While studying today I discovered this note scribbled on the last page of my Corporations Law book, in my handwriting, undated:
" 2 aspects to an emotion:
- Love
- Compatibility
Love means = I know I would be willing to give certain things up for him. I would change for him.
Compatibility means = If I had to change, does that mean we are incompatible and therefore my love is misplaced?
The two prongs fight a battle to the death."
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Theorems of emotion in motion
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1:56 PM
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Friday, December 11, 2009
7 hours and 59 minutes
Back in undergrad, approaching exam period I would usually have vague memories of the class and what was taught. I would thus embark on a stressful marathon of the materials one or two days before the exam. I would prepare (i) a collared shirt, because for some reason it is required for exams, (ii) a white-out correction pen for when I write stuff and change my mind, and (iii) a full stomach. This got me through university satisfactorily.
So, I had my very first exam today at HLS. The morning of the exam I prepared (i) my most comfortable hoodie and jeans, and (ii) two packed sandwiches. The night before the exam I had (i) booked a private room in the library, (ii) bought a bottle of water and chocolate milk, and (iii) a big bar of plain dark chocolate. Two weeks before the exam I had (i) read all the materials again, and (ii) prepared a 20-page chart summarizing all the 50-something cases we covered in class.
I arrived on campus on a cold icy-wet morning at 8.15 am, went straight to the private room, laid out my laptop, books, sandwiches, drinks, and chocolate on my table, and waited nervously till 8.30 am. At precisely 8.30 am the exam question file popped up on my screen, indicating it was available to download.
It was an 8-hour exam; the questions were 19 pages long and took me two hours to read. I'm a clerk at the Supreme Court, and the Justice has to decide what to do with the court of appeals decision attached but was too lazy to write an opinion, so she asked me to do it. The case was interesting and seriously believable, and the whole drafting process, combined with the time constraint, was similar to a prolonged adrenaline rush. There were moments of brain blockage. There were moments of desperation when I was certain I was writing crap. There were bathroom trips to ease the tension. A timer window popped up warning me that I had one more hour to go. I swore. I rushed through the last half hour in a frenzy of creative madness. In short, I actually had fun.
So, 7 hours 59 minutes, two sandwiches, and an entire chocolate bar later, I clicked the "submit" button, and thus my draft opinion sped along the virtual road to meet the powers that be. God bless it.
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10:02 AM
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Friday, December 04, 2009
High Rise
So the talk turned to climate change. (Ironically, our bakery was called "Hi-Rise".) It started out lightly, with a friend joking that he wouldn't mind climate change if it made the weather warm like this. Another friend mentioned she hated how there are so many people who think that way and it really is not funny and will not be funny at all when the sky starts turning yellow. Another friend declared that he did not appreciate environmentalists enforcing their views upon him as if he was stupid and ignorant, and that such attitudes would backlash against their cause. The previous speaker became incensed, thinking that he was speaking to her personally. The whole conversation then escalated to new levels and a heated debate ensued.
Where did I stand in this conversation? I thought, in the words of Cass Sunstein (the co-author of 'Nudge') "markets markets markets, markets markets markets."
For example, I care about climate change. It is in fact the focus of my current studies. But do I use less water, less electricity, less plastic cups? Maybe not. And why is that?
There is a difference between care and action. Caring can be inherent in the person, can be a personal thing based on a personal experience, it cannot be imposed. You could tell a person to start caring, they may do it and they may not. They may become ashamed of themselves and start changing. Or they may get offended that you suggest they are not caring persons. A number of possibilities may arise.
Action may derive from care, may not arise at all even if you cared, or may be triggered by other, less noble but more practical human characteristics. Such as desire for efficiency, thrift, convenience, or a desire not to be an anomalous part of society. I believe there are a number of noble selfless people in this world, but there are even more people who are just looking out for themselves, because life is a battle. These people need more than just awareness, more than just a lecture on "caring" to really take action.
