0802 To Mr. Buffett.

~rewritten~

Mr. Buffett, my name is Chou, Chung-Jen. We have met in the elevator at Photonic Building of Boston University on July 28. At that time, I mentioned I can improve you company's investment model so that you can increase the profits of your investments.

First of all, in order to increase profits, the investment model has to sell and buy financial products in the exact time. The investment model which I designed can detect the recession of economy. Before the prices of stock markets and commodities slide sharply, the investment model knows it according to latest economic data and sells these financial products. This model also shows when investors can buy the financial products which are worthy to own or have potential profits. My investment model made my customers successfully avoid losing their money in the recession in 2007.

In addition, my investment model has successful risk-control. The perfect allocation of investments makes perfect risk-control. Depending on the economic changes, my investment model adjusts the allocation of investments. For example, while economy goes down, the model will increase the part of bonds and decrease the part of stocks, and the model will do opposite actions while economy goes up.

Finally, I compared the return on investment of my model to the return on investment of your company in the same period. My investment model made higher profits than the profits your company made. Moreover, most my customers who used my investment model earned about 27.6% per year in the past 5 years. These evidences show my investment model can really increase your company’s profits.

0801 podcast: the economic recovery

The podcast chiefly describes the economic situation in this quarter. According to the latest economic data, it shows the worst economy will happen in the third quarter this year. Compared to 6.4 percent decline of the nation’s output earlier this year, 1 percent decline of the nation’s output in the second quarter this year represents that economic crisis is getting eased. The reporter, Jack Healy, also mentioned that even though most economists believe economy will start to recover before the end of this year, the unemployment rate will not drop down as soon as the economic recovery. People still save their money and not increase their expense, so the period of economic recovery will last longer than a half year. It is not the time to celebrate, the recession passed though.

Under the impact of the recession, many of my friends are laid off or cannot find a job. They have tried to get jobs, but companies still not want to hire people until the economy is stable. I think those unemployed friends need more time to pass the tough life. However, I believe the economy in the Asian area will recover sooner than other area in the world and probably becomes the most vigorous one. Following the recovery of economy, we have to worry about the price of commodities. The price of commodities will higher than the price in 2008, and the situation will cause another sharp inflation.

0730 what should you do when car accidents happen?

How should you do if you have a car accident when you drive? According to my friend’s description, a few days ago, my friend had a car accident while she was on the way to work. In the morning, she drove her car to hospital to work like normal days she did. While she switched her car from the inside lane to the outside lane, she almost cannot see the view in front of her car because of the glaring sunrise. Suddenly she heard a bump, so she stopped her car, and she realized she had a car accident. Another person who had accident with my friend is a 65-year-old bicyclist, and he was felt down on the sidewalk. Even though he was bleeding near his right ear, he still had consciousness. After about 10 minutes, one ambulance and one police car came, and the ambulance took the bicyclist to a hospital. The police officer asked my friend how this accident happened and took pictures. Finally, she got a simple accident sheet. The police told her to go home and fill out the online report.

When people have a car accident, the first thing is calm down. Calming down can help thoughts clear, and then you can deal with car accidents well. The second step is call 911. Telling to the responder of 911 the exact address where the accident happens and how many people get hurt is important. While the ambulance comes, you might ask ambulance men which the hospital the patient will be sent because you probably go to hospital to visit the injured people. When police officers come, they will take picture of the accident scene and want you to describe how the accident happens or answer some questions. Finally, you have to call your car insurance company you have a car accident, and ask them what you have to do next step. When the accident report comes out, police officers will tell you who have to take responsible for this accident. That’s all the processes of dealing with car accident.

0729 I will sublet my room in August

I will go back to Taiwan for summer vacation from August 9 to August 29, so I will not be in Boston twenty days. I think I still pay the house rental during my summer vacation, but I will not use it. Therefore, I decide to sublease my room to someone who needs a short-term furnished accommodation.

At first, I have to set my price which is not higher than hotel price but not lower than my per-day rental. I found most rates of two-adult rooms in Boston are more 80 dollars, but the rates of hostels are around 60 dollars for two adults. After knowing the room prices, I have to focus what kind of groups will be my customers. Only businessmen and travelers need short-term furnished accommodation, but businessmen prefer to live at hotels because they do not pay by themselves. Only travelers, especially backpackers or free individual travelers, can I focus on. I wrote down every detail and information about my room on the website through which travelers find cheap accommodation, I also emphasized the location of my house is really perfect, just in front of subway station.

It happened even I expected, a lot of travelers want to rent my room. In order to make maximum profit I can have, I choose some travelers who will live longer than the travelers who want to live two or three days. Today I check all the days I want to rent to travelers, and only 3 days are not occupied. I also counted the money I will receive. The amounts of the money I will receive just cover my monthly house rental.

0727 Reading: Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

After reading this poem several times in the morning and evening, I can gradually feel what this poem means to me. In order to understand it more deeply, I also wrote it down on my diary. A magic happened on me. The poem totally touch my heart while I finished writing it down. The poem seems tell me what my life is.

Before I decided to study finance, I was confused my career. I even did not know what job I could do in the future, but I knew I would figure it out. In the poem, the woods which are filled up with snow seem the process I tried to find what career I really wanted to do before. The woods are simple but difficult to go through, so I stopped going forward. At the time, I was struck by many defeats and frustrations, and it was the darkest period in my life.

The horse is like the people I sought to help. I discussed my career with my parents, friends, professors, and career consulters. Sometimes they reminded if I went forward on the right way. Sometimes I ignored their reminds because I thought I might knew what I want to do in my life, even though they told me the way I chose is tough. After I made a decision to come the US and started to major finance, I know I have no way to go back my pass, because I promise my parents finance will be my career. However, there will be a long way to keep going in my future.

0726 Unite the format of chargers.

~rewritten once~

Before I am interested in business, I was attracted by technological products. I was crazy to read a lot of magazines and news about computers, science and technology. When I started to use technological products, such as mobile phones, walkmans, and computers, I was glad to live in this high-tech generation because of the conveniences of these products. However, these high-tech products not only bring us convenient lives but also create a lot of disposals. The most easily abandoning devices are chargers. Every electronic product with battery needs a charger, but the chargers of different brands or types are not same. While people want to replace their electronic products, they have to change chargers. For example, most people purchase new mobile phones every two years. After they have new phones, they will throw away the chargers which are not for new phones but usable. This is a kind of waste. Therefore, some environmentalists suggested governments to regulate the united standard of chargers. This proposal has been promoted for several years. Finally, in the Europe Union, the union makes a regulation of united standard of chargers of mobile phones. The mobile phones’ companies will have to manufacture the same type chargers in 2010. For consumers, it is a good news, because the users of mobile phones will not be confused with the different types of chargers. For the environment protection, we will not dump a lot of chargers which can still use, so it can reduce the amount of trash. I hope the regulation will not only be practiced in Europe but also practiced in whole world.

