Chicago

Oh glorious weekend! Having gone to work all of last week despite food poisoning, headaches and a cold, I've decided to take a break from activities today - sleep in, shake off the last traces of the cold and bring you up to speed with my life.

I realise I haven't finished my American story, and since I'm not much of a storyteller, I'll show you some pictures instead.

Aditi and I went to Chicago over Thanksgiving - arrived on Thanksgiving Day itself in what seemed like a ghost town. Everything was closed and the streets were empty. I don't think we expected how quiet it would be, but it made for a great touring experience. We took to streets on foot, taking in the sights and feeling like we owned the whole town.

I took a lot of pictures of skyscrapers because I love them:

Not the best picture of Sears Tower, but it will have to do.

The Chicago Tribune with its Gothic Revival architecture.
I even like the fire escapes. Throw in some rain, the pitch black of night time, the dirty yellow flicker of the streetlamp above and dark sound effects and you have a scene from Batman!

Some scenes from around Millennium Park and beyond:

The famous Bean.
Bridge, or art?
I like this.

From the pictures, you can see that we enjoyed spectacular weather while we were there. If you knew the kind of warnings we received about Chicago weather in November, you would know that we were very lucky to have got such blue skies and sunshine.

From ghost town to Black Friday, Chicago came alive. All I knew about Black Friday were news reports about people getting killed at stampedes at Wal-Mart, so naturally, I was quite curious to see how the crowd would be. We joined the bustle along the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Ave, gawped at the Apple Store (well, I did... and the stacks and stacks of iPods flying off the tables) and did a little shopping.

We parted ways at the end of the trip, Aditi back to Georgetown and I, to Penn. The next time we met was in New York, where we could get lost (as we tend to do) and have Rachael come to the rescue - but that's another post!

PwC in pictures

Photos here are, as usual, not mine. They belong to Diong, Adeline and Alison.

Today was my last day at work. Before I show you some photos, I find it necessary to mention the elevators at 1 Sentral.

Every morning, you tag yourself in, punch in the floor you want to go to, and this slab of stone will tell you which lift to go to. That way, everyone headed to the same floor gets grouped together, minimising the number of stops before reaching your floor. There are only 3 buttons in each lift - open, close and emergency. It's amazing! It almost makes coming in to work fun.

So fun, in fact, that I extended my internship by 2 weeks. Here's a snapshot of the Advisory floor:

The glass door rooms lining the wall are where the executive directors and partners sit.

The better half of interns

The lesser half

Razwan getting some love

All in all, I had a great 2.5 months at PwC. Admittedly, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to work on a variety of assignments which covered the spectrum of work a typical graduate analyst/associate would encounter - research, report-writing, financial modelling, analysis and presentation. Better still, I was offered work that spanned different industries and environments, which kept it fresh and stimulating, and did wonders for my general knowledge.

I know the unfortunate few who spent their internship doing solely data entry, filing or research will beg to differ, so I'm glad and thankful it worked out for me the way it did.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Happy Valentine's!

Watch out for the backposts

I've been planning this blog facelift for a long, long time. I'm glad it's finally done, made possible by today's public holiday. Working in Malaysia does have its perks. Public holiday BONANZAA!! Anyway, I'm looking forward to blogging again - I miss writing.

As you would've noted, I haven't updated since late September. More for my records than anything else, I'll be backposting for awhile, as it has been a rather eventful 2+ months.

Let's hope this marks the rejuvenation of this blog. 3 years worth of writing is too valuable a thing to abandon.

Updates and even photos to spice things up!

Here I am again, clinging desperately to the last two weeks of my holidays. Holidays are never quite as unfettered as I would like them to be - always this or that worry lurking in the background. This time, it's summer internship applications. Though I've barely begun with the process, I'm already going about it with an air of reluctance and defeat. Truly, if I'm to get anywhere in life, I really should change my outlook. But gawd, it's so bothersome. I much prefer a show, don't tell approach to job applications. I'll show you I can do the job and do it well, just don't make me persuade you beforehand to give me a chance.

Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work that way. :( But surely failing at the tell does not mean I'll fail at the show. I suppose one could argue that if my communication skills are at the level required by the job, I wouldn't have a problem; and if I did have a problem, I'm not good enough for the job. But is that so? Is that so?

Sigh.

Moving along, exams are over and results are out. I'm fairly happy with how I went, naturally, it can always be better, and I would have liked that 90+ I was hoping for in Accounting, so that I can finally say what I've been itching to say to Accounting - "WTFPWNED! Fuck yeah!". I can still say it with the result I got, but not with as much satisfaction. :P Business Finance was a minor disappointment, as expected, following a shoddy performance at the exam. Happily, I've just managed to maintain an overall H1 average. I'm getting complacent. To hell with all this scraping through business - I want to wtfpwn everything!

Except regionals. We didn't quite wtfpwn regionals like we should've. For the first time in 3, 4 years Melbourne Uni lost its gold streak at regionals, to Monash no less. It was a fair game, and there is not much more to say than in the end, they proved to be the better team. Nevertheless, with more training and some valuable female imports in Sem 2, I'm confident that we will fire out stronger in Gold Coast come September.


Melbourne Uni Regionals team

In other news, I attended a farewell dinner at Pugg Mahones for a friend who was going away for a month. It was a very good night, good food, live music and montage-worthy chatter round the table. When the performer dude played and sang Heart of Gold with a guitar and mounted harmonica, I thought my heart would weep with joy. He went on to play many good folksy/acousticky/country songs, which made me exceedingly happy.


Jimmy, who should be by now safely in Europe, and Bec, token American. (Despite the fact that the Americans almost outnumbered everyone else at the dinner :)

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my new-found love for Blizzard's sense of humour in WoW. I don't play the game and probably never will, but I've been introduced to many interesting and entertaining aspects of the game, including but not limited to raid group photos, video-recordings of raids, customised dance moves and the Southpark episode featuring WoW.



[EDIT: Upon recommendation, video link changed to something even more exciting. Such choreography and camera work...]

Finally, everyone say "Yay Alex!" for being so awesome.

Somehow, I'm not impressed.

The University of Melbourne
No. 22 in the World, No. 10 in Social Sciences
World University Rankings 2006 published by the Times Higher Educational Supplement, UK, October, 2006

Seen as a signature on one of the outgoing uni emails. Clearly, putting up bright blue signs saying the same thing along the Swanston St side of campus is not enough. My knee-jerk reaction upon seeing this was - The University of Melbourne, No. 1 Championer of Mediocrity. But we all knew that already. Is 'championer' even a word?

There's been a fair flurry of activity these few months, mainly involving me working, organising things and looking forward to returning to the home away from home in Melbourne, for more reasons than one.

Work finishes in two days; that is very good news. Admittedly, this 1 month plus stint has offered me excellent and highly relevant exposure to the working world and to the equities market, but I think that's enough for one holiday. For those interested, the Malaysian stock market is bullish at the moment following strong buying interest from foreign institutional investors. Of course, when the market reopens later at 2.30pm, your guess is no better than mine which way it will go.

It really presents a futility of sorts to the work I do, and the work I see people doing here at the research dept. Every morning, the technical analyst will prepare technical reports of the KLCI and every morning, I come in and read the day's predictions of the market's movements, only to have it rendered irrelevant within 5 minutes (okay, maybe half an hour) of the start of trade. Unlike predicting the weather, where there's a science to it, trying to predict the stock market's movements, especially using theory and models, requires you to eat your words a lot of the time. Either that, or make the sort of analysis at a level of vagueness to rival the horoscopes.