If solar panels were available, affordable, and reliable in Indonesia, I would have them installed, because it cuts my electricity costs in the long run. If I owned a palm oil plantation, I would have turned it back into dense forests that would retain carbon, and sell carbon credits to make my fortune, if a market for that was robust. If my tumbler didn't make my coffee taste slightly like metal, I would have continued using it instead of the paper cups I use everyday. If no paper cups were made available at all, I would have to buy another tumbler and I wouldn't mind spending more money on a good quality tumbler.
One might argue that markets respond to consumer preferences. But more often than not, it is markets that shape consumer behavior. We just don't realize it. I'm not saying it is useless to spread the message at a grassroots level and getting people to care. But my thoughts are how to get to action.
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3:56 AM
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Thursday, December 03, 2009
Full circle.
And then you go to the cafeteria and find yourself casually holding the door open for Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen on your way out. You dream of greatness, of future Nobel prizes, of change because Yes We Can, as we all know. You meet people who say "I want to be President" and you check yourself just right before you laugh because, waitta minute, he might be serious and he might really become one. You speak of your ridiculous dreams and ideas to people and they take you seriously, they say "you will be great", they give you a million more ideas.
You fit in as comfortably as a missing jigsaw piece and therefore you think you could fit in comfortably anywhere in the world, and the boundaries become limitless, with perseverance the only pre-requisite. Contrary to how it sounds... this is a humbling experience. Especially so due to the following thought.
Haha. There. I've said it.
I will take no questions.
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3:53 AM
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
"Everything!!"
Staff: What would you like today young lady?
Staff: Would that be marble rye or dark rye?
Me: Oh just normal rye.
Staff: We don't got normal rye ma'am, it's either marble rye or dark rye
Me: Haha okay. Dark rye then.
Staff: And what's going in it?
Me: Everything!!!
Staff: You gotta be a little specific here. Spread?
Me: Okay. Olive kalamata spread on one side, and mayo on the other side.
Staff: Roast beef, roast chicken, roast turkey?
Me: Turkey.
Staff: Lettuce and tomatoes?
Me: Definitely. Oh and sauteed mushrooms too.
Staff: Cheese? Cheddar, pepper-jack, swiss...?
Me: Mmm.... Buffalo mozzarella.
Staff: Mmhh.. mmhhh... how does that look huh?
Me: Looks awesome.
Staff: Thank you. Anything else? You want pickle with that?
Me: No thanks. Can you lightly grill it please?
Staff: Sure can. Just stand aside and wait for a bit, we gotta grill it down to perfection.
My love affair with sandwiches are always taken to a whole new level when I visit America. Granted a British Earl invented the lovely thing, but American decadence and casualness has truly elevated its rank to dazzling levels, whilst maintaining its comforting simplicity. Merely ordering it is an excitement for me.
Luckily the cafeteria makes sandwiches, and as you can see really makes it to order, personalized just for you. The best thing is, the price stays the same no matter how many items you choose to have in it. This makes me a little greedy.
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4:11 AM
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Saturday, November 21, 2009
Fall.
At times like this "I could wile away the hours... conferring with the flowers, consulting with the rain..." as Harry Connick Jr. would sing. Because something else died too, and it is not as visible as the brown leaves that I crush underfoot, nor is it as visible as the meaning between these words. The only witness is myself, and this vast world that I find myself in, blowing dead leaves at my feet.
When something dies, you say goodbye. And so I did... a little invisible goodbye, which left me feeling torn, and a little lonelier. But there was nothing else I could do.
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3:18 AM
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Friday, November 06, 2009
Superclass
Professor Subramanian today started the class with a video. In all seriousness he informed us that the short clip would be helpful in understanding the concept of freeze-out mergers by controlling shareholders.
The scene opened with a picture of the Professor, his face serious behind his round spectacles and receding hairline, wearing a superman costume. Yes, red and blue with a big "S" on his chest. As the unmistakable superman soundtrack accompanied the picture, the scene changed into the title of the video in superman fonts: SUBRAMANIANMAN.
Scene I: The Professor is reading in his study, a student bursts in suddenly in panic.
Student: Professor, quick!
Prof: What's the matter?!!
Student: A minority shareholder is being freezed-out by a controlling shareholder! You have to stop him!
Prof: That's unacceptable! This calls for .... Subramanianman!!
