Routine: Good or Evil?

Something very odd happened on Thursday, June 19. I took the day off work to go for my sister's call-to-the-bar at the Roy Thompson Hall. In simple language, she was taking oath as a Lawyer on that day.

I woke up later than my usual time, wore a nice dress, reached the venue on time and seated myself in a nice spot. An hour into the ceremony, suddenly my brain flashed a signal that I had somehow forgotten to brush my teeth! For good five minutes, I tried to recall whether I actually had forgotten, or whether my brain was playing games with me. In reality, I had definitely forgotten to brush my teeth. This was the first timer!

See what routine does to you; I am so used to waking up at 6am and getting ready for work. A little deviation from my usual routine is enough to upset it :)
Or, may be I am getting old and forgetful.

Either ways, it is quite amusing that I went for my sister's call-to-the-bar without brushing my teeth :)

Second-Year Course Bidding

Rotman utilizes a bidding system for the second-year courses.

We are allotted 1000 bidding points and are required to take 10 courses in the second-year. Bidding does not necessarily guarantee that you will get the course of your choice. In fact, if two students bid the same number of points for the same course, Rotman randomly allots the course to one of the students'. A few courses are extremely high in demand. The bidding points can go as high as 500 for one course, which means you have to somehow manage with the 500 points for the rest of your nine courses. The system is frustrating, because you cannot get all the courses of your choice!

Fair? I would say, Not! My reasoning is that I am paying $60K in tuition at Rotman. Hence, I have the right to take the courses of my choice. I should not have to decide between two equally important courses.

Hitesh made an interesting comment the other day. He said,"Well, Rotman is teaching you to manage an investment portfolio with the bidding system". After that remark, I looked at the bidding system from a slightly different perspective. One of the valuable lessons that I learnt from our Finance class is that; there is no such thing as "free money". If I want to make money in the stock market, I have to increase my tolerance for risk and invest in various stocks and bonds. In short, I have to have a diversified portfolio. I can either make millions, or loose everything. Similarly, If I want to diversify my course-portfolio, I will have to take chances with my bidding points.

While I am still not willing to sacrifice certain courses, I am willing to apply Game Theory to the bidding system. I have an excel spreadsheet set up to walk me through the bidding system. Nerdy? Definitely! :)

I am looking forward to the bidding results. Can I get all 10 courses of my choice?

Let's wait and watch the wonders of my excel spreadsheet :)

Swimming 101

Hitesh and I started swimming lessons a few weeks back.

Hitesh has never taken lessons before. Hitesh has taken three classes till date and I have taken four. The motivation to start swimming arises from the fact that Hitesh wants to start surfing in California next Summer. Also, we want to maintain an active lifestyle. Another possible inspiration for Hitesh could be - Hollister :)

Our weekly schedule includes one lesson and three practice swims. Hitesh is more motivated than I am. This realization came through when Hitesh, who could not even blow bubbles the first day and was afraid to put his head inside the water, got his swim on in the second lesson! He can do the Front Crawl from one end of the pool to another without any aids (No Kidding!)

On the other hand, I am still struggling with getting my kicking in action. And, the worse part is that I have taken these lessons before :( The good bit is that I can swim like a fish with the fins.

I must admit initially, I was not at all confident about Hitesh's swimming skills considering that he wants to start surfing within a year! Needless to say, I was very-very surprised to see him do so well.

I realized about two weeks back while watching him front crawl, that if you want something really-really bad, you will triple your efforts to move in that direction. People tell me Surfing is really hard. You need at least three years to gain expertise in it.

I guess I am married to a "triple-your-efforts" person - Surfing in 2009 might not be just a dream.

Blogging Status

I started blogging last year. After a few posts, I became paranoid about my online presence and deleted the blog. I should have saved all the entries somewhere. Alas! When paranoia takes over, sanity is lost.

This blog is a second attempt to capture some of Life's "Aha" moments - I have decided to put my blogging hat on...hopefully for long this time :)