0724 Green Energy VS Environment

Recently green energy has become the famous topic in the world. When people talk about green energy, they associate green energy with wind farms or solar panels. Compared to oil or nature gas, these two ways to generate electricity are clear and renewable, but wind farms or solar panels need more space to generate same electricity as oil or nature gas generate. Some experts propose to build wind farms or solar panels in coastal oceans or deserts. Before I read some reports which are opposite to these proposals, I thought the proposals of building wind farms or solar panels in coastal oceans or deserts are perfect and excellent. As I thought before, scientists use the sparsely populated area to product power by green energy equipments, they create the value of sparsely populated area. However, my thought was too simple to consider the complicated problems behind the proposals.

First of all, the areas of rare populations are often far from the areas which people demand a lot of power, so the cost of electricity delivery will become very high. Power companies also spend huge amount of money to build the power grids. According to the electricity, the longer the power transmits, the more the power loses. It is not a smart plan to build power station in the sparsely populated area.

In addition, Building wind farms in coastal oceans is another controversy. As everyone knows, the wind in oceans is stronger than the wind on the lands, so some energy experts suggest government or power companies to build wind farms in coastal oceans. They think that building wind farms in coastal oceans can lower down the cost of electricity delivery, and can have stable resources of winds. However, wind farms probably have negative effect on coastal ecology. For example, some of birds which have seasonal migrations inhabit in coasts, so they fly around near coasts in order to prey or move. Once these birds fly through wind farms, they will be a life threat for these birds. Not only birds but also marine life is affected by wind farms, especially during construction period. The disposal of constructions could be thrown into water and pollute coastal oceans. After the environments of coastal oceans are polluted, the oceanic fisheries will be deeply impacted.

0722 Report of A Medical Error Event

I read a Taiwanese news which is about a medication error yesterday. The news mentioned that a nurse gave penicillin to a patient who is allergic to it, and this mistake caused the patient fall into a coma. After the news was reported, most people start to talk about problems of medical system. Some experts also pointed out two flaws in the medical system.

First flaw is manpower shortage of nurses. According to the survey, the average working hours per week of nurses are 42 hours, and overtime is a common situation for most nurses in small hospitals. The ratio of patient to nurse is 10, even as high as 20 in the night. The long working hours and heavy work let nurses make mistakes easily.

In addition, the medical staff do not exactly follow standard operation procedure (SOP). Standard operation procedure is an important system which can avoid the mistakes and direct everything on the right way. I do believe that before a nurse gives medicines to a patient, the nurse has to check medicines and the patient more than once. Like train drivers, nurses have to confirm what they do by speeches and gestures, because action with voice and body language can be more aware than action by only thought.If the nurse had followed the standard operation procedure exactly, the mistake would not have happened.

I hope every serious mistake can be a lesson and will not happen again. Once experts find out flaws, the government or authority has to fix flaws immediately, or mistakes are always be mistakes, not a cornerstone of progress.

0721 Podcast: manufacturing of the US

This podcast chiefly discussed the manufacturing in the US has declined sharply in the past eighteen months, and Obama’s administration has tried to revive manufacturing by some economic stimulus package. Louis also mentioned that the manufacturing goods which are consumed domestically are more than manufacturing goods which are made in the US. It means the US has to import these goods for other countries. While these goods have lower price than goods domestically made, it threats the survival of manufacturing. Moreover, the Louis pointed out the key problem which cause sharply decline on domestic manufacturing. The artificial currency is the key problem. Nowadays, most products are coming from China, and the undervalued currency of China makes prices of these products lower than the products which are made in the US. Price is an important key of victory in business. Therefore the manufacturing in the US is deeply impacted.

The Obama’s administration has some way to solve this problem. First of all, the government focuses on the manufacturing of green energy. I think that is the right way. Green energy industry is a manufacturing which need high technology and key techniques, so it is difficult to produce in the countries which focus on manufacturing of supplies. Green energy industry can also create higher profit than the supplies industry. Second, Louis said that the Buy America clause in the stimulus package is another to revive the manufacturing. In this clause, government will favor to purchase American-made product for the infrastructure projects. I think it is the short-term solution. For the long-term solution, changing the product types of manufacturing is the best way to revive the domestic manufacturing.

0719 the sand sculpturing festival at Revere Beach

~reworte~

On the website Boston.com, I read an announcement of a sand sculpture contest held on Severe Beach, so I decided to go to see the contest. Even though the weather was cloudy on Saturday morning, but the weather did not destroy my weekend travel because the sun came out in the afternoon.

On Saturday, I went there along because I planned this travel suddenly. I took almost one hour to Severe Beach from my home. Luckily, when I arrived at the beach, the weather became sunny. At the middle of the beach, I saw many sand sculptures. I was really excited because it was the first time for me to see this contest of sand sculptures. I was deeply attracted by three of sculptures . First of all, the title of sculpture is Mirror which was made by Sue McGrew, Tacoma WA. There are one man and woman whose bodies near their hearts are broken like mirrors. They are trying to fix the broken mirrors back to origins by their love. Second, Afternoon Daydream which was made by Carl Jara, Cleveland OH, is another sand sculpture I like. This sculpture is a person whose body and head covered by a few pigeons sits on one bench. Every pigeons seem like every dream the person has. The last one is the biggest sculpture. Even though this sculpture did not have name, its topic and details are related to Boston, such as the marks of departments belonged to Boston government, the Boston hokey team mark, and the marks of companies which supported this contest.

In this festival, I really know how artists to make sand sculpture, what tools they used. The most important thing is that I know this beach is the America’s first public beach, because I learned American history a little more.

0717 Travel to Tainan in Taiwan

Tainan City is a city which is full of friendliness, delicious food, and historical buildings. While people plan to travel to Tainan City in September, I will recommend some places visitors should go and some food they should taste. Before I start to present these details of my recommendations, I have to introduce Tainan City. Like Boston, Tainan City is the oldest city in Taiwan, so many historic sites are conserved very well. Tainan City has a harbor, Anping Harbor , and there is also a river through Tainan City. Unfortunately, the government of Tainan City does not focus on improvement of rivers and harbors as much as Boston. Compared with Boston, Tainan has similar transportation system, city size, and historical signification.

First of all, Tainan City has different types of historical sites, because Tainan City was the colony of Dutch, China, and Japan. The colonists who came from these countries built many buildings in Tainan City. Confucian Temple is one of the important historical sites in Tainan City because this temple was the first school in Taiwan. Nowadays, the original classrooms in this temple are still maintained perfectly, so visitors can imagine the circumstance of 300 years ago classes. At some particular time, some narrators state the history of this temple and describe the school’s alumni who studied in this school and had contributions to Taiwan. Another historical site I suggest to visit is Anping Fort which was built by the Dutch in 1624. Before it was officially named Anping Fort, it had been renamed many times, such as Orlande City, Fort Zeelandia, and Castle for the Red Hair. Because the building was reformed in the periods of different colonies, it has Dutch style, Chinese style, and Japanese style decorations. Through this historical site, people can know the colonial history in Taiwan.

