Yesterday, I performed at a concert. And until the moment I got up on the stage (I was the last to go, by the way), I practically lived the statement "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".
The concert was organized by my piano teacher and she wanted her students to give a concert. She asked me if I would play in it. I said, "Gladly!". She asked me if I had anything to do that Tuesday night, May 7th. I thought about it for a while, and the date rang the bell: math exam, Ding! Luckily, the test was on Tuesday, so I didn't have any studying to do that night. Anyway. She told me that the rehearsal would be at 18:00. I told her that I come from school around 17:00 and I could easily make it... Haha.
So Tuesday came rolling, I took the painfully hard calculus exam, and was excited the whole day for the concert that night. I got on the bus, and because of the people who took the bus that day, I realized that I would be dropped off 3rd from the last.
But that was just the beginning.
The road we normally take was unusually and incredibly crowded and a jogging turtle could have passed us for a while there.
When it was finally my turn to get dropped off, the bus driver "forgot" I was in the bus and missed the turn which lead to my street. I had to ride along in the bus until he dropped off the remaining three people.
I finally got home, ate some stuff so fast I couldn't taste it, fixed myself an outfit, splashed on some makeup, and we were getting in a cab at 18:10.
Oh, what's that?
Some people tried to take charge and are running around yelling shallow slogans with banners in their hands, so the police closed off a street.
Some genius city planner decided to work on the asphalt in one of the main arteries at the place I was going to, so bye-bye free flowing traffic!
It took us 30 minutes to go somewhere we would've gone in 10 minutes any other day.
Now, I don't want to commit any logical fallacies or anything, but, if all of these weren't Murphy's Laws alive in flesh and blood, what were they?
Of course, I would not notice the jammed traffic every other day when I did not have a concert to get to.
I would not care so much if the bus driver had forgotten to drop me off any other day. So maybe, just because today I had somewhere and some event I had to get to, because I searched for misfortunes all along the way, I noticed these stuff.
Nonetheless, something, maybe a decision I made or maybe the fluttering of a butterfly's wings on the top of a skyscraper in Shanghai caused me to be late to that concert. I don't know what was at work that day, but that chaotic afternoon was far from normal... Murphy's Law? Maybe.
Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Time. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Drunk From the Wine of Power
When we say kings, queens and monarchy, we immediately think of sword fights, public executions, men in tights with music playing in the background with parallel fifths and fourths, a fat, arrogant man sitting on a throne surrounded by gold looted from conquered cities. We think that those days of kings and queens are in the past.
However, they have never been so close to us.
Once one of the most powerful nations now drowning in its own economic slump powered by unnecessary inflation, the U.K., in fact, has a queen as their leader.
Today was Queen's Day (actually to be King's Day from now on because the current queen has left the throne for his son), a special day in the Netherlands to celebrate the birthday of their queen and the previous queens.
So, opposing contrary belief and our conditioning, kings and queens do play an important role in our society.
And you could argue about what's wrong with that. The glitch in this system is that nobody wants to give up their supreme and unquestioned power; moreover, everyone wants to obtain that power. Because when you're the king or the queen of a nation, you are at the top, you don't take orders from anyone; only mere suggestions posed at "your grace", and, well, if you don't like their suggestions, Off with their heads! OK, maybe not necessarily decapitation in 2013, but you get the gist.
The honorable and right thing to do is to give up the throne when you've had enough time under the limelight and enough glory to carry on with you, to pass on the throne to your descendants to let them rule the country for a while, not to cling on to it until you can barely walk and until your son gets to the age you should have left the throne at.
But again, being drunk from the wine of power is irresistible, and the wine is just too, too sweet to give up.
However, they have never been so close to us.
Once one of the most powerful nations now drowning in its own economic slump powered by unnecessary inflation, the U.K., in fact, has a queen as their leader.
Today was Queen's Day (actually to be King's Day from now on because the current queen has left the throne for his son), a special day in the Netherlands to celebrate the birthday of their queen and the previous queens.
