Trip to Key West

I went to the Key West in this winter holiday. Key West is a very beautiful island located in the southernmost of Florida, and of course, also the southernmost of The United States of America. After 4-hour’s drive from Miami, we arrived at this beautiful place. Because it is in the tropical area, so it has no winter. The average temperature there in December can be as high as 80F. Palm trees grow all around the island. Houses there are mostly in the Central American style. We can hardly find these things in Toledo. It seems that residents here are very rich because many of them have famous dogs in their homes. Sports car were seen everywhere on the street. I think the blooming economics here are resulted from its great tourism. But because it is a tourist attraction and a small island, the price here is typically high! I bought a normal swimming pants for 50 dollars in the Key West. Residents here are living a very peaceful but also exciting life. They love swimming (Key West has one of the best beaches in the U.S), fishing, diving… They are born to love water-related activities. Ethnicity of residents can be mainly divided into three parts. One is original people. The other two kinds are people who immigrated from the mainland of the United States and Central American world like Mexico, Cuban (very close). A great number of immigrants from overseas make Spanish the second mostly used language in this island. I really love this place because of its very attractive scenery and unique mixed culture.

There are only two people in China speaking the truth

In modern China, There are only two people in China speaking the truth! One is the professor in Chinese University of Hongkong, Xianping Lang. And the other is the colonel in the army, Xu Dai. Xu uses very detailed example and logical anaysis to gragh the future of china and the difficulties China are facing right now.

Nowadays, everone are pursuing GDP and nobody cares about how GDP comes from. The are two real examples in the history of China. GDP of China was highest in the world in Song and Qing dynasty. But both dynasties didn't get away from the fate of the death. Why is that. Because their GDP came from the lower level of industry production. Western countries inhibit China to produce higher level of production. Like ipod, the design is in U.S but production is in China. So although China has very high GDP, it will not get away the control of other countries if China don't focus on higher level of production.

Thinking about getting the green card

I am dreaming of getting the green card one day. This country will limited me a lot in improvement because of my indentity. There are three ways to get the green card. One is chosen by most of international students. They will choose to get hired by a company. Then the company will apply for green card for them. The second way is by marriage. The third way is through investment. And the last way is through political asylum. Of course for me, I will choose the first way if nothing surprising happened. But only the best students can be hired by companies in U.S. Because those companies are required to hire american students first then international students. And they have to provo to immigration bureau that this postion can't be qualified by U.S citizens. They also have to pay $5000 to apply H1B visas for those international students. And things are not over after you get the H1B visa, you have to apply for green card with 20% possibility. So it is really hard for international students to stay in U.S.

About China's Economy in 2010

I am very worried about China's economy in 2010. Every one knows that China's GDP increases by 10% last year. 2009 is the year when the global economy crisis is most serious. GDP in every other countries except China decreased a lot. Why only China is increasing? There must be some problem in it.Every thing can't be away from the world rule including China. Then I found that most of China's GDP comes from those fundamental building like real estate, freeway, port and rail roads. But where? They are western area of China. Those places are less developed and don't need such many things. Put a lot of funds in these area will lead to very serious production overcapacity. Although it will help to increase GDP in short amount of time. But the problem of overcapacity will appear very soon. The government should put a lot of money in increasing wages of citizens to increase consumption. So year 2010 will be very complex for China.

I gave a talk in the ward today

I gave a talk about how I joined the church today. I feel really exciting about my experience of joining the church. This was actually my first public talk in the LDS church and I expressed everything I felt about the experience. I used to be in faith of Buddhism which affect every one born in China since they were very young. But I've never felt the spirit about it and I failed in the College Entrance Exam although my parents go to the Buddhism temple to ask for blessing many times. Then I come to U.S for bachelor's degree in University of Toledo. After one semester, I plan to transfer to another better university which is BYU. Two missionaries knew me through my application to BYU. They come to my home and taught me scriptures every week. And I clearly feel the spirit exist the first time when I try to pray. Later I joined the church and I got the blessings in all aspects.

I am too lazy these days!