In addition, Taiwanese food is another characteristic sign in Tainan. For my suggestions, going to night markets is the best and easiest way to eat delicious and various Taiwanese foods. However, it is hard to have all food at one night, so I strongly recommend visitors to eat stinky tofu and bubble tea. The smell of stinky tofu is the same as its name shown, so people who have never eaten stinky tofu are afraid of this food and do not believe it is delicious. After tasting this food, most of these people deeply love stinky tofu. Because of the reason, I think stinky tofu as a magic food. Bobble tea is famous in America now. Its origin is coming from Tainan. Bubble tea is made of milk tea and tapioca balls whose diameter is near one centimeter. Bubble tea is really common in Taiwan, and almost Taiwanese people have eaten it. When people suck the bubbles through straws, people can feel the movement of bubbles in the bottle. The bubbles are as chewy as chewing gum, but it can eat. Owing to satiety after eating bubble tea, some Taiwanese people take it as a meal.

As I know, food and historical sites are the two most characteristic symbols in Tainan. If visitors want to understand Taiwanese food and history thorough, Tainan City is the best city they have to go.

0715 What a Good Deal, Dell in Taiwan.

There was a business news of Dell reported in Taiwan. The news described that the Dell's online store had made wrong prices twice in the past one month.

The first mistake happened on June 25, and the LCD monitors whose cost were 250 dollars was priced 34 dollars on the Dell online store. After ten days, Dell's also incorrectly priced the two-thousand-dollar laptops at six hundred dollars. While the consumers who bought those products wanted Dell to make the deals, Dell cancelled the deals by the reasons which error of the online store system occurred. Therefore, those consumers appealed to Fair Trade Commission, because they wanted their purchased products back. The consumers said that Dell cannot cancel the deal just because of the reason of the computer system error.

When this serious event which deeply impacted the image of Dell was reported on the news, the Dell Company did not react immediately and make a stop-loss point to protect its brand image. The general manager of Dell Company in Taiwan held the press conference after two days of the news reported. On the day of the press conference the general manager did not state how to reimburse those customers, so some critics said Dell has no ability of the crisis management.

Finally, the Dell Company confessed the mistake, so the Dell Company will give every customer who bought the wrong-price products 7oo-dollar value coupons in order to show the sincerity. However, the some customers said that the Dell Company tried the use the event to make its brand more visible, and some customers also indicated the coupons are fake reimbursements. Those coupons can be used only for specific products and only on Dell online store. The current prices of the specific products sold on the Dell online store are higher 700 dollars than the prices of the products sold in other stores. Even though those customers get the high value coupons, they won’t truly receive the compensation.

0713 reading assignment

~reworte~

The news mentioned that Kennedy is in charge of the health committee, but he has the brain cancer. After having the disease, he cannot go to the committee meeting personally, but he still tries to work at home and tell his colleagues what they should do by phone. Even though he calls his colleagues often, his colleagues misses him very much because he has special skills and talents to negotiate with people and to deal with the political details.

There are two views of the healthcare plan in the Congress. One view is supporting public insurance. Some Senators thinks public insurance could increase competition in the insurance industry and let private insurance lower the premiums. The other Senators is opposing, because they said that the act could heavily damage the private insurance industry. Moreover, the healthcare bill is expensive, so government has ways to solve it. That is taxes increase or surcharge on the wealthy people.

After reading this news, I think Kennedy has a crucial position in the politics. He does not force the opposite party to agree to the legislation they do not want. He seeks a compromise or consensus which both parties agree with, so it is why many politicians respect him. When he has disease, some people want to talk about his disease, but he just focuses on the healthcare plan. He does not want people just to pay attention to his health, because making the healthcare success is his goal.

0712 podcast: oil price fell again

~reworte~

This podcast is that Jad Mouawad chiefly described that the crude oil price fell down to 60 dollars a barrel from 72 dollars a barrel last week. The mainly reason that the price decreased was that the economic recovery was not optimistic as people thought before. Jad Mouawad also mentioned that before we wanted to know why the oil price slid, we had to realize why oil price soared in the beginning of this year. The highest oil price, 145 dollars a barrel, was recorded in July 2008, and then the price dramatically crashed to 33 dollars in December 2008. The collapsed price resulted from the economic crisis. However, the oil price started to go up in the first six months of this year because some signs showed the economy would recover in the end of this year. Recently, the new economic data have been revealed, and the economic situation probably recovered more slowly. This reason impacted the oil price. There is a proposal which is planned to curb speculation trade in energy markets because the government tries to stabilize the energy markets. Some economists think this proposal will cause the less liquid in the energy markets, so that the energy markets become more volatile. Another idea was discussed in the podcast. Jad Mouawad said that the oil price is not determined simply by the demands and supplies. The oil price is controlled by some counties which produce crude oil. The oil markets are also not transparent, so it is difficult for investors to understand and predict.

0711 Tall Ships trip

~reworte~

The weather was sunny today, so I planned to go out and relaxed the tension which was caused by the accounting midterm. In order to find any activity I can participate in, I searched the information on the Boston.com. Tall Ships, which professor Berman mentioned, was the big festival in this week, so I decided to join this activity. After collecting the map, tour price, and schedule of Tall Ships, I went to the Boston Harbor with roommate.

While I was taking subway to Aquarium Station, I heard some people were talking about the activity of Tall Ships. They said it was an important event in Boston and many people who live in other cities or states also came to Boston to enjoy this event. When I arrived in Aquarium Station, I was surprised at the scene I saw. There were many people walking leisurely along the shore of harbor. I thought if I followed the direction which crowd walked to, it was not difficult to find tall ships. It was not expected that I saw the first tall ship after walking several minutes. This tall ship came from France. Even though this ship was not the biggest one, I was amazed at her beauty and spectacular. Like most tourists, I took many pictures of her. I spent all the afternoon to browse all tall ships, and finally I saw the biggest ship. It was berthed at the wharf which was near the world trade center. A lot of visitors boarded on the ship and take a view, but I did not do it because the ticket of visiting the ship was 30 dollars. It was too expensive for me. In this trip, the most exciting thing was that the flag of my country was shown in this activity.

0709 Pets Business

~reworte~

After I arrived in the US, I liked to compare the US with Taiwan, especially the business. Recently, my friend owns a cat, and he wanted someone to take care of his cat when he went back to Taiwan on summer vacation. My cousin agreed to help him take care of his cat, and my cousin charged him 300 dollars a month plus the cost of the cat's supplies. My friend also agreed with that. When I heard my friend accepted this high charge, I was surprised because most Taiwanese people do not spend a lot of money on their pets.