So, opposing contrary belief and our conditioning, kings and queens do play an important role in our society.
And you could argue about what's wrong with that. The glitch in this system is that nobody wants to give up their supreme and unquestioned power; moreover, everyone wants to obtain that power. Because when you're the king or the queen of a nation, you are at the top, you don't take orders from anyone; only mere suggestions posed at "your grace", and, well, if you don't like their suggestions, Off with their heads! OK, maybe not necessarily decapitation in 2013, but you get the gist.
The honorable and right thing to do is to give up the throne when you've had enough time under the limelight and enough glory to carry on with you, to pass on the throne to your descendants to let them rule the country for a while, not to cling on to it until you can barely walk and until your son gets to the age you should have left the throne at.
But again, being drunk from the wine of power is irresistible, and the wine is just too, too sweet to give up.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Time for Summer
The sun glistened upon the beautiful landscape of Antalya, the Mediterranean Sea shimmering under the sun's tentative rays, the sand on the beaches sparkling here and there, and, finally, the first customers of the year, the hotel owners, the bellboys, spilling out onto the streets and beaches, ready, ready for some hot weather, ready for a big bowl of summer.
The trees are now not bare, not frozen solid from the harsh winter, but are embellished with leaves of green and flowers of all colors.
These are the times in which we need to turn on the AC.
These are the times in which we walk on the other side of the street to walk in the shadows of the cumbersome buildings.
These are the times in which we don't carry the burden of coats, scarfs, hats, and heavy boots.
One whole year has passed since the apple tree in our backyard last blossomed. One year of fun, stress, sadness, one year which only remains in our minds as memories, memories, memories, otherwise completely disappeared, gone with the wind. Now we have another spring, another start at the best times to go to school, to go outside, to take a walk, another chance to do things differently this time. A new season, a new beginning.
The time of ice cream, the time of sitting on the grass under the sun, the time of late sunsets, the time of beautiful fruits, the time of sand, sea, sun and everything good, the time for relaxing, being happy, and simply enjoying life to its fullest has come; the time for summer finally arrived.
The trees are now not bare, not frozen solid from the harsh winter, but are embellished with leaves of green and flowers of all colors.
These are the times in which we need to turn on the AC.
These are the times in which we walk on the other side of the street to walk in the shadows of the cumbersome buildings.
These are the times in which we don't carry the burden of coats, scarfs, hats, and heavy boots.
One whole year has passed since the apple tree in our backyard last blossomed. One year of fun, stress, sadness, one year which only remains in our minds as memories, memories, memories, otherwise completely disappeared, gone with the wind. Now we have another spring, another start at the best times to go to school, to go outside, to take a walk, another chance to do things differently this time. A new season, a new beginning.
The time of ice cream, the time of sitting on the grass under the sun, the time of late sunsets, the time of beautiful fruits, the time of sand, sea, sun and everything good, the time for relaxing, being happy, and simply enjoying life to its fullest has come; the time for summer finally arrived.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Opportunity Cost
One of the most basics concepts in economics is the concept of "opportunity cost". An opportunity cost is a cost you pay when you do something instead of another, and this "cost" is not always, actually most of the time is not, a monetary value. For example, they're selling my favorite cereal in the grocery store near my house, store A, at a higher price than the grocery store on the other side of town, store B, let's say two dollars more. The opportunity cost of not going to store B is two dollars, but the amount of time and gasoline I would waste if I had gone there, which are the opportunity costs of going to store B, are greater costs than two dollars. So, instead, I prefer buying the cereal and give two dollars more than usual.
This problem of opportunity costs comes from the very problem of economics and the reason why a science called economics exists: scarcity. When there are limited resources, and unlimited wants.
Opportunity costs are everywhere in life, and we face them every, single, day.
To park the car in a very, very, small gap in front of the house and spend 15 minutes trying to do it, or to park it 4 meters up the street easily, and walk the way?
