up for tenure review. A lot of stress, as you can imagine. She is lucky to have me, as I am commited to get it done. On my part, I get paid well, and now I have a good contact in law school.
Three examples of her straight talks.
1. She gave me the time sheet, and said, "Hey, I paid you with a good hourly rate, so do not screw me over with the number of hours. Okey?"
2. She was talking about something else, but somehow she segwayed into something like "my marriage is falling apart, but that's my problem to deal with."
3. "I hate ASA. It is too hieararchical." That's exactly what I feel. I never speak that out lout, but nothing can stop Betalion from saying that.
It is quick a shock to hear those initially. But on the second tought, why are not everything like her, to speak out honestly what they think? Now if you would excuse me, I can going to do some hard-shit work for her project now. F&*%.
I work for her recently on a project she has to finish soon. In fact, I need to work on that tonight after the blogging. She is up for tenure review. A lot of stress, as you can imagine. She is lucky to have me, as I am commited to get it done. On my part, I get paid well, and now I have a good contact in law school.
Three examples of her straight talks.
1. She gave me the time sheet, and said, "Hey, I paid you with a good hourly rate, so do not screw me over with the number of hours. Okey?"
2. She was talking about something else, but somehow she segwayed into something like "my marriage is falling apart, but that's my problem to deal with."
3. "I hate ASA. It is too hieararchical." That's exactly what I feel. I never speak that out lout, but nothing can stop Betalion from saying that.
It is quick a shock to hear those initially. But on the second tought, why are not everything like her, to speak out honestly what they think? Now if you would excuse me, I can going to do some hard-shit work for her project now. F&*%.
My friends updates
I have started my friends blog such a long time ago. When I decided to give an update today, I have to go back and create a spreadsheet to match the real names with the fakes one I created. "W" is still yet to be filled. Since that will be my last one in the 26 formal spots, I get overcautious, so nobody has be selected to fill the spot. I also know the last part of "Yuphen" is still pending for another day. But here are some updates.
Amsol still is my best friend. Somehow our friendship shifted. Before, it was I that hung on him to buffer the cultural shock. Now the relation is more equal. Rather than I asked questions all the time, it became information sharing. And I like that.
Brey went back to S. Karea this past year to do research. He finally had a girlfriend. She is an artist, Korean American. This one will last, I think. And I am happy for Brey.
Chestina is in trouble, as far as I can tell. She is depressed often, always stressed about work and obsessed with small issues. Maybe marriage problem. That's my best guess. Next year she will take a year off to be a clerk for a judge. Have I mentioned that she actually had a law degree before she came to the department?
Dermon got married two years ago and now even had a baby boy. He got a job in Texas. I wonder how he liked it there?
Elpen. I haven't seen him for a long time. He kinda quit school and worked in a start-up company now. still doing some obsessive shopping to have the best high-tech gears. He was in the same summer program with me.
Friggy: I saw him once this year when he returned to Stanford. He did not change a bit. For example, he came to the house for dinner one day, and immediately lost his hat. He is now in texas too, doing a ph.d. degree in engineering while working for some companies, maybe.
Glip: Well, he is my advisor. His life is not stable, as he moved back and forth between two top universities in the past year or two. This coming quarter he will teach in China. I do not think he is very productive recently, but he has a book about CR coming up.
Amsol still is my best friend. Somehow our friendship shifted. Before, it was I that hung on him to buffer the cultural shock. Now the relation is more equal. Rather than I asked questions all the time, it became information sharing. And I like that.
Brey went back to S. Karea this past year to do research. He finally had a girlfriend. She is an artist, Korean American. This one will last, I think. And I am happy for Brey.
Chestina is in trouble, as far as I can tell. She is depressed often, always stressed about work and obsessed with small issues. Maybe marriage problem. That's my best guess. Next year she will take a year off to be a clerk for a judge. Have I mentioned that she actually had a law degree before she came to the department?