First of all, the rate of pet ownerships in the US is higher than the rate in Taiwan. The high rate resulted in the common pet care business, so people who own pets are more willing to spend money on their pets. The economic situation is the second reason, and the incomes of Americans is higher than the incomes of Taiwanese people. Taiwanese people have to pay most part of wages on diary expense, such as the education fee, food expense, or utilities, and deposited the remainder, so just a few Taiwanese people want to spend a lot of money taking care of their pets. Finally, Taiwanese people spend more money on entertainments more than on pets. People have fixed entertainment budget, so when they spend more money on watching movies, shopping, and having parties, the expense on pets is eliminated. Based on those reasons, I know that it is difficult to develop a pet business in Taiwan.

0706 Accounting class

I will have a midterm of accounting, and I felt nervous, even though that will not be the first test of my master classes. My major was not business when I studied in the university, so accounting was a subject which I have never learned before. Unlike some of my friends in the US, they learned accounting, so they can handle the subject easily. In order to keep up with those students who have already learned accounting before, I not only spent a lot of time on previewing and reviewing but also made accounting into my life. The simple way to practice my thought was be bookkeeping for my personal finance.

Before I began taking accounting class, I had found the free accounting software which I liked and felt easy to use for a long time. At first, I wanted to operate accounting software on my ipod touch, but its functions were not sufficient enough. Therefore, I started to find software which can be operated on computers. Finally, I found the accounting software, Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 English Edition, published by the Microsoft Company. After downloading and installing the software, I took one week to learn how to use it because it was really complicated. Now I am so glad that I can use what I learned in my life.

0705 The July 4th firework

It is the Independence Day on July 4th in the United States, and there were many celebrations in many cities. Boston also had the celebration and firework. Even though I will have a midterm of my accounting class, I still decided to see the firework on July 4th because that was the first time that I participated this celebration. I knew I should go to the Esplanade earlier and enjoy the concert, but I cannot leave the midterm away, so I stayed home to review accounting until 8:30pm. When I was on the way by my bicycle to the Harvard Bridge, where I chose to see the firework, there were a lot of people sit and wait beside the Charles River. The government also blocked part of the Storrow Dr. to get more space for citizens, and it was my first time to ride bicycle on the Road only for cars.

After arriving in the Harvard Bridge, I was surprised at the crowed people because my friend told me it would not be crowded on the Harvard Bridge. I walked to the middle of the bridge. The view of the Charles River was so beautiful that I almost forgot the midterm. There were also some yachts, and I thought it was better to see the firework on the yachts. At 10:32pm, the firework began. Although the firework was late 2 minutes, it was spectacular. I also heard some Americans said some shapes of firework were like the trademark of Pepsi. At the time, I thought if it is possible to use firework to advertise. If some companies use this way to advertise, it might make people impressive.

0703 The rehabilitaion of Boston Bridge

There was a public meeting about the Boston University Bridge rehabilitation Project on this Tuesday, and this meeting had two main parts. First part is that the host of this meeting simply presented the whole project of Boston University Bridge rehabilitation. Second part is that people who came to this meeting questioned or gave suggestions to this project.

At the beginning of this meeting, the speaker showed the accelerated bridge program and the Boston University Bridge project. He not only presented the goals and size of the program but also mentioned the details of the Boston University Bridge project, such as the project goals, the history of BU Bridge, and the details of rehabilitation processes.

First of all, the Program had five goals. The first goal, also the main one, was improving the condition of the bridges in Boston area. Stimulating the economy and creating the jobs is the second goal. Third, the sooner the project was completed, the less money the government spent. Forth, by the advanced technology and science, the government planned the can complete the project efficiently and innovatively. Finally, the last and important goal of program is transparency and accountability. The size of this program is very huge. The MassHighway was in charge of 2.078 billion dollars and 205 bridges, and DCR was responsible for 906 million dollars and 50 bridges.

In addition, the project of BU Bridge was the major topic in this meeting. At first, the speaker introduced the BU Bridge’s history. This Bridge was built in 1928 and renamed BU Bridge in 1949. This project also had its goals. First, the bridge had to restore under the structural integrity because its structure was damaged heavily. Restoring the bridge historic structure was the second goal, so the bridge will be fixed by following the original design. The third goal was protecting and enhancing environment, such as the modern drainage which was instead of the old one. Final goal which most residents cared about was improving the pedestrian, bicycle access, and vehicle flow.

Third, there was three phrases construction. In first phrase the west side pedestrian and current lane will be closed, and there will have one southward lane and one northward lane. In the second phrase only center part of bridge will be closed, and there will be a lane and pedestrian on both directions. In the final phrase the east side pedestrian and current lane will be closed, and there will have one southward lane and one northward lane. Under the construction period, the environment protection will be considerate, such as noisy abatement, dust collection, and traffic management.

The last part of the meeting was the time for questions and answers. Most questions and suggestions can be classified to 4 parts. First of all, the public meeting did not make a lot of people know it, so it cannot get most residents’ suggestions. They hope this meeting could be hold again in Cambridge or try hard to attract people to participate. Second, there were conflicts at the intersections of both Cambridge and Boston sides. They suggestion the authority could solve this problem by changing the design. Third, more people cared about the pedestrians and bicycle lane, so someone said the BU Bridge could be allowed only for bicyclists and pedestrians. Another one suggested the bridge can be added more constructions for the space of pedestrian and bicycle lane. Finally, some people mentioned that the traffic situation at BU Bridge was terrible during the baseball season. They suggested that the traffic authority can separate some cars go to Cambridge through Mass Ave or Harvard Bridge, so there will not too many vehicles to use BU Bridge.

0629 Should the government reform the subway in Boston?

Governor Schwarzenegger said,“ we have already laid the groundwork for high-speed rail in California and with a boost from our federal partners, nearly 40 million Californians and millions of travelers from around the world will be able to experience the reality of America’s first high-speed rail system.” While California government has planned to build a high-speed rail to improve its transportation, Boston authority is still using the slow, old, and unreliable subway system. Based on three reasons, I strongly recommended that Boston government has to reform the subway.

First of all, a slow subway system will limit the development of a city. Once the city has a faster subway system, the commuters will be able to save time, so that they will have more time to improve their lives. They could spend more time on their work out, family, or friends instead of time on the traffic. With a faster subway system, commuters are more willing to live in the suburban areas, where the price of the houses is cheaper, the houses are bigger. Instead of sticking in the traffic to downtown, commuters can take subway as a matter of fact it is a faster transportation.

In addition, everyone has noticed that Boston desperately needs a more reliable subway system after some serious subway accidents happened in the past few years. According to the investigations, some accidents resulted from the human errors, which can be prevented by the advanced technology for the subway systems. By installing safety deceives will increase people’s confidence on the subway system. Take Taiwan as an example, it has a more than one hundred history in Taiwanese rail system, and it has more than five major accidents every year, and people lost confidence of it. About eight years age, Taiwanese government made this rail institution to install the safety devices. After the installation was finished, the accidents rate has dropped sharply.

