Fleeting thoughts on a cold winter night

In the midst of this circus I like to call life, I have developed a smashing desire towards someone outside my normal sphere of probabilities. It's like having a fantasy about one of my professors. It's uncomfortable but thrilling at the same time. No matter where we fall on the food chain, something is always ready to eat us. Therefore, it seems this chain is interlinked. Which puts us all on a similar level - the level of being eaten by a predator!

I have started to think more seriously about what I would like to research in more specific terms. Now I need to delve into the details. And it seems like they were all correct, 'the devil is in the details'. I hope to meet him though, so we can move along progressively with this business of research.

Economics Majors and the Real World

How is it possible to be an Economics Major and not be interested in what's happening in the Euro zone now? I read about it in the newspapers sometimes, but I don't form economic opinions about what I read. I simply read because I don't want to be totally clueless about this big economic problem. I know that the Euro is in trouble and that the effects of the recession are far from being over. But the specifics are not committed to my memory.

I would love to honestly be able to say that I'm more interested in Development Economics than Financial Economics, and that's the reason I lack interest in Europe's issues. But if that were the case, I would be up to date on all the Development issues in the world. I didn't even know that the world population hit the 7billion mark on November 31, 2011 (at least, I think that's the date).

I keep thinking that it's embarrassing to be pursuing higher education in economics without any real interest in what is happening in America or Europe. Generally,  I don't engage in economic discussions because I don't feel passionate about the topics or I don't want others to know that I am not as smart in Economics as they are.  Is there something wrong with me? I prefer the economics practised by Levitt (in Freakanomics).

 Life in Kobe, Japan.

I haven't been taking many pictures of nature. So, I went on a nature splurge on my campus recently. I go to school on two different campuses almost everyday. One to learn Japanese and one to facilitate my research. All the beautiful pictures in this post were taken at the Rokkodai 1st Campus. That's the campus for Social Sciences (I think) - My campus.

 I just love the colourful leaves here :). This picture was taken while I was at the half-way mark on the steps to the campus. The one thing I don't like about this university - it's located on a hill!

 Beautiful trees.

 Cute.

 Whatever that says.

 Old Auditorium

 My Grad School

 I can read the two lines at the bottom :)

View from a window at GSICS

 Spiders have the coolest habitats!

An Adjustment to my beliefs

So, today I saw the world from a different perspective. I realized that the concept of pre-destiny is broader than I initially thought. I used to think that our lives are pre-destined. God is omni-potent, omni-present, omniscient, omni-etc :) and therefore, he would know our endings at the same time he created our beginnings. The error in my belief, however, was that he only created one possible ending. It seems that God is the Greatest Economist and Operations Researcher of all time. While creating us, he ran an infinite (or maybe finite) number of iterated procedures, combining all possible probabilities. These iterations form the possibilities of our lives. Our initial steps determine the choices that will follow and he always knows the possibilities that exist based on our choices.

I always had a problem with Christians saying that we have choices, when I know that God knows our ending from before he created us. But now I understand that we really do have choices, within a set of possibilities provided by God. We don't have infinite choices, only those provided within the set provided by the Almighty. This means I am able to mold my destiny, within the set of possibilities allowed. I should never resign myself to thoughts like 'sera sera'. Once I am able to think it, then Maybe, it is in in my possibilities set. Maybe our set of possibilities is defined by our thoughts. Maybe we are not allowed to think impossible thoughts. What sense would it make to dream impossible dreams or think impossible thoughts. This realization gives me great inner strength. No mountain is too high for me to climb, once I can see myself at the top.