It's been so long since I posted anything. For awhile, I lost interest to blog, I felt I don't have anything interesting to say and my creative juice is gone. But guess what, as of Friday, I felt to urge to write again...
Let see, here's the recap of something significant in my career since my last post-
1. Earned my Fellowship. No more actuarial exams!!!
2. Rotated to a new position
3. Got a promotion- now I have a team of 4 to manage!
Life has been great and I feel grateful for everything so far.
Like what A likes to say, You've come a long way, baby...You've come a long way...
But the thing is- You still have a long way to go, baby!
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."-Howard Thurman
I bought two mangoes the other day
When I was eating one
I thought of giving one to you
In a hot summer day
You bought a big mango
You, me and my sister shared it together
It was a good memory
The radio was playing your favorite Cantonese opera songs
My hands were sticky from the mango juice
you told me to wash my hands before I took a nap
And I was happy
We had so little
But we had so much love from you
Happy early mother's day, grandma!
This poem is for you :)
I love Lady Gaga- her music and also her open-mindedness. Every once in awhile, she would said something really insightful during interviews.
She said the following during the interview with Larry King,
"Well, I’m looking for love just like everyone else, Larry. But right now love is in the form of my fans. Love comes in many different forms. Right now I’m passionately only serving them."
Just want to share this comic here. This is pretty much what a lot of us are experiencing right now but don't have the guts to admit it. Thanks CK for the link!
An insurance company likes having the actuaries and finance folks to volunteer at the local parks. Particularly mulching at the children's playground.
Each time after completing the mulching work, the CFO would put up a sign, right next to the swings. Then pictures would be taken for the company's marketing campaign. The sign was written as, "Our mulching is as good as our products, both are safe enough for you and your children to fall back on."
(The above story was partially fictional, but I thought it would be a good commercial ad for any insurance companies. It's two birds in one stone- building good reputation around the community for the volunteering and a good tagline.:))
My company has a running/walking challenge. People within the company can form their own teams to log in how many miles they've walked or ran during this month. I don't really run, I signed up because of the cool t-shirt.
And guess what the actuaries named their team? The calorie reserve team.
What about the team captain? The actuarial pedestrian. :)
My favorite part of Billy Elliot.
"Cos what the hell is wrong with expressing yourself
For wanting to be me?"
"Everyone is different
It's the natural state
It's the facts, it's plain to see,
The world's grey enough without making it worse
What we need is in-div-id-ual-ity."
Love this song. The original of this is actually a Cantonese song by Jacky Cheung.
“Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you’re wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn’t love you anymore.”
—Lady Gaga in the April issue of Cosmopolitan [Page Six]
I like this quote from Lady Gaga. Yet here's my question- what if your dream is to follow men and your career is to be a homemaker?
At a conference call with some actuaries and financial analysts:
Financial Analyst: My DAC is too small. And I'm not happy with it
Actuary A: Excuse me, your what is too small? I can't hear you!
Actuary B: I think you may need to call some helpline or counseling service, we can't help you with that. And it's not that appropriate to discuss such private matter in a conference call, don't you think?
DAC (pronounced as "Dack") means Deferrable Acquisition Costs. It's a common daily GAAP term in our work. In FAS 60, the acquisition costs vary with and are primarily related to the acquisiton of new and renewal insurance contracts, e.g. commissions, issue costs and underwriting costs.
Sometimes if you don't say the word clearly, other people may think you are saying another word which means a human body part.
Watched with 80s comedy classic last night.
Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
I forgot to bring my towel to the spinning class this morning.
Big mistake!
After the class, when I walked into the changing room, a lady thought it was raining outside because I looked soaking wet.
Heard it from a chief actuary during a meeting:
You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
I heard this song at my cycling class this morning.
A little bit of Valentine's day spirit here. Happy Valentine's Day!
Everybody wants to love
Everybody wants to be loved....
1. When I exercise everyday
2. When I have a healthy breakfast
3. When I take my vitamins
4. When I get a hair cut every 6 weeks
5. When I shower twice a day
6. Stay hydrated (borrowed this from Sean, didn't realise it earlier)
7. When I think positive and optimistic
8. When I am reading a good book
9. When I am learning
10. When I get up early
11. When I get at least 7 hours of sleep
12. When I have something witty to blog
13. When I dance once a week
14. When I talk to my friends or family
15. When I am generous
16. When I am kind
17. When I feel creative
18. When I pour my heart into the tasks at hand
19. When I come up with solutions to a challenging problem
20. When I travel once in awhile
Snowing is a big deal here. So far, we've been having 3 days off due to the snow storm. When I was living in the mid-west, I don't remember my school or my office were closed due to inclement weather. Time has changed, nowadays snow storms across many states of different regions are not uncommon.
Here's the timeline of what happened in a typical snow day:
8:00am -Leaving my place, brushing off snow and scraping off ice on the windshield.
8:05am -On my way to work
8:10am - Got a voice message from the office - the office is going to open at 11am due to the weather.
8:11am - Made an U-turn and went back to my place to chill.
....
10:30am- About to get ready for work second time of the day. Brushing off snow and scraping off ice again.
10:35am - On my way to work. The road condition was messy.
10:36am - Got another voice message from the office - "For employees who haven't come to the office yet, please be adviced to stay home."
10:37am, - Made a careful U-turn and go home. Yay!
Boss A: Thank you for everybody's hard work during the year end. Y'all are going to have an extra day off this year.
Crowd: Hurray!!! (Clapping and cheers)
Boss B: Oh, some restrictions apply- you can take the time off only on the weekends. See your managers for details.
I don't know why you want to friend me on Facebook.
Are we friends?
Do we have a connection?
There are only two things I know about you:
1. You disliked my present at the Christmas Party.
2. You have a distinctive sneeze.
I guess we all have different definitions of what friends mean.
Every time when it's snowing, it reminds me of Christmas. It also reminds me of how fortunate I am to have a warm and safe place. I am also grateful that I use a laptop for work. And that means I can work from home under severe weather. And you know what makes me happy? A friend lives across the street called me up to make sure I'm all right during the snow storm. :)
Heard this song from Julie and Julia. Good songs make me happy. :)