Maybe because there are no exams for this week, I feel very reliefed. I have slept for more than 11 hours every day. Then it makes me have no time to do the homework. And I nearly missed the quiz for my econ 382 class. Heavenly father seemed punish me this week for my action. I earned very less money on my work for this week. I have already confessed my miss at church. Heavenly father told me,"No matter how many things you have to do everyday, you must keep hard working in order to stay away from lazy." I decided to follow this. I will be the actuary in the future. I still have a lot of designation exams to pass. So I can't only use requirements from college to require myself. I have to require myself more, like review for those designation exams everyday for at least three hours. Hope that I can do it for the next week.

Study in Spring and Summer

I plan to take both spring and summer term during the Summer holiday. I have attended a immigration lecture given in WSC this Saturday. It's really important for me to get the internship as soon as possilble. I will have the chance to get the extended 17-month OPT after graduate. If I can't find any company to sponsor H1B visa during that period, I will lose the identity in United States immediately. So I have to finish a series of important courses in order to pass some designation exams and fulfill some credits at the same time. My major is actuarial science. So I have to pass several professional exams to get the chance of interview. I will have two interviews with AON and Mercer on the coming Tuesday. Good luck to me.

PETER PASSELL. “Cheapest Protection of Nature May Lie In Taxes, Not Laws” New York Times, November 24, 1992

The article expresses the idea that the environment pollution and waste of resource can be solved by put taxes on polluters and waste producers (Green Tax). The government used to spent large amount of money on controlling the pollution and waste by offset some regulations. The result was not as good as people expected while the society had to burden much cost on it. If the producers pay the full cost of pollution, pollution will reduce immediately and the government can receive a large amount of revenue on it while the cost is very cheap.
But the disadvantages of green tax appear at the same time. Firstly, it is difficult to calculate the cost of pollution or the negative externalities. Secondly, it is unfair to the poor people while most of them live near the landfills and busy highways.
I think the “green tax” is a great idea because if producers are imposed taxes equals to negative externalities, they will surely reduce the output and raise the price at the same time. Although “green tax” will bring some disadvantages, advantages it brings will be more obvious. “Green tax” can be more efficient than offsetting pollution regulations.
The “green tax” involves much microeconomics principles. The pollutions described in the article like noise, poisonous air and so on are all negative externalities. They are costs that arise from production but falls on people other than producers. Only if the external cost is considered, the society can achieve an efficient equilibrium. The “green tax” is a good way to achieve efficient equilibrium.

Future is nice

I don’t what was wrong with me recently. I was thinking everything in the future. And I found that a lot of things in the future can be very nice. Like I can buy a Lamborghini (which is my dream car) only if I can earn $100,000 a year. After the business management class, I learned that if can deposit $3000 every month to the bank or buy the bond, I then can get more than $200,000 in five years. How about housing? I can buy a house worth more than $1,000,000. My girl friend and I will pay $5000 every month pay off all the debt in 30 years. This is not big burden. So buying a house immediately you have income is really a great choice. Maybe after 30 years, when the house is yours, you can sell it and exchange to a bigger house because the appreciation of your house. Besides, doing some small investment can also bring me a lot of magic weath.

Buy stranger a chicken cheeseburger

I first felt very embarrassed to do this assignment. But I had to do and I was also a little bit curious about the result. So I went to Wendy’s this Saturday afternoon. I deliberately bought two chicken cheeseburgers and I knew that I was only able to eat one. Then I found a table with a man sitting at the opposite site to sit. We were both calm at the beginning and I was always thinking how to give the extra chicken cheeseburger to that man. Then I found the way to do. I said to that man, “Excuse me sir, I think I am too full to eat this chicken cheeseburger. Would you like to take that? It’s for free of course.” I thought he must be glad to receive it. It is really a good deal, doesn’t it? But he said, “Thank you, I think I am very full right now too. You can bring it home for tomorrow ‘s breakfast.” “ Yeah, this is really a good advice.” I replied. Although he didn’t accept my food, we began a very nice talk since then. I think buying stranger food or drink is a good way to know new friends without embarrassment.

I have made a great decision

I made a great decision this week. That is I have withdrawn from STAT 336. I finally dropped this class because I had no time to finish the project which would due last Wednesday. It would cost me more than 30 hours to do which would leave me no time to study for other courses. I had one exam on last Friday. I had planned to double major in accounting but now it seems impossible. The program requires me to finish almost all the major courses before this summer. But STAT 336 has 6 credits. I still think this is a great decision I have ever made. Because I don’t want to use grades “C”s in other classes to get a B in this class. And I will learn nothing from this course too. Fortunately, STAT will be separated into 3 courses in the next semester. Thus I can have less burden but learn some real knowledge.