Scene II: The Professor rushes out of his study and confronts his secretary
Prof : [With charisma] Cancel all my appointments for today!
Secretary : [Looks up in boredom] You don't have any meetings.
Prof : Oh. [Professor looks dejected for a milisecond, and then rips open his shirt to transform into Subramanianman (leaves the glasses on)]
Scene III: Some garden at HLS
Student 1: Look! It's a bird!
Student 2: No, it's a plane!
Student 3: No, it's Subramanianman !!!
Scene IV: The "majority shareholder" is spotted, in the middle of literally punching the "minority shareholder"
Student "majority": Oh no, it's Subramanianman!
Prof: Stop! Let this never happen again!
Student "minority": Thank you Subramanianman!
The End.
After the laughter and applause had died down, the Professor then turned to the class and said:
"All I can say is that I was young, and I needed the money."
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12:18 AM
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Americans are funny
Monday
Professor: "Ms. Tyler? Did Justice Scalia agree with the notion that canons of construction which tend to be purposivist are to be prioritized above strictly textualist statutory interpretations?"
Student: "Umm... yes."
Professor: "Excellent. Now, can you give me a shorter answer than 'yes' that is more correct?"
Tuesday
Yoga teacher: "Sort of clear your mind and breathe. Let your smile radiate sort of like the warm rays of the sun on the world. It is time to store your database in the hard disk of your mind."
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2:56 AM
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Friday, October 16, 2009
I have never studied so hard in my entire life.
A title is all I can manage right now.
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8:42 AM
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Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Eternal while it lasts.
What will I learn today? Who will I meet today?
If only I could wake up each morning in life and have the excitement of thinking these thoughts. If only I could step out my door every single day with a tune in my head and walk with the sun in my face and the breeze in my hair and the trees rustling above and a spring in my step. If only I could always approach any person in the world with the certainty that this person will have something interesting to say. If only I could take my current attitude home to Indonesia.
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1:59 AM
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Monday, September 07, 2009
Munch.
I’m very grateful to have excellent parents who taught me most of the things necessary to survive in life. One of which is eating skills. And there is nothing like encountering a Person with a severe lack of eating skills to enhance my gratitude.
The only background fact that I would disclose about said Person, which I deem necessary only to provide proper context to this story, is that I am required to dine frequently with this Person. I have never in my life felt particularly finicky about table manners, until I met him. Person would eat by holding his fork and spoon in his fist instead of his fingers. This causes his elbows to stick out on either side of him, such that a dinner companion would have to stay clear in order not to be elbowed in the middle of main course. He then proceeds to munch noisily, the noise of which is formed by the failure of the mouth to close during the act of munching, and therefore sounds exactly like teeth scraping spoon and tongue touching roof of mouth repetitively. Said Person also has the tendency to be beset by sudden inspiration during eating, in which case he would commence in stating said inspiration regardless of the food still being processed in his mouth. I was unfortunate enough to have been looking precisely at him when one of these occasions suddenly occurred, and inevitably caught a glimpse of different colored half-processed bits sticking to the front of his teeth. “Dear God, please make him drink”, I prayed silently (with eyes closed) when I saw this, and sure enough moments later, in the middle of munching, he picked up his glass and drank with a loud slurp which made me wince in my seat.
Now the dilemma comes when I think of what actions are within my powers to save myself from this uncomfortable situation. Practically, none that I can think of. He is a grown man, and I simply cannot tell a grown man how to eat. So I have resorted to fully concentrating on my plate while eating, and spilling my beans to you.
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1:57 AM
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Thursday, August 13, 2009
Skin.
What a sight to see!
It’s summer, and everyone here is baring skin. My friend calls it “an excessive reaction to the sun, wrought by winter oppressiveness”. I’d like to hear him tell that to those girls over there, strewn across the grassy city parks like monsoon mushrooms in their bikinis, dreaming of sand on their cheeks and salty sea smells. I’d like to hear him tell that to those other girls over there, bouncing around the city in skin-tight skimpy jogging wear. They’re having so much fun they wouldn’t care less. I must admit I started feeling rather stuffy in my jeans.
