Inkless

A few things going on right now, the most important of which is an agonizing wait for the results of of my final round interview with a leading economics consulting firm. I feel I did fine during the interview and case, but who knows? These things tend to have a way of surprising you.

(This next paragraph is for those who are interested in the otherwise boring on-goings of economics)

My thesis which is about the One Child Policy and its Effects of Women’s Education, is coming along daintily. I have found a newer, more trustworthy dataset, but it will limit my usage of certain statistical methods. I will have to check in with my advisor to make sure it’ll work. I am getting a nice self-led crash course introduction to SAS though.

On the entertainment front, a few items of note.

Fast and Furious was good. It wasn’t deep, or intellectually stimulating, but from a auto-head POV, it was pretty sweet (minus that atrocious MY2009 STi). I really liked the beginning which paid homage to one of the forgotten greats in American muscle history – the Buick Grand National. These turbo’d Regals are in my mind, still the epitome of no frills American power.

Of course, this movie featured a lot of great cars, including a whole myriad of American classics as well as an awesome scene with an R32, R34 and GTR Nissan Skylines. Honestly, I even thought the fighting scenes weren’t half bad. If you can get over the cringe of a few typical F&F lines, then go watch it!

Rhythm Heaven (リズム天国ゴールド) for the Nintendo DS.  With the release of the “new” Nintends DSi, recently released games have not been given the spotlight they deserve. I recently started playing this gem of a game and it is wonderful. It’s like a good mix of Warioware with Elite Beat Agents. It is a collection of rhythm-based mini-games that are all very original and clever. This is the kind of game the DS was made for. Hours of boredom assassination! Check the quick vid of the mini-games in action:

Khalil Fong, a.k.a. 方大同 (Fang Datong). Mr. Fong here (courtesy of my wonderful Serena) has answered my prayers for some different Chinese music. Born in Hawaii then moving to Shanghai (yes!) when he was 6, Khalil possess a less prototypical sound. He a stronger idea of bass and rhythm than his peers and I personally think he sounds Mraz-ish. An added bonus is that his English pronunciation is native, so when he adds that English phrase between the mandarin, it doesn’t add all that cheesiness.

Here are few songs of note:

(1) Love Song from the album Wonderland

(2) Singalongsong (English) from the album Orange Moon

(3) 三人游 (pinyin: san ren you) from the album Orange Moon

Whew. That was a good, long post.

‘Tis all.