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November 09 This is one of the most boring films I've ever seen! The film's running time is two hours and I found it really hard to sit through. Han and I fell asleep several times in the cinema. The only funny thing in the film is when W. got choked with crisps while watching TV. Half of this film is dedicated to boring meetings between Bush and Rice, Powell, Cheney et al. The conversations sound so ridiculous that you can hardly believe that the US or even the whole world is ruled by these stupid people.
Oliver Stone should retire from directing. Every time I have some hopes for his new film but I've been really disappointed. I don't know from which aspects he wanted to portray W Bush. There's not even a scene about how he got elected as president of USA. And what was his reaction after 9-11? The plot of this film can be summarised as follows: W got drunk -> W decided to go for a town election -> he got drunk again -> he went for governor -> he didn't get drunk but disappointed by his father's defeat to Clinton -> he got elected as president -> he started the Iraq War. That's all.
No need to waste money on this film and don't believe those reviews on IMDB. November 05 Keine Ahnung, warum Leben in Oxford ist schwerer als gedacht... Kein Arbeit, kein Verständnis zu Statistik, mit R zu programmieren und LaTeX. October 12 好久没在这里写过什么东西了. 暑假好好休息了一番, 现在终于来到了我上高中以来最想去的地方读书了. 以前虽然来过几次Oxford, 不过要么是以旅游者的身份, 要么是以offer holder的身份, 以学生的身份还是第一次, 不过这辈子恐怕就这一次了, 除非过几年我突然心血来潮来这里读DPhil. 真正以学生的身份呆在这里, 才发觉, Oxford的生活质量和Nottingham差远了, 东西贵就不说了, 关键是超市商店又小又少, 想买个什么东西吧, 往往要跑遍整个市中心! 就连电影院都找不出一个像样的! 更不爽的是, 这里的店员对人冷漠...... 果真应验了英国人常说的, 越往英国南部走人越冷漠, 东西越贵. 算了, 这个地方让人清心寡欲，一心钻研学问…… 我的学院还不错，离stats department和math institute都很近，离市中心也很近，但又避开了大量旅游者的光顾，比起high street和broad street上的学院，还有那个"harry potter college"，要幸运多了，那些地方经常可以看到一大群来自世界各地的旅游者。我不禁回忆起原来在清华，经常想去近春园或者水木清华那儿散心，每次都被一大群游客给倒了胃口，虽然我理解他们景仰名校的心情，可这毕竟是学校啊！突然想起我的college tutor说的关于我们Keble的一件往事。当年好莱坞的film makers本来是看中了Keble的hall作为Harry Potter里的dining hall，因为Keble Hall是老学院hall里最大最壮观的，可是他们要求把墙上的画和天花板上的装饰全部拿掉，于是Keble的Warden就不干了, film makers转而求其次, 找到了Christ Church. 在所有Kebelles看来，这样做会破坏了学院的传统. 虽然不能在电影中出现有点遗憾, 但转过来一想, 要是当初在Keble拍, 现在旅游者就会蜂拥而至, 那我们就会很惨了. 周五下午, 我冒着生命危险, 爬上了Keble Chapel的屋顶, 上下用的楼梯几乎和水平面垂直, 下来的时候尤其可怕, 现在想想都浑身冒冷汗啊, 不过风景确实不错~~也不枉费我的一番劳累了~~So have a look at my photos. May 06 I'm going to sit my final exams from May 12th to 27th, so I won't update my space until exams are over. My revision is a big mess and I need to sort it out...
I regret choosing Microeconomics and Experimental Economics!!!! Can "regret theory" explain the sudden structural change in my preference??? May 01 今天上facebook一看,著名的Matt Barker同学已经把我加成了他的朋友. 为什么这位同学这么出名呢, 这要从我们third year的environmental economics的lecturer, Dr Dijkstra(不知道是否拼对了)说起. 这位老兄上课, 还可以顺带帮人发生日祝福slide. 于是, 在这学期的一次课前, 他在教室打出happy birthday to Matt Barker的slide, 可惜教室里学生的反应比较冷淡, 原来Matt同学并不在. Dr Dijkstra十分郁闷, 于是, 上课迟到进门的男生都不免被他用搞笑的, 带着荷兰口音的升调英语问候一次:"Are you Matt Barker?" 每问一次, 课堂上就爆笑一次, Dr Dijkstra还是锲而不舍. 可最后Matt同学也没来上课, 可以想象Dr Dijkstra有多么懊恼. 为了宽慰Dr Dijkstra, 有才的Andrea和Mandy同学商量一番, 两人在module feedback form上同时写上了 "I'm Matt Barker. Thank you for the birthday wish!" 不知道Dr Dijkstra看了会不会更郁闷. 一个同学可以引发这么多笑料. 出于好奇, 我便facebook了他. April 28 Of whole Europe, there are only two universities I want to go to most, one is Oxford and the other is Heidelberg in Germany. Many may wonder why they're not simply Oxbridge, but I may say Heidelberg represents something