So let's take a holistic, macro view of things. Yet, one cannot be sure how and how much each of the variables affect the market, at the same time, unpredictable irrational behaviour must not be underestimated. One day, I read news reporting that anticipation of an interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan helped pushed bank stocks and thusly, the Nikkei up to close in the green. Next day, the Nikkei closes lower, allegedly after certain reports questioned the likelihood of an interest rate rise. While it is likely that interest rates weren't the only variables these two days, it just seems that the writers are just arbitrarily picking any explanation that can justify how the Nikkei moved, and whether or not these explanations are really significant, it's hard to know.

Even with work like company reports, stock recommendations and earnings forecasts, analysts are forever revising their estimates everytime a material event occurs, which to some extent, defeats the purpose of their work. It's never much help until what they forecast happens, and when it does happen, it's too late. It's a bit of a catch-22. Yet, we go through the motions, day after day.

In my view, any real use this research department can offer are fundamental analyses of companies - prepare reports that probe into the foundations, dig behind the creative accounting and sum up the management of a firm for the purpose of long-term investment. Short-term participation in the stock market is just short of a gamble, and has far less use for such information than a genuine mid-to-long term investment plan.

I suppose I'm taking a rather harsh and cynical view of this research and analysis work. One thing to consider as well, is that the firm I'm at is a small one, whose clients are mainly retail investors who don't really care nor understand the figures in the reports. They're mainly interested in the bold BUY/SELL/HOLD recommendation at the top of the page. Working for the bigger players like JPMorgan would be somewhat different, I'd imagine, perhaps a little more meaningful. I'd like to find out, someday. :)

With that I shall end my little spiel. On a lighter note, here's quote I found highly amusing. I think it was CJ who first told it to me - "Investment is speculation gone wrong."

happy new year and all those things

Now let's see. We pick up the story from whence we saw our heroine last - in the throes of exams. Since then, a month and a half has passed, without so much as a peep on this blog, regretfully.

The holidays have been lots of fun, as I've been able to enjoy a kind of freedom I'm unaccustomed to back home. I got my driving licence in record time - if I'm not wrong, 2 weeks from first lesson to issue of licence. Exam results were reported satisfactory, my birthday was happily spent with that riotous company we all know and love, and new year's was a whirlwind of booze, deliberately bad music and blackmail-worthy photos.

And that brings us to the here and now, where our heroine is valiantly attempting to hammer out a blogpost in the midst of the ruckus and bickering and nagging and scolding that is happening all around her. Ah, don't you love the start of school term. One big logistical mess of carpool, tuition, activities and other arrangements, times two for each sibling.

As for me? Nothing quite so harrowing, I assure you. I start work experience tomorrow at a securities firm. I have absolutely no clue what people do at work, what I'm supposed to be doing or if they even know what to make me do. Push papers and make coffee, I suppose. =)

This year promises to be even more hectic than ever, as I move on to bigger roles in the FMAA, uni and the ulty scene. Excitement, oh the excitement!

And secondly, an update.

I've been back...lessee...6 days. Been moving around ever since, shopping, meeting up with friends, watching Smallville and burning through a lot of cash. =) Accompanied Feebs to 1U yesterday morning to collect a CLEO goodie bag 'cause she had the CLEO card thing. Despite having been in a girls' school, I don't think I've seen so many women in one place before. They filled up the lane leading up to the concourse area from the entrance, and the line was about 3-4 people thick. We (me, kang, feebs) managed to find the end of line somewhere outside the shopping centre, maybe 150m away from the real thing. (I dunno, I'm bad at estimation.)

Either way, the line moved pretty quick, in 5-10 minutes we got the goodie bag, still in good spirits. Hoh...also, kang, feeling generous, agreed to buy me a Crumpler bag! Right kang? }:-) The light green one, only one stripe offcenter, the one that cost RM 211.

We then had lunch at Sakae Sushi (sucky sushi according to H =) in The Curve, and I spoke to a waitress in Malay, only to look up and realize her name tag said 'Ying'. Kang was like, "Weh! Speak English lar!". Sorry la! Accidentally! These things happen k, and she did look kinda Malay. I've had a random woman wave me over and asking me, "Escuse me, escuse me, ini ada discount tak?" before anyway.