Of course, I didn’t bring my beach-wear. As the same friend confirms when the first thing he asked me was, “have you brought your switer?” (that’s how Indonesians pronounce sweater), we pack to prepare for the unfamiliar, that being cold and unpredictable weather. We could well call our actions an excessive reaction to the future cold because I sure as hell packed a lot of switers. Which aren’t much use at this time of the year.
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4:10 AM
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Thursday, August 06, 2009
The flight of the escapist.
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3:35 AM
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Friday, July 17, 2009
Shine.
But these past few years have been a bit different, although I didn’t notice it at first. People work hard and are generally happy. There’s been more good news about Indonesia in the media than I have ever remembered. Even without government facilities, the Indonesian art world, movie industry, and music industry is blossoming with new talents of international marketability. You hear people annoyed that ignorant western media coin jargons like “The Rise of Asia” but upon further reading they only mean China and India. We become like hungry scavengers clinging on to every shiny object we can find, only to find that there are many, and many more to create. And then we start creating our own shiny objects. Every team I coach, every transactional advice I give is tinged with a desire to prove our professional savvy. In conversations with foreigners, I find myself slipping casual anecdotes on the liberal, intellectual, tolerant, and colorful people that we are. Just in case they hadn’t noticed. And there are so many others working hard to establish our place in the world. And then we start to gain pride and momentum, as a nation and as an individual.
And that is what the terrorists destroy.
-In memory of Garth McEvoy, may he rest in peace-
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at
8:47 PM
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Wednesday, July 01, 2009
The Ruthless Dictator of My Weekends
In my perfect world, I would be the grand designer and ruthless dictator of my weekends. But alas, we are gregarious creatures, and one must make room for dissent, democracy, compromise and relationships. Which leads us to weddings.
Weddings??
Yes well, the shocking truth is that I dislike weddings. Shocking because, in a world where wedding invitations arrive at your doorstep for every weekend within the foreseeable semester (via post, e-mail, sms, or lately via facebook), and local tailors build impressive empires out of sewing wedding-party outfits, and wedding parties create traffic jams within a 1 km radius of the venue, it is shocking indeed that I am not enthusiastic about weddings.
If I had my way, I would attend only the weddings of my close friends and relatives, where I could genuinely rejoice in their joyful moments. I would happily get a new dress tailored, put my hair up at the hairdressers, battle through the weekend traffic, and walk from my faraway parking lot to the venue in my stilettos to achieve this. But for the 70% of other wedding invitations from people not classified as “close friends and relatives” which I attend due to the commonly accepted norm that invitations must be fulfilled unless there is Force Majeure, I feel cheated out of My Weekends by society.
My personal preference is not that I could reject invitations at ease, because invitations are a goodwill gesture which one must appreciate. Rather, it is that people should not feel obliged to invite as many people as they can and hold the biggest weddings they can afford. This idea may not gel well with prevailing cultures, but at least consider how the traffic and limited parking space challenges one’s delicate balance of sanity.
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12:52 PM
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
See you at the mall.
Lacking creativity, I took my mom to the mall. We queued and circled around for parking space for over 15 minutes, and finally waited on a family that were walking back to their car. As we waited, another car pulled up right beside us with its nose blocking our path, vulgarly laying claim to the parking space. Fighting ensued, during the course of which my mom, a very sweet and mild-mannered person, made angry racist comments to the other party. And then deciding that parking space was too superficial to be fought over, we haughtily drove away and abandoned the mall. I’ve often thought that going to the mall on holidays and weekends is a pretty bad idea. Now I’m pretty certain it’s a pretty bad idea.
I also have a particular aversion with certain types of people you meet at the mall, which I’ve categorized as follows (please excuse me if I step on a few toes here):
- Ladies with Branded Monogram Bags. I see so many Louis Vuitton’s I can barely appreciate it anymore (not that I ever did). It is neither exclusive nor sophisticated. Especially when they come with gaudy cherry prints. Multiple-printed logos look rather like gift-wrapping too, don’t they.