Finally, the reform bill is not a problem. It is difficult for government to spend a lot of money to reform transportation, especially in the period of economic crisis. However, there are several ways to solve this problem. Government can use BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) form to alleviate the government finance. Around the world, there were many successful examples of transportation constructions which used BOT form. Moreover, if the subway system has become faster and more reliable, fare increases will be accepted by Boston citizens.

In conclusion, it is necessary to reform the subway in Boston. The improvement of transportation will help the city develop and make subway more reliable. Moreover, the finance of this construction has the way to solve, so the Boston government should reform subway as soon as possible. As the former Taiwanese president, Chiang Ching-kuo said, “If we do not do it today, we will regret tomorrow.”

0628 The different education styles between Taiwan and the US

I took a business mathematics class over the past two weekends. That is the first time that I took mathematics class in the United States. Before I came to the United States, my friend told me the mathematics class of business master is not difficult because its level was the same as the level of my high school. I had not believed what my friend said until I took the business mathematics class. After taking this class, I suddenly knew why I had to learn mathematics, even though the mathematics is not difficult for me. Then I started to think the difference of mathematics education between Taiwan and the US.

First of all, the mathematics education in Taiwan emphasized the solution skills, but the mathematics education in the US emphasized the applications. For example, when I learned linear function in the high school, I just memorized the formula and did a lot of assignments. Nevertheless, I learned the same material in the US, but the professor taught us not only how to calculate but also how to apply to the business. I also knew the meaning of numbers which we got from the linear function. Second, the mathematics education in Taiwan concentrated on results; the mathematics education in the US concentrated on processes. For instance, my high school teacher gave us the score only when we got the exact answer even if the process was current. In the US, the professor told us we can get part of full scores if we had current process but did not get right answers.

Some people said the mathematics education in Taiwan was successful. In my opinion, it was not successful, because the education made students have perfect mathematic skills, but they did not know how to put mathematics in use.

0626 podcast: Bernanke

This podcast mentioned that Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, be questioned the merger of the Bank of America and the Merrill Lynch. Some lawmakers thought that Bernanke gave the pressure to the Bank of America to merge the Merrill Lynch, but Bernanke denied it. The most interesting thing is that the Republican lawmakers criticized Bernanke, who belongs to Republican Party, but the Democrats tried to defend Bernanke. Nowadays the investigation is proceeding, and they tried to find the truth by the e-mails and the documents.

In many countries, this kind of situations happened frequently, especially those immature politics countries. The politics is not only the meaning of dealing with public stuff, but also the balance of power and negotiation of advantage. For example, building a subway is an advantage for the public, but some groups tried to stop government to constructing the subway because they did not get some benefit for this transportation construction, such as the reimbursement of noise, the exemption of and tax, or the subsidy of traffic damage. Therefore, government has two ways to solve this problem. First, discussing with those groups, government find the greatest public interest. The new program is not the best of this construction but the one which most people get the benefit. Even though this solution takes a lot of time, it is the way to show the democracy. Second, government can choose the best of this construction, but government will force those groups muted. This solution is often adopted by the communist countries.

0624 Could memory be a good business?

Recently my Taiwanese friends told me there was a famous TV series which was talking about the1960s' life style in Taiwan. Many people was addicted to watch this TV series, especially those people who have experienced in the decade, because this TV series let them recall their memories. One day I called a phone to my mother, and she said she also watched this TV series and loved it. My mother said that in the TV series there was much furniture which she had used in her childhood, the neighborhood was friendly, and the whole village was like a whole family. However, the old style life is totally disappeared nowadays. Those people whose generations are same as my mother missed the simple life in 1960s. Finally, the TV series not only got the highest audience rating in prime time but also successfully made its soundtrack best-selling. This popularity let me think if happy memory could become a business or not.

My answer was positive. I knew some theme restaurants, which was built in the style of the middle of twentieth century. Most people enjoyed having dinner in the restaurants because some people went there to miss their childhoods' lives, and some people want to know the lives of their parents' childhood through the restaurants. Moreover, there was a trend which was in old fashion style. For example, someone used matches instead of lighters. Some teenagers wore the clothes in the style of 1960s. This consumer behavior shows people will purchase stuff which can made them to miss their childhoods' lives, so selling the memorable stuff is a worthy business.

0623 Podcast: Decrease credit lines for small business

The small business owners are more difficult to use credit cards on their businesses than before because the credit card companies cut down the credit lines. Most small business owners used credit cards to pay the operation costs or purchase the inventory. I have never heard this way to make business in my country, but I think it is a good way to make business for small business after I got this information. First, Credit cards have high credit lines, so once the small business need money to pay bills or buy inventory, those money can be used. Second, credit cards are like very short-term loans, and it is more convenient to get money than apply for loans, so small business owners can borrow money without complicated applications. Finally, the credit cards have a function of “deferred payment.” Deferred payment is a payment which consumers do not pay immediately and pay later. Consumers do not pay any interest in this period, usually within 30 days or 69 days.

However, because of the bad economy and the legislation of credit cards, the credit cards started to cut down the credit lines not only on the problem card holders also the small business owners. According to the podcast, Andrew Martin said that the delinquency of small business was higher than that of general consumers, so this was why the card companies also declined the small businesses’ credit lines. In my opinion, the card companies did not wrong, because they have to control the risk under this terrible economy situation. It is time for the small business owners to find another way to increase their liquidity or hold the cash.

0621 Reading: $1m deal will open Tall Ships to public

This news was written by Donovan Slack on June 17, 2009. The news described that the Boston government agreed with the Tall Ship festival this week. In April, the Boston mayor insisted not to hold this festival this year because government wanted Sail Boston organizer to prepay the security costs, but the organizer did not have any plan to do it. Why did the government and the event’s organizer not have a consensus? According to the news, the argument was rooted in the event in 2000. The festival increased government’s security costs, but the organizer of the festival did not feedback benefits to Boston. In my opinion, it seems the organizer stole from the public benefits.

I think that some institutes, except the non-profit institutes, want to hold a convention or festival in cities, and they have to pay some money back to cities. It is reasonable to pay the cities when they use the cities’ resources to make profits. How much money those institutes have to pay is a dispute. In my opinion, there are two ways to decide the price. First, the government can set up price depending on the population of festivals. If more people take part into festivals, government will assign more police officers or manpower on this festival. Second, government can charge the fee by incomes of festivals. Like income taxes, the fee can bring benefits to cities, and the cities’ government can secure those festivals. Once the government supports those festivals, more people or tourists will come. The local economy will boost, and the festivals will make cities have unique images. Those two ways can create win-win situations between the government and festivals’ organizers.

0618 Taiwan High Speed Railway Corporation

This week I learned what a noncurrent asset is in my accounting class. Noncurrent asset is an asset that is not sold or converted to cash within one year, such as land, equipment, or buildings. I know the accumulated depreciation is one part of the noncurrent asset, and there are two main ways to calculate the annual depreciation. One way is straight-line depreciation, and the other way is accelerated depreciation. My accounting professor told me that the ways of calculation of annual depreciation will affect the income statement.