Dermon got married two years ago and now even had a baby boy. He got a job in Texas. I wonder how he liked it there?
Elpen. I haven't seen him for a long time. He kinda quit school and worked in a start-up company now. still doing some obsessive shopping to have the best high-tech gears. He was in the same summer program with me.
Friggy: I saw him once this year when he returned to Stanford. He did not change a bit. For example, he came to the house for dinner one day, and immediately lost his hat. He is now in texas too, doing a ph.d. degree in engineering while working for some companies, maybe.
Glip: Well, he is my advisor. His life is not stable, as he moved back and forth between two top universities in the past year or two. This coming quarter he will teach in China. I do not think he is very productive recently, but he has a book about CR coming up.
Monday, August 14, 2006
A trip to Montreal
It was this year's ASA meeting. I came back today, with a great impression about Montreal.
I rented a bike for three days, and biked every single day. I think I covered almost every cover that three-day biking can cover. This place was very european. People looked relaxed, weekdays and weekends. A lot of Cafe, very few cellphones. Mostly white, especially blonde. People look slimmer than a generic American. Ladies are attractive and guys dress very well. Food are quite expensive, but my sample is only in tourist place. People bike in the city all the time. In fact, when I passed by apartments, a lot of families have bikes on their balcony. I guess that's keep them fit.
I biked in small streets with bricks paving the way. I tried it fast, so that my whole body was shaking violently along with my mountain bike. It might cause some brain damage already. It reminded me the movie "cinema paradise", my favorite non-English movie so far. I also biked far away along the bike trail. Once I saw a random fox, and once I saw handrens of people gathering in a park, dancing in uniform, just like you will see on TV of the group dance in Europe.
Once I was walking on the street and realized that the guy in front of me was smoking pot. I stayed in a shabby hotel with friend Brian. He had a hard time sleeping, probably due to the prolonged sunlight time. I hope it was not because of my snore (do I snore at all? I do not know.) One night he taught me how to play "risks" game, which he installed in his computer. He told me that was how he killed time when he drove up and down in Carlifornia prison system for his interview. I learned it quickly. Within two hours, I kicked asses of 7 computer-controlled players. I guess video game can always bring me joys, as if the success is too rare in real life, so I treasured every single opportunity to enjoy even I know it was sorta fake.
Overall, I attended maybe 3 sessions in total (including the one I presented a paper in a roundtable session), met with two universities through employment service, met a good future contact on the airplane, biked about 60km to cover the city, visited 3 museums, watched 1 3-D IMAX movie, passed numerous parks, saw the most romantic marriage propose in my life ( the guy contacted a street performer a month ago to make sure he and his girlfriend would be picked as "innocent" volunteers that day. After they suffered some fire and knife hazards, the guy got on his knees and proposed. The girl was in a shock, the guy was in a satisfying smile, and everyone else was sheering. Quite something, isn't it?)
See http://picasaweb.google.com/songhua/200608Montreal
I rented a bike for three days, and biked every single day. I think I covered almost every cover that three-day biking can cover. This place was very european. People looked relaxed, weekdays and weekends. A lot of Cafe, very few cellphones. Mostly white, especially blonde. People look slimmer than a generic American. Ladies are attractive and guys dress very well. Food are quite expensive, but my sample is only in tourist place. People bike in the city all the time. In fact, when I passed by apartments, a lot of families have bikes on their balcony. I guess that's keep them fit.
I biked in small streets with bricks paving the way. I tried it fast, so that my whole body was shaking violently along with my mountain bike. It might cause some brain damage already. It reminded me the movie "cinema paradise", my favorite non-English movie so far. I also biked far away along the bike trail. Once I saw a random fox, and once I saw handrens of people gathering in a park, dancing in uniform, just like you will see on TV of the group dance in Europe.