- Ladies Who Lunch with Big Hair. Middle-aged ladies who lunch with about 10 girlfriends during work-hours because they probably do not need to have a job, and they are dressed to the nines at a mall, and their tresses of hair look fresh out of the hairdresser, puffed out and stiff with hairspray. They look like people who are suffering hair-loss and trying to camouflage it.
- Ladies in a Veil with their Hotpanted / Tanktopped Teenage Daughter. Nothing wrong with either, but the two paired together is a sight that is just awkwardly lopsided.
- Ladies who Can’t Walk. Because their heels are too high. Therefore they do not swing their legs like normal people, but sort of walk with awkward determined knee-lifting strides. It looks painful.
- Ladies who are Blinged-Out. Too much accesory is overkill. Some ladies wear big earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings all in one because heck, they love all their bling and can’t decide which one to leave at home.
- Ladies with Two Toddlers and Two Nannies. The lady sits, eating her salad, staring pensively into open space. Her toddlers, of enough age to eat by themselves, are being spoon-fed, mouth-wiped, and fussed over by their respective nannies. Once in a while she looks at her children with unconvincing concern, tosses her well-permed curls with her well-manicured hands and resumes eating in silence.
So if you don’t go to the mall where do you go? That’s a good question. After exiting the mall parking lots, I took mom for late lunch at Hong Kong Café (which was very parking-friendly by the way), and we ate hot dimsums in the late afternoon sun. Much better.
(Speaking of malls, check this out it's wild:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdD0j6wmMNc&feature=fvst
Posted by
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at
11:41 PM
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Prepping for August
I need to get:
- a brand new spanking silver Macbook that will never contract a virus no matter what I plug into it and with a built-in camera for conference calls with the bf, to replace my perfectly functioning but boring HP Compaq;
- a shiny new blackberry, for unlimited virtual chats with all my friends in Jakarta who all have blackberries already and think I’m a dinosaur because I don’t see the point in getting one yet;
- a kick-ass SLR camera to artfully immortalize the land abroad in the spring, summer, autumn and winter; and
- a velvet black designer trench coat because where else will I have a reason to dress like Audrey Hepburn?
- knowledge to survive random discussions with classmates (“Oh I think the stimulus bill may or may not turn out to be a success depending on …”);
- documents and plane-tickets and rents and no one to cook your food for you and how to read a map and how to fix your laptop by yourself without the help of mas-mas Ratu Plaza; and
- saving up for an array of books that I will not be able to pirate the way I pirated all my undergrad books.
Posted by
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9:21 AM
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Alhamdulillah
I might as well say how profoundly grateful I am most of the time.
Posted by
Teez
at
9:33 AM
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Clean Breaks.
I wonder if there are clean breaks from the way I was last year.
I’m hoping the answer lies dormant like an expressionist painting, a tangle of meaningless brush-strokes when viewed up close, but crystal clear when you look from a distance. I’m hoping that if viewers take a step back and look at the big picture, they’ll find that there’s no need for me to worry and I’m already doing all the right things and I will get there eventually if I put my heart to it. Get where? Get to a place where I will prioritize the right things, the right people, and be of use to others in need. And that would mean learning not to yield.
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1:04 PM
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
a healthy dose of optimism
1. Indonesia is no longer a 3rd world country. We are acknowledged as one of the 20 most significant economies of the world. So if someone says Indonesia is a 3rd world country, you can say “Haha. What age do you live in?”
2. Indonesia’s rise from the ‘97-‘98 monetary crisis is a globally acknowledged success story which today’s crisis-ridden economies would like to learn from.
3. Whereas traditionally Asian countries have been exporters and the west has been the consumer, we could be experiencing a shift where the west will be the exporters and we will be the consumers.
Went out of the seminar feeling a little jolly and optimistic, and thought a little celebration would be appropriate to close off the evening. So we headed off to the aptly named Social House, which on a Tuesday night was busy and packed with an unpretentious crowd and felt very 1st world.
“To the 1st world”, said the bf, raising his glass.
“To consumerism”, said I, raising mine.
And then we had a good laugh at how silly we were. In my heart though, I felt a growing passion to become a part of the energy driving Indonesia forward.
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12:12 PM
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