After finishing class, I read the news which mentioned that the Taiwan High Speed Railway Corporation, which has a BOT contract with Taiwanese government, had a financial crisis. The news also pointed out the annual depreciation and the interest expense resulted in the financial crisis. I wanted to know why the reporter made this consequence, so I found the financial statement of this company and analyzed it. In 2008 fiscal year, this company’s income was 23 billion dollars (NTD), and its depreciation expense was 19 billion dollars, and its interest expense was 17.5 billion dollars. In this situation, the company had three ways to improve its financial position: increasing income, decreasing interest expense, or changing calculation method of depreciation. First, because of the economic crisis, it is impossible to boost income twice in this year. Second, the company tried to negotiate the interest rate with those banks which loaned to it, but the interest rate was as low as the banks can do. Finally, the company explained that the straight-line depreciation was not exact, because the buildings can have been used for 100 years, but in the BOT contract those buildings’ lives are 35 years. Therefore, the accumulated depreciation has to offset in 35 years, and it makes high annual depreciation expense.

Nowadays, the company has tried to find out the solution of this financial position or it probably will face the bankruptcy. According to the contract, once the company is bankrupt, our government will buy this company. At that time, it will cause a huge impact on the national treasury.

0617 I am getting tired to find an apartment.

As far as I know, the price in Boston is the third high in the U.S., especially the house rental. Indeed, I told many friends who stayed in other states in the U.S. my rent, and they were surprised at the high rent. That was the reason I felt difficult to find a reasonable rent of apartments. In the two weeks, I and my friend have seen more than ten apartments, but we did not like anyone, because of the distance, price, space of rooms, or environment.

In the beginning, I went to a realty agency, and the agent just showed the apartments with extremely high rent. The rent and broker fee were not negotiable. Even though the location was wonderful and the apartments were gorgeous, we cannot afford the rent. Then, I focused the affordable rent and the acceptable distance, and we visited some apartments who were held by another agent. We found the room space in those apartments is too small. We realized that if we wanted to live near campus, we had to raise our budgets, or if we wanted to live in a gorgeous and cheap apartment, we had to live in the suburb. Finally, we decided to add our budget to live near campus, because time cannot be bought, and we did not want to take time to commute.

Nowadays, we still have searched the apartment we wanted while we were drowned by the assignments, tests, and textbooks. We hoped we can finish this bothering stuff in this week, because we will have one more course in this weekend and next weekend, and I will have less time to find new apartment.

0616 presentation

There has been a controversial issue that downloading music without paying on the Internet is illegal. I think it is a little wrong for the people who downloaded music on the Internet without paying, because they just have a part of responsibility for this action. The conservative record companies and people who uploaded music are also responsible for illegally downloading music.

First of all, people who uploaded music on the Internet are more responsible for this illegal action than people who downloaded music. Most of people uploaded music to their websites to attract more visitors, so that they can earn money from the advertisements through the music. It means that they improperly used music to make profits. If they do not illegally put music on the Internet, people will not have sources to download music.

In addition, it is not wrong for people to download music on the Internet to use without making profit, because they did not infringe the creators’ right and did not decrease the profits they can make. Furthermore, free downloading songs probably can increase the creators’ profits. In other words, once the music becomes famous through the Internet, music creators can create value of music via the concerts, TV dramas, advertisements, or movies.

Finally, some of record companies have some responsibilities for the illegal downloads, because of their conservative attitude. When the technology has progressed, media have also changed, so the record companies have to change their ways of sales. For example, nowadays, most people do not listen to music by compact discs, but by MP3 players. However, the conservative record companies still sell music through compact discs, so it makes easier for people to download music into their mp3 players on the internet than to buy a compact disc. Furthermore, some people just wanted one song in the album, but the record companies did not sell singular songs, so people have no choice to search and download the song on the Internet.

In conclusion, I think people downloading music are not the only role to be responsible for this action, because the conservative companies and the people unloading music are the main causes of the illegal music download.

0613 My students will graduate.

In July, many schools in Taiwan were hold graduation ceremonies because it was the time for graduation. Before I came to the US, I had been a teacher for three years. In the second year of my teaching career, I was a teacher of a fourth grade class, and there were 32 students in the class. Actually, it was my first time to manage a class by myself, so I was a little nervous in the beginning. The time passed by, I was getting better in teaching and did not feel nervous. However, after teaching them one year, I had to leave them and took the military service. In those years, I still have kept touch with them. Recently, some of them told me they will graduate from their elementary school in June, and asked me to take part into their graduation ceremony. Unfortunately, the date of their graduation ceremony is at June nineteenth, so it is impossible for me to go back Taiwan to congratulate them in person.

I thought that even though I cannot participate in their graduation ceremony, I might do something to congratulate them. Thus, I planned to write postcards to them as their graduated gifts. Two weeks ago, I bought almost twenty postcards and started to collect their addresses. When I wrote the cards one by one, I realized that there is a Chinese proverb, “good teachers are good friends.” I was their teacher before, but now I seems be their friends although they still call me teacher Chou. I finally finished writing all cards and mailed cards to them last week. Yesterday, one of the students I mailed cards to left message to tell me he has already gotten the card. I am glad they got my cards, and I also hoped those cards can make their lives better when they finished their first stage education in the learning lives.

0611 Today's business

In this podcast, Jeff Sommer and Stephen Labaton discussed the compensation of the executives whose companies received the federal government's bailout. The Obama administration wanted to restrict executives’ pay at those companies because they got the hefty money coming from government’s bailout, and the companies still had financial problems. It was really unfair. Therefore, a lawyer, Kenneth R. Feinberg, was assigned to supervise the compensation of the executives at those companies by the Treasury Department. There are seven companies whose executives’ compensation will directly be controlled by government until these companies pay back the money which government supported. Five of the seven companies are the American International Group, Citibank, Chrysler, General Motors, and Bank of America. At the same time, the US government also tried to make a law to supervise the executives’ salaries and bonus. Currently, Feinberg did not have criteria to judge whether the compensation is overpaid or not, but those seven companies will submit the pay packages of the executives in sixty days once new rule will practice.

In my opinion, government has to set up an institute which can help shareholders to watch over the executives’ pay. The executives earn the money which belongs to every shareholder, so their pays have to relate to the companies’ earnings. However, some companies did not earn the money, but their executives still receive high salaries and bonus, and shareholders cannot make any decision on the compensation of companies’ executives. Therefore, government can play a role which helps shareholders to watch their money for “stealing” by executives’ compensation.