Once I was walking on the street and realized that the guy in front of me was smoking pot. I stayed in a shabby hotel with friend Brian. He had a hard time sleeping, probably due to the prolonged sunlight time. I hope it was not because of my snore (do I snore at all? I do not know.) One night he taught me how to play "risks" game, which he installed in his computer. He told me that was how he killed time when he drove up and down in Carlifornia prison system for his interview. I learned it quickly. Within two hours, I kicked asses of 7 computer-controlled players. I guess video game can always bring me joys, as if the success is too rare in real life, so I treasured every single opportunity to enjoy even I know it was sorta fake.
Overall, I attended maybe 3 sessions in total (including the one I presented a paper in a roundtable session), met with two universities through employment service, met a good future contact on the airplane, biked about 60km to cover the city, visited 3 museums, watched 1 3-D IMAX movie, passed numerous parks, saw the most romantic marriage propose in my life ( the guy contacted a street performer a month ago to make sure he and his girlfriend would be picked as "innocent" volunteers that day. After they suffered some fire and knife hazards, the guy got on his knees and proposed. The girl was in a shock, the guy was in a satisfying smile, and everyone else was sheering. Quite something, isn't it?)
See http://picasaweb.google.com/songhua/200608Montreal
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Special dinner
Today, Chi Theta Chi had a special dinner. I cooked a "killer shrimp soup", and got quite good reviews. Riding on my pride, I tasted all kinds of liquors, and now I think I am half-drunk. That's great. Because now I do not need to bike out to starbucks to continue my paper tonight. Rather, I had two hours to waste. Maybe I should watch "liar liar" again. But for now, let me see how much I can write for this blog entry. I sorta have the urge of finish off Yuphen entry today, but in a second thought, maybe I should leave it for a sober day.
My recent blog entries have been half-assed. Seriously, not too much going on anyway.
But more seriously, a lot have happened, and I was just not in the mood of blogging my desperation. Let me have a review. For a while, I have been desperate about my future. This past year not everything runs okey. I tried to get a job with full confidence, but results were rather mixed. It was hard to keep my cool in these situations. More often than not, I have doubts about myself, whether all the confidence was actually based on illusion rather than reality.
The summer was a turning point. At least I got my cool back. First it was the summer institute, through which I realized that I still had the potential to learn new things, and indeed I would be a good student if I eventually go to law school. Second, it was ALC program. I gave lectures there, and realized I was actually a good teacher. If I could work myself up to have a good five-minute start, the whole lecture would be a breeze. Then I got an unpaid internship in a start-up. Then I got hooked up with a law school professor. I am going to be her RA for a while. Not only it paid quite well, but also it could lead to a very good recommendation letter for my future use and abuse. Not to mention that I am write a very good paper. I've tricked myself into thinking next Tuesday is the deadline. This afternoon, before I was cooking, I was writing that paper, halfway through it already. It could be a home-run.
My recent blog entries have been half-assed. Seriously, not too much going on anyway.
But more seriously, a lot have happened, and I was just not in the mood of blogging my desperation. Let me have a review. For a while, I have been desperate about my future. This past year not everything runs okey. I tried to get a job with full confidence, but results were rather mixed. It was hard to keep my cool in these situations. More often than not, I have doubts about myself, whether all the confidence was actually based on illusion rather than reality.
The summer was a turning point. At least I got my cool back. First it was the summer institute, through which I realized that I still had the potential to learn new things, and indeed I would be a good student if I eventually go to law school. Second, it was ALC program. I gave lectures there, and realized I was actually a good teacher. If I could work myself up to have a good five-minute start, the whole lecture would be a breeze. Then I got an unpaid internship in a start-up. Then I got hooked up with a law school professor. I am going to be her RA for a while. Not only it paid quite well, but also it could lead to a very good recommendation letter for my future use and abuse. Not to mention that I am write a very good paper. I've tricked myself into thinking next Tuesday is the deadline. This afternoon, before I was cooking, I was writing that paper, halfway through it already. It could be a home-run.
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