TP later joined us at my place, where I entertained them by making weird sound effects and pretending I was a creaky door (or maybe that was Feebs). I think some of you in Aus might remember that. Heh. I am very pro at the creaky door sound alright? =)

And to all of you that care, Ep 8, 9 of S3 Smallville is nice and touchy feely, with lots of Lex, and Clark...and Clex. *happy sigh* Lana's got more of a personality in some episodes, but that's because she was 'not herself' as Clark would say. It's sad that some semblance of acting skill only shows through when she's not in character.

Also, my sister is turning into a bimbo! I am living in the same house with a bimbo! Can you please help me OMG?!?! *dies*

Hahahah, poor dad of mine. He was lamenting in the car how messed up his daughters were. One thinks she's a guy, the other wants to wear spaghetti straps. And we all know wearing spaghetti straps is the first step to moral decline. Only my brother seems vaguely normal, but hah, was I quick to inform my dad of my brother's penchant for cross-dressing.

He was trying on my big black trench coat thingy the other day, pretending to be a spy. I kept insisting the coat was tailored for women and never let him off the cross-dressing joke ever since.

Okie dokie. Enough nonsense from me. I need breakfast now.

Finished!

There, and back again. =)

Arrived safely in M'sia early this morning with excess baggage that they charged me AUD 400 for. >_< It was very painful, but I really didn't have a choice. Became acquainted with Wei Shen, an S3 CHSian, and bumped into my childhood playmate whom I haven't seen for 4 years. It was very nice to see her again...and we managed to pick up where we left off pretty easily.

Meeting her really brought back all those memories of evenings with the 'padang' gang, playing chase on the monkey bars and watching her pull off cool stunts on it. I was amused to know that the helmet guy who used to follow her around all the time...is still following her around! And when I asked if she remembered Shea Kang, she was like, "Yeah, the Digimon boy..." which totally cracked me up. THAT long ago. Kang, you're the digimon boy! I had completely forgotten about the existence of Digimons until now.

Anyway, I suppose everyone is done with exams too, and I'm itching to meet up and all, only I won't be free till tomorrow evening. So I'll start calling you people then lar.

Sigh. I feel like I've got one foot back home, and one foot still in Aus. There's so much about Aus that has grown on me and that I want to keep. The lifestyle, the friends...well, I suppose one can belong in both places at once. It was a good two years, and this will definitely not be the end of it. =)

presenting....!

*dusts cobwebs off site*

Cough. It's been a month and more since I last updated, I figured it's about time to return and salvage the remains of my blog. Come back, readers! *claws desperately* I need to get into the writing habit again. I love to write, only most of the time, I'm too lazy to sit down and actually do it. My brain is a cluttered archive of half-baked plots for stories and articles which never saw light.

Oh woe is me. The holidays are making me sluggish and lethargic. And I'm PERFECTLY allowed to talk about states of apathy, ADITI. =) (Look! Another blogmention for you, if you're still visiting at all.) These days, despite all the work piled high and teetering ominously in front of my nose, I'm quite incapable at anything solid. The most effort I can muster up is probably wake up realizing I have a lot of work to do, then realizing I haven't done as much as I would have liked to, and finally, burrow back under the covers to bemoan my fate and wallow in self-pity.

Hopefully this..ahem..symbolic revival of my blog marks the end of slug-dom and the glorious beginning of good, hard work. All timed to coincide with the start of college and long study hours for you peeps, really. It's like that with the holidays (and with most things in life, actually) You never fully appreciate it until it's gone.

Speaking of gone, ex0dus and RX have left us for Singapore for..what's it been? Two weeks now? May they be..living the life (or living A life =) over there. But I doubt it's that bad. =)

what's been happening

The exam days are long cold, but my life hasn't slowed down one bit. My results...could be better, as always. But I'm not too fussed. The post exam week has just been a haze and daze of packing, seeing teachers, catching up on the work I'll be missing next week and tying up loose ends.