0609 I am appreciated someone helped me

Last week, my bicycle was stolen, and I tried to find my bicycle back, so I posted all the details about my stolen bicycle on the craigslist website, such as the time my bike was stolen, the place I locked my bike, and the distinguishing features of my bike. After one day I posted this notice, I got the email about my stolen bike, and I thought I was so lucky that someone found it. Good thing never comes fast. The people who wrote email to me recommended I had to be more descriptive than that, because the bike I described is like seventy percent of the bikes in Boston, so I tried to search the pictures of every accessory and my bike on the Internet. Finally, I found all the pictures I needed, and then I rewrote a

As each day went by, I had not gotten emails about my bike. When I was disappointed in this result and prepared to buy another used bicycle, I got an email about my bike and I felt hopeful at the time. After reading the email, I realized this person who wrote this email to me did not find my bike, but he wanted to give me his bike which he has not used for a long time. At the moment, I understood there are many people who like to help strangers who need help. Thus, I replied to him I needed this bike, and he was also glad I can have it. In order to appreciate him, I wrote a thank card to him. In the card, I told him that his action made me changed a lot, because he made me know helping people is indispensible in this world. I also promised him if I do not need this bike in the future, I will do the same thing as he did, giving this bike to someone who will need it.

0608 Podcast: Apple Worldwide Developers Conference

This podcast discussed the Apple worldwide developers conference, WWDC in short, which is going to be held in San Francisco. In this conference, Apple will show new generation iPhone, which is going to compete with a new smartphone, Palm Pre. Many people talked about which one is better. Brad, a NYTimes reporter, said both phones have pieces of hard wares, but iPhone can download thousands of softwares to use. Those softwares can help iPhone users to play games, play chess with friends, or read email easily. However, Palm Pre just starts this process, but it will be a threat of Apple Company. The users of iPhone did not feel satisfied with Apple Company, and they hope Apple can keep maintaining iPhone’s hardware, so there is why Apple will launch new iPhone. New iPhone has many new functions. For example, it can record video and connect another handset through Bluetooth. Those functions will attract more people to use iPhone.

In the Palm Pre, it has multi-touch technique which Apple Company owns. However, Palm does not worry about it because iPhone has some hardware which Palm Company owns. No matter what patent problems they have, consumers will be the last winners because we can use high-tech, convenient, and humanized smartphones the two companies created.

In my opinion, Apple still have a lot of problems to solve on iPhone. First of all, the battery replacement should be implemented, even though some companies created portable battery for iPhone, but it still inconvenient. Second, the iTunes, which is the interface of iPhone or iPod touch, is hard to use and makes computer work slowly, so Apple should fix those two problems

0607 Obama lays out health overhaul

In this article, the author described that President Obama lays out health overhaul. Obama said that it was the time to have a new public health insurance and have health reform because the current healthcare system was broken. Therefore, he wrote letter to key senators what he wanted to do in healthcare reform. First, he will cut back the budget from Medicare and Medicaid. Second, he proposed that the two main government’s healthcare programs will aid the poor, elderly, and disabled.

It was mentioned that someone did not support this program in this article. Republicans saw this program as private insurers’ fatal threat. However, President Obama pointed out this program will make healthcare market more competitive and keep insurance companies honest. Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said there were five versions of the public plans in the healthcare committee meetings, and he also hoped for a bipartisan package, even though some Republicans probably did not accept a public health insurance option.

In my opinion, I supported Obama’s healthcare program because my country has the same public health insurance as the one Obama wanted to have. First of all, the public health insurance can get the government’s healthcare budget to help those people who cannot afford the expensive private insurance. Second, government is a nonprofit organization, so the public insurance set up by government will reduce the insurance fee as possible as it can be. Finally, citizens have the right to supervise the public insurance. Once people can supervise the public insurance, the expense of the public insurance will be controlled. In conclusion, there is a good chance for the USA to have a health public insurance.

0603 Boston is not a city to own a bicycle

There was a wonderful weather in Boston today, so many people chose bicycles as their transportation tools. I also made this decision – riding my bicycle to class. When I finished class and came out of the classroom, my bicycle had disappeared.

I remembered that I just bought this used bicycle from the craigslist last Friday, and it cost me 130 dollars. The bicycle was just used six months, and it looked like brand new and in a good condition. The seller also gave me a lock, front light, and back light. I thought it was worthy, and then I decided to buy it. After I bought, I could not wait to ride it, and this bicycle made me feel free. In those five days, I used my bicycle to go many places. I rode it to the Charles River to row a canoe, and I also rode it to my friends’ apartment to help them move to their new apartment. Yesterday, I went to MET501 course by this bicycle, and it was not stolen. However, I thought it is safe to put my bicycle in BU, so I rode bicycle to my accounting class. When I went out the building and walked to the place where I put my bicycle, I felt something wrong because I discovered the place I parked my bicycle at had no bicycle. At the time, I was shocked and stayed there for a while. I can believe that my bicycle disappeared, including the lock. Finally, I had only one way to home, and that was walking.

Six days and eight hours, that is the time I owned the bicycle. Now I still cannot believe it is easy to be stolen bicycles for bicycles owners in Boston, this kind and friendly city. If I cannot find my bicycle back, I will buy another one, because it is comfortable to ride bicycle in Boston. After I get new bike, I will use 3 locks to lock my bicycle because it is not enough to secure my bicycle by one lock.

0602 Rowing Canoe On The Charles River

Last Sunday, I decided to make a trip with my friends. When I was thinking what kind of activities was the best one, I realized I had never rowed a canoe on the Charles River since I came to Boston last September, so I called my friends and told that I planned to go to the Charles River and rented a canoe to row.

When I arrived the riverside of the Charles River, there was a boat rental. The weather is sunny, so it was just a day to do this activity. Before we rented a canoe, we had to answer the quizzes about how to handle emergencies on a canoe. For example, when the weather started to lighten, we should find a shelter immediately until it stopped lightening. Moreover, we had to know that what were the direction and the way we should follow or stay. After finishing those quizzes and wearing life jackets, we got a large canoe and some paddles. There were seven people on one canoe, so we needed a leader to conduct this team to make this canoe on the right way. It was no doubt that I was the leader. After we rowed the canoe on the Charles River 30 minutes, the weather was not sunny anymore, and it became cloudy and windy. Bad weather is the trial for the leader of this team. Unfortunately, I was not a perfect leader to manage to row canoe on the right way, so our canoe sailed as an S-type way. Finally, we came back the dock after struggling to row the canoe.

While we walked to home, it was raining heavily. No one knew it was going to rain on that day, so all of us did not bring umbrella. Therefore, we just stayed under a big tree to wait to stop raining. It was lucky for us because we merely waited 20 minutes. A proverb is said,” misfortunes never come singly.” The weather became cold and windy when the rain stopped. We just wore T-shirts and shorts which were a little wet because of the rain. In conclusion, this trip made me knew that Boston weather is changing fast.