The most typical example in economics; to produce 20 tons of butter and 10 million guns, or to produce 5 tons of butter and 40 million guns?(here, the opportunity cost of producing 1 ton of butter is half a million guns).
The reason I have not been writing blog posts for the past six days, I have not been able to play the piano or the guitar, I have not been able to watch the new episode of Supernatural, is, simply, that the opportunity cost of doing these is very, very, big.
Economics tells us and teaches us how the real world works and functions. Not just markets and GDP's and how to lower unemployment rates, but what to do, how to do it, and to do it at what cost. Basically, we answer two of the three basic questions of economics, what to produce and how to produce, in our everyday lives, trying to allocate our own resources as efficiently as we can. Maybe I am not a factory and land owner, and I don't decide, to increase production, let's say, whether to buy 50 million dollars worth more capital and reduce my labor force, or to keep my capital the same and purchase more labor. But what I do, and what everyone does every day is the exact same thing. My "limited resource" is my time, from when I get home from school until I go to bed, my "unlimited wants" are to play the piano, to write blog posts, to watch TV, but also to do my homework and study for the physics test, and the way I allocate may resources is through being organized and trying, although most of the time not succeeding in, time management.
Just to get the concept of opportunity cost clear, here is a thing which happened to me four days ago: It was a Tuesday night, and I had a physics test the next day, but I could also play the guitar and sing at the Art Show hosted at our school, for an hour that night. The opportunity cost of playing the guitar was perhaps and hour of studying physics or an hour of rest, but the satisfaction and the utility I would get from playing the guitar and singing in the Art Show with my friends, would be much, much more valuable than an hour of studying physics. So, I decided to go to the Art Show and study physics when I come back, and thinking back to that Tuesday night, and the test I faced on Wednesday now, I know for certain that I made the right decision, no matter what grade I may get from the test.
This problem of opportunity costs comes from the very problem of economics and the reason why a science called economics exists: scarcity. When there are limited resources, and unlimited wants.
Opportunity costs are everywhere in life, and we face them every, single, day.
To park the car in a very, very, small gap in front of the house and spend 15 minutes trying to do it, or to park it 4 meters up the street easily, and walk the way?
The most typical example in economics; to produce 20 tons of butter and 10 million guns, or to produce 5 tons of butter and 40 million guns?(here, the opportunity cost of producing 1 ton of butter is half a million guns).
The reason I have not been writing blog posts for the past six days, I have not been able to play the piano or the guitar, I have not been able to watch the new episode of Supernatural, is, simply, that the opportunity cost of doing these is very, very, big.
Economics tells us and teaches us how the real world works and functions. Not just markets and GDP's and how to lower unemployment rates, but what to do, how to do it, and to do it at what cost. Basically, we answer two of the three basic questions of economics, what to produce and how to produce, in our everyday lives, trying to allocate our own resources as efficiently as we can. Maybe I am not a factory and land owner, and I don't decide, to increase production, let's say, whether to buy 50 million dollars worth more capital and reduce my labor force, or to keep my capital the same and purchase more labor. But what I do, and what everyone does every day is the exact same thing. My "limited resource" is my time, from when I get home from school until I go to bed, my "unlimited wants" are to play the piano, to write blog posts, to watch TV, but also to do my homework and study for the physics test, and the way I allocate may resources is through being organized and trying, although most of the time not succeeding in, time management.
Just to get the concept of opportunity cost clear, here is a thing which happened to me four days ago: It was a Tuesday night, and I had a physics test the next day, but I could also play the guitar and sing at the Art Show hosted at our school, for an hour that night. The opportunity cost of playing the guitar was perhaps and hour of studying physics or an hour of rest, but the satisfaction and the utility I would get from playing the guitar and singing in the Art Show with my friends, would be much, much more valuable than an hour of studying physics. So, I decided to go to the Art Show and study physics when I come back, and thinking back to that Tuesday night, and the test I faced on Wednesday now, I know for certain that I made the right decision, no matter what grade I may get from the test.
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