My crazy trip to L.A

I made a crazy trip to L.A at this weekend. One of my best freinds come to San Diego for a couple of weeks' communication study. I drove for 10.5 hrs directly from Provo to San Diego to take my friend on the Thursday night. When I arrived, it was already the Friday afternoon. I was so tired but we had to drove to L.A immediately. But we then got into the heavy traffic on the I-5 to L.A metro area. I arrived at the hotel very late in the evening. Yesterday, we cruised out to see dophins and whales. I really couldn't believe that there are so many dophins swimming around our boat. But we rarely saw Pacific Grey Whales. But it was really nice to see when they blowed out water. At night, we went to Beverly Hills to spot exotic cars. There, we almost saw all kinds of expensive cars. Tonight we will head to Las Vegas and tomorrow I will drive back to Provo. There is still a lot of homework waiting for me!

Disgusting STAT 336 Homework!

Here’s what I am thinking of the STAT 336’s homework. If I worked by myself, I will work for over 20 hours for everyday’s assignment which means I will have no time to eat and sleep except doing the STAT 336 homework. Leaving time to study for other courses is just imagination. So I choose to work together with another student, but it still will cost me more than 10 hours to do every assignment. The course STAT 336 itself is not difficult. But the thing is that our homework seems to have very little relationship with what we learned in the class. We have to solve every problem by searching tons of materials. So the class itself seems very useless. I don’t know how other students do the homework. But I will not doubt my self-study ability. Because I get all “A”s last semester mostly through my self-study and my courses are all very difficult (STAT 336 is easier than most of them and I had 18 credits). But now I can sleep for only 3 hours every day all because of STAT 336 homework.

A great miracle happened to me!

I really think this is the great gift from the heavenly father. I passed the exam P (probability test) hold by the Society of Actuary this Saturday. This is really a super hard test that combined with a lot of staffs from calculus, statistics, probability and risk management. And there are no easy problems in the test, only hard ones. Because of the difficulty, students usually only need to get 60% of the scores to pass the test. But this is still very challenging. The most important thing is that I didn’t prepare it until 2 days before the test and I haven’t taken the course STAT 470 (P exam preparing course) yet. Many students in BYU can’t pass the exam P even after they take the STAT470. Because of this, I have really a peaceful heart to go over materials and not nervous at all. I’ve just remember some formulas before the test. During the test, I spent all of the time to do 20 out of 30 problems which I have the hope to solve them out. And the rest of 10, I gave them all answer E. I’ve already ready to pay another 200 dollars to register the next test. Finally, after I clicked the “submit the test”, a big “Congratulations…” come to my eyes. I am very happy that I’ve passed the exam P and I can also waive the course STAT 470.

First week of the new semester

The first week of the winter semester has passed. I am wondering why the time can go so fast. The final week of the last semester is still like yesterday. I really don’t want to start the new semester in such a hurry because I am even not well prepared. More exactly, I want to have a rest for a few more days. But no ways! BYU is such a competitive place.

I am nearly crazy this semester. I have chosen 21 credits of class. ECON 282, ECON 388, STAT 336, STAT474, ACC 210, MCOM 320! All major cores! But I believe my ability to handle them out. I will be an actuary in the future and an actuary should have the ability to burden such pressure. Besides, I will work in a restaurant on every Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s evening. I f I can also get all “A”s this time, I will be my hero.

The next week is coming. The real time to challenge will begin. Am I ready? Let’s see…

First week of the new semester

The first week of the winter semester has passed. I am wondering why the time can go so fast. The final week of the last semester is still like yesterday. I really don’t want to start the new semester in such a hurry because I am even not well prepared. More exactly, I want to have a rest for a few more days. But no ways! BYU is such a competitive place.

I am nearly crazy this semester. I have chosen 21 credits of class. ECON 282, ECON 388, STAT 336, STAT474, ACC 210, MCOM 320! All major cores! But I believe my ability to handle them out. I will be an actuary in the future and an actuary should have the ability to burden such pressure. Besides, I will work in a restaurant on every Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s evening. I f I can also get all “A”s this time, I will be my hero.

The next week is coming. The real time to challenge will begin. Am I ready? Let’s see…