0601 comments for today's business

Today's Business discussed the General Motors (GM). The financial situation of GM has been reported for a long while by newspapers. In the beginning, GM wanted the US government to bailout itself, but the US government want to do it only under condition of GM reconstructed. After a few months, GM faced bankruptcy at June 1st, but GM also got the money from government to reconstruct after its bankruptcy. In the future, GM will make itself smaller than now.

This bankruptcy of GM will reshuffle the motor industries of the world. Some motor companies will buy the subsidiaries from those motor companies which have financial problems. Moreover, the manufactories of motor parts are also impacted by GM's bankruptcy. When GM starts to reconstruct, it will close some factories and downsize, and it means the sales will slump. The demand of car parts will decrease, too. Then it probably will bring another bankruptcy of manufactories of motor parts.

0531 Costs snarling health overhaul

Q:Please post a blog entry on your thoughts about the issue: How does your country pay for health care?

This article was written by Kay Lazar at May 28, 2009. It described that the health overhaul has increased the cost of healthcare. In this article, there were many statistics to compare the healthcare situation in 2008 with before. For example, the data showed that the health overhaul made Massachusetts have lowest percentage of uninsured residents, and it sounds a good thing. According the survey, compared to past years, the rate that residents visit doctors or dentists has increased. It means people had more will to see a doctor when they needed the healthcare, and the state also means the residents in Massachusetts probably got healthier than before.

This health overhaul not only had bright side but also created some problems. First, compared with 2007, 16.5%, the rate,17.9%, of residents having medical bill problem in 2008 went up because the cost of healthcare increased faster than the inflation, and the recession struck us in 2008. In addition, it is more tough for low-income people to get a proper healthcare than high-income people. Finally, people use the healthcare in an improper way. For example, some people used the ERs which cost expensively when they were not in an urgent situation. Those problems could mainly result in a high cost of healthcare.

In my country, Taiwan, we have a national insurance system. The insurance fees people pay are according to the incomes people have. In my case, when I worked, I had to pay the insurance bill monthly, and the bill subtracted from my wage. My monthly wage was around 1300 dollars, and I had to pay 18 dollars for my insurance bill. I think that the insurance bill was not be my financial problem because it cost me less 2% of my wage, and my company had responsibility to pay 70% of my insurance bill. Even though I spent a little money on my health insurance, I still got the proper healthcare, so I love my country. By the way, Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, said Taiwanese national insurance system is healthy, even if the expense is a little more than revenue. He also recommended that Taiwanese government should raise the proportion of healthcare.

0530 I watched a movie "YES MAN"

Today, I got a DVD "Yes Man". One of the actors is Jim Carrey, and he is one of my favorite actors. This movie describes that one man Carl, who divorces with his exwife, has a boring and expressing life. He always uses excuses to say "No" to friends' or other people's invitations. His life becomes more terrible than before he divorces. One day, he meets one of his friends, and his friend invites him to an inspiring speech. In the speech, the speaker tells him to stop saying "no" and start to say "yes". After the lecture, he tries to say yes to every question, and his life becomes different. He meets his new girlfriend, knows a lot of people, and gets a promotion. However, every time he says yes is following covenant which he makes with the speaker. He does not really want to do it, and his girlfriend discovers the whole story. His girlfriend thinks that he does not really want to be together with her, just because of the covenant, but Carl does really love her. Finally, he finds the speaker, and the speaker tells him that the covenant does not want Carl to say yes to everything. It just wants him to say yes to those things he desires to do but has no courage to do.

In my life, I am the kind of people who do not like to try to do something we want to do or try. For example, I hope I could be an intern in banks or corporations. Once I got a chance, but I was afraid of doing it because I used a lot of excuses to tell myself that I did not prepare well yet. I knew that I just cannot say yes. After watching this movie, I really hope I can have more courage to say yes and give me more chances to do what I want to do. Just like Carl, just do it.

0527 My family members came

Today, some of my family members, my uncle, aunt, and father ,came to Boston to participate my cousin's commencement because he just graduated from Umass Boston this spring. Before they came to Boston, they went to Dallas, New Jersey, and New York to travel.

My father went to Dallas to visit his business friends. His friend also came from Taiwan decades ago, but he has lived in Dallas and has a job in the US. My father's visit was not only for travel but also for business. His friend want to buy new mechines which has special functions they want ,so my father went to his friend's company to discuss the details of the mechines.

After finishing their Dallas trip, they flied to New Jersey to meet my cousin, who just got a consulting job in New Jersey. My cousin took them to many attractions near New Jersey, such as Princeton University, New York city, and Liberty Statue. They went to many places where I have never been, so I wish I could go with them.

Finally, they and my cousin came to Boston this Wednesday. They drove my cousin's car from New Jersey to Boston and took five and half hours. If I were them, I would be impatient because I do not like take a long trip. When they arrived Boston, I became a tourist guide. I led them to Harvard University, MIT, Quincy Market, and my school- Boston University. My tourist guide was full of happiness and educability because I not only showed them the attractions but also told them the history about those attractions.

0525 Something bother me a lot

Last week, I thought it was my wonderful week. I just started my master courses, and I learned about the knowledge I really like. I also went to Lexington to take part into a festival. In the festival, I knew my first American friend after my friend introduced him to me. My new roommate, Taiwanese, just arrived Boston. We have same age and stay in same school,BU. When everything was perfect in my life, something trouble accompanied with perfect life.

Yesterday, my new roommate, who just moved in 3 days, told me and another roommate that he will move to another studio near BU at June 1st. When I and another roommate heard it, we all were shocked. We lived an apartment, and we hope our new roommate can live more than half years or longer because we do not want to move. Now, If our new roommate could not find a new people to take his room before September, I and my another roommate will have to move to other place, or we have to share the room's rent because our contract is for all apartment not for every single room.

Even though I hate to find new room, now I have to do it. If I just leave this trouble in my life, it will bother me in all summer term. That is not the time to complain who was wrong or who should be responsible for it. It is the time to solve this problem.

To sum up, I NEED A ROOM. I hope the rent is from 600 to 700 and including heat and hot water. The location can be near BU or Coolidge Corner. If you have friends who need roommates, please tell me. I am neat, easygoing, and easy to talk.

0524 The oil price listening

After I listened the podcast of the NYTimes about oil price, I realized the oil price has touched the 60 dollars per barrel. In this podcast, they talked about why oil price went to highest level in past six month, even if the economy is still bad.

Jad Mouawad pointed out the main reason of high oil price is that people are too optimistic. People thought the economic crisis will be over quickly, and then the demand of oil will go high and resulted in high oil price. He also mentioned the price will as high as today because the Memorial Day is coming soon, and people will probably drive the cars to travel in the weekends, so the oil demand makes the price stay high in few weeks.

Another reason of soaring oil price is that Nigeria, the African mainly oil supply country, has some violence. Those violence gave the negative effect on the oil supply.

Based on this lecture on podcast, demand and supply are two most crucial elements to affect oil price. Rising demand or slumping supply result oil price going up. In other words, sliding demand or excess supply make oil price down.