Antevasin

Gilbert writes:

Groceries finally discovered her word – the one word which describes who she is: ANTEVASIN, meaning “one who lives at the border.” It was a term to describe “a person who had left the bustling center of worldly life" to go live at the edge of the forest to seek enlightenment...looking toward the unknown.”

From "Eat, Pray, Love"

So it had been almost a year since I blogged.

Jan 2012 - May 2012
Struggled to complete the final semester of school.
Had a new cleaner, C - appreciate her for her hearty laughter and simple outlook. Started dating a fellow classmate.

April 2012
1 year since the transition to my new role as eComm mktg. 1 year since I moved into Poho.

June 2012 - July 2012
Relaxing life without school, and results announced that I passed my masters.
Travelled to Korea with P for a colleague's wedding.
Returned back to SG briefly for sister's and dad's birthday.
Ended the tumultous relationship with the classmate.

August - September 2012
Returned to SG briefly for work.
Relatives and family came over to HK to celebrate my birthday with me. Had a ten course meal complete with roast piglet! I am truly blessed.
Work not easy - long hours, shorthanded and dealing with temperatmental colleagues.

October - November 2012
Parents sold off BC apartment.
Poho landlord issued apartment termination.
Attended Redfoo (LMFAO) concert with C.

December 2012
Moved apartments with Co's help.
Family and relatives came to support me on Graduation of Masters in Stats!
Attended Big Bang concert with S.
Invested in air purifier as now living in Central.

Modelling and Reality

Just read some articles provided by K and got some insight on relevance of statistics (or lack of proper use) in our world today. I have seen, that some risk managers in do not understand the underlying risks and assumptions they are facing. But just blindly following a procedure set by someone before. And so, some words of wisdom below ...

"To paraphrase from Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman in describing the economic meltdown, “… (modelers) went astray because (modelers), as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.” Models are, at best, ephemeral hypotheses about truth; therefore, sound scientific methods should continually be used to test if hypotheses (models) still reflect the truth".

One story of a model written by David X Li  that allowed the finance industry to price Credit Default Swaps and collateralized debt obligations, but the assumptions for that product were not improved or considered for scenario analysis...  and Taleb sums it up...

"People got very excited about the Gaussian copula because of its mathematical elegance, but the thing never worked," Nissam Taleb says. "Co-association between securities is not measurable using correlation," because past history can never prepare you for that one day when everything goes south. "Anything that relies on correlation is charlatanism."

So finally what Dr David X Li said sparks off some interest for me in applied mathematics...

"Finance might be the most successful area to use mathematics. The mathematics used in finance ranges from basic mathematics, such as numerical analysis, calculus, and statistics to more advanced ones, stochastic processes and stochastic differential equations, non-linear optimization etc. The areas we use the most in practice are numerical analysis and statistics.

Many practitioners go back to school to learn more mathematics after a few years working in industry. I like the saying by Professor Elias Shiu at the University of Iowa "Learning Mathematics is like rowing, if you don’t push forward you’d be pushed backward". Just keep rowing!

One famous applied mathematician once said, "Mathematics in every one of its applied areas is a good servant, but a bad master". At the end we are to solve practical problems, not a mathematical game or theorem."

I really like this!

Ability is what you are capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.

--Lou Holtz

AND this ....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/8143384/Danny-MacAskill-Way-Back-Home-new-bike-stunt-video-released.html

is truly inspiring!

Happy Sunday!

Subject: it should have been a funny letter

From: Radi
Sent: Tuesday, 20 September, 2011 10:03:48 PM
Subject: it should have been a funny letter

Hi, this time my letter won't be so funny.

Unfortunately, exactly on my birthday few days ago, which was supposed to be also my parents' 31st anniversary from their marriage, my dad died- unexpectedly, unbeliavable, I can say unfear... So, only few weeks after I experienced the greatest happiness of having a child I had to experience also one of my bigest fears- to lose someone I love so much and whose opinion for everything I will miss till I am alive.

As I am a religious person, I am doing my best to accept the fact. Of course, I know that all the people will die one day, I believe in heaven, I believe in God, but trust me, in moment like this, your faith is struggling to survive.

What I learned those days (it is not something new you don't know, but I will try to remind you):

1. We should always say to the people next to us about our feelings: that we care about them, that we love them.
2. It is so wrong to think like this: I will tell someone that I love him later, I will find more sparetime for him later, I am going to ask him to forgive me for something later....Forget about "later", and live now, coz every minute can be the last.
3. When it is really hard, you can see who are the people you can rely on. I will not go into details, but we really had hard time then we didn't need money or calls, but friends who stand next to us. Who won't only say: "if you need help, call me", but people who will help without asking anything. Because sometimes like in a bad dream, you just cannot scream for help even ialthough you are trying hard.
4. If you ever have the chance to help somebody, do not hesitate, just do it.
5. When you have had a bad day in this crazy life: do not be nervious with the people at home, nothing really matters at the end- career, all the material things do not mean anything, only the people next to you and the good memories.

You may say, Radi might be getting crazy, but my pain is so big, not only because he was my father, I know that most of you have lost someone, but I want to share with you also that he was really a rarely good person.

Several times he took at home strangers from the train station, because they have missed the last tain, he used to stand next to a person who seems to become a victom in different situations although often he became the victum at the end (broken nose, head) while other people will only watch, he would give blood for every person who was in need just because his blood type permits.

My father's name was Angel, and he was behaving like a real Christian, although he was not pretending to be a religios person as I do, even if I cannot say if I have done something good for many people without expecting to be rewarded somehow.

Think about it!

Radi

Let go of Clinging

Lama Tsongkhapa says that this life is as impermanent as a water bubble, gone in a second. Seeing this, we should strive to take the essence of this perfect human rebirth and let go of clinging completely.


http://sharelife.wordpress.com/

Quote

Queen Mother’s well-worn mantra: ‘Never complain, never explain.’

1955 - 2011

When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

– Stanford University commencement address, 1995
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address_n_997301.html