Whatever it is, this almost-2-months summer break will not be a fantastically relaxing one for me. Top on the list is my first draft of my Extended Essay. Formulating a research question that I want to know enough about has gotta be the hardest part about writing the EE. I'm still not happy with what I have, but hopefully I'll get some inspiration over the hols. Then it's down to churning out 4000 words for it. That's like...5 English essays fused into one big headache. Then, I have to think about writing my World Lit essay, Chem holiday homework, Economics commentaries, improving my Chinese, learning Japanese, studying Physics, revising my entire Maths syllabus...*thunk*. Something tells me I'm being too ambitious. Well, we'll see where I get by 2005. ^^

I'm leaving on the 3.40pm plane tomorrow, flying home at last. It's been a year. I've still got some bits and pieces to pack, because we have to completely EVAcuate our room. Not a trace should be left, not a hint that this room was once inhabited. So my life is currently stored in a Lego cardboard box, an Arnotts' Biscuits box, a Hawken Bakehouse box, and a large blue luggage. Left to goodness knows what in the musty basement trunk room where luggages and boxes of all sizes from all over Asia (and Australia's countryside =) converge. I've always found that room rather fascinating. Looking at the suitcases stacked up, a little haphazardly, in cobwebby wooden shelves that stretch from floor to low ceiling. Picking my way across, searching for my own, and extricating it from the cluster where it's been sitting for a year.

It won't be long now.

Calvin wants a flamethrower,

I need a shrink gun. Sigh...wishful thinking. Shrink all my luggage and carry them around in my pocket. =) That'd be cool.

Pah. That cranky Aussie lady at the counter almost didn't let me take my guitar as hand carry. Eventually I managed to smuggle it in, it's called checking in en masse. Well, ok, it was just the three of us, but the black case of my guitar blended in well with my all-black clothes and the guy (we went to a different counter this time round to try our luck) wasn't as particular as the lady I went to at first, who insisted on seeing all I had on me, baggage-wise.

Got me pretty flustered and annoyed, and the heavy stuff I had to carry all over the place didn't do well to improve my mood. You're right, Rach, hooray for plane letters! Read yours during take-off, and the rest a little before, BUT I was still IN the plane, so it's all right eh? =) The letters made me all nice and happy again. Connie's plane letter was cool! Thanks Connie!...just that...the words DIE and TERRORISTS appeared a lot throughout the three pages. Hmm. Y'think she's hinting at something. =)

Wasn't jet-lagged at all this time. Got home to find out my whole street just had a black out. Blundered my way into the house in pitch darkness. The candles my siblings lighted weren't helping the heat. Thankfully, it came back after half and hour++. My dad called TNB but he couldn't get through, so you know what he did? He called the POlice! HAHAHAHAHahahah! How nuts is that? Also got home to find that we had 8 pairs of shoes stolen some time ago. But it was all my brother and my dad's. Mine were untouched, thank goodness. I don't know what I'd do if I lost my loafers and Weinbrenners. Biggest loss was obviously my bro's, that extravagant fool! I keep telling him not to invest so much in shoes, you can get cheaper stuff in Bata or something, but no, it had to be his RM 200+ Reeboks and his KRS boots. Hurh. Brand new too.

So much for Taman Tun: safe haven. Well, I knew there were these robberies going on time to time in the neighbourhood, but it never happened to us, so I was living in denial. =)

I woke up this morning thinking it was 11am. Eventually I found out I hadn't yet turned my watch back 2 hours, so I still have the morning ahead of me. Awfully pleased! =)

Ho hum. The excitement coming back this time round pretty much wasn't there, compared to the first break...but waking up this morning and falling back into my old routine, I realize I missed home a lot more than I thought I did. =)