Thursday, July 30, 2009

The ultimate researcher

It took me a long time to realize, but after living with this post-doc for almost one and half year I can finally appreciate why there are so many Chinese professionals in the field of communications engineering research. They work hard. They are smart, and they are diligent. Take my roommate, that post-doc, for example. He is an extreme case, but it's easy to generalize to others. Here below are how he does research.
  1. He skips meals to do research, and now average a-meal-a-day only. He would cook 3 meals per week, and starve himself until the 3 meals lasts the entire week. He wasn't like this last year, but I guess pressure from boss can easily destroy your lifestyle, especially you are getting paid $30k a year, a luxury sum for a post-doc.
  2. He makes minimum contact and friends except colleagues in the lab. He makes no attempt to make new friends except colleagues. But I guess when you need full front concentration on research, this is the result you would have. I'm making minimum contacts as well, especially friends of opposite sex, which would mean a lot more time spent if you are in a relationship.
  3. He spends frugally. Unless necessary, spending is restricted only to meals and weekly grocery bills. Again, I'm doing that since being a student, full concentration is necessary, and others are just luxury. I just hope I can be like that for another four years in the Ph.D. program.
After years of practice and refinement, you would finally be the ultimate researcher, but then that is an extreme case. :D

But, of course, some people is special and their lifestyle greatly differs.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Baffling questions for Christians

My late night drinking spree with fellowship goers brought forth my renewed interest in questioning Christian beliefs. For Christians who are reading my blog, I encourage you to answer the following questions. These are probably some of the most baffling questions yet to be answered or already have been answered.
  1. Can I be a Christian while be a believer in the Darwinian Theory of Evolution?
  2. Does I being Christian mean supporting Israel apartheid of West Bank and Gaza Strip?
That's all for now. Perhaps more to come later.

speed_demon