Happy New Year!

Apparently I only made one post in all of 2011.  A few updates:

• Danny and Tianyi both graduated last year
• We picked up a new roommate, Senan
• Tom and Duncan are applying for astrophysics/physics grad schools
• Senior spring!!!

After a summer in banking, I realized that I wasn’t actually very interested in finance.  I came into college with ideas of picking stocks for a career but grew disillusioned along the way.  Stock-picking is fun, to be sure, but I like it more as a hobby.  Banking and trading are not that related to fundamental investing, so I decided to focus on finding a tech or consulting job during senior recruiting.  Fall recruiting proved to be much better for me than junior recruiting, and that can probably be attributed to more interview experience and practice.  In the end, I got my top choice at a large tech firm, and I continue to feel very lucky.  Switching to computer science was definitely one of the best decisions that I made in college.

As for senior spring plans, Tom and I want to rent Zipcars every few weekends and explore New England.

I’ve been home for almost two weeks now, and it’s been very relaxing to be able to read and exercise on a regular schedule.

Summer!

The first several weeks of this semester were quite possibly the most stressful ones I’ve ever had.  Junior recruiting season for me was marked by an exorbitant number of rejections.  In the end, I got an internship at an investment bank in Chicago, and the people there seem very nice, so I look forward to working with them this summer.

One positive aspect of recruiting (and probably the only one) was the inducement of self-reflection.  I have never delved so deeply into what my true desires are, and I feel more complete with regards to self-understanding as a result of the process.  Will investment banking be a good choice for me right after college, or will I be happier going with a startup?  Even if I am immediately happier working at a startup, which decision is better in the long term?  I suppose I’ll be able to answer these questions better after this summer.

And yes, I have been neglecting this blog for the entire semester.  It’s now summer, and I have a week of free time before I go to Chicago, but I’m not really sure what to do.

Amazon Prime

This is very old news by now, but in case you haven’t heard, students with a valid .edu email address are eligible for one free year of Amazon Prime, a service that provides free two-day shipping and would otherwise cost $80 a year.  When I first signed up for it, I never imagined that it would drastically change my shopping habits, both online and offline.

Freshman year, our room was located right across the street from the 24-hour CVS, and I frequently made trips to buy a single item.  Since moving to an upperclassmen dorm, I’ve treated the four block walk to CVS as an arduous pilgrimage of sorts that is worth trekking at most every couple of weeks.

With Prime, instead of walking to a store, I just click a few buttons with my mouse and have items delivered in two days.  Something just feels weird about ordering a single pack of mechanical pencils online instead of walking a few blocks, but my physical laziness usually gets the best of me.

An aside: when buying food, Nabisco’s 100-calorie pack snacks are not really worth it.  I paid $20 for the equivalent of 28 ounces of crackers (although the portion control aspect of the packaging was successful).

Now, is this service worth paying for after the free period expires?  Unless I double my shopping frequency, probably not.

Commuting

Damn it.   I wrote a draft of this post in July with the intention of finalizing it the next week:

China in nutshell: lots of people

“”"
July 18 – Commuting takes a toll on your life. We spend a significant portion of our time moving from one place to another without engaging in any sort of stimulating activity, e.g. staring at a subway door for an hour. I’ve suggested before that everyone should just learn how to play blindfold chess to make waiting more bearable (“hey stranger, e4″).

Despite how kickass that scenario would be, it will forever remain a (very geeky) dream. Yesterday , I transferred some Japanese audio lessons to my mp3 player, so we’ll see if I can be productive during an otherwise wasted part of my day.
“”"

Now that I remember having this plan, I recall that it wasn’t too successful.  I managed to get through 6 half-hour lessons over the course of a week, but it was just too troublesome to listen carefully to audio lessons on the subway.  Constantly readjusting the volume to counter the noise of the train, getting shuffled around by the throngs of people, and checking my pockets every five seconds due to fear of pickpockets were factors that weren’t very conducive to learning.  Maybe I should try doing this again during my daily commute to Vanserg.

Someone took the name “blandfill” a little too literally

and left a pair of extremely soiled briefs in our dropbox.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/10/4/li-dropbox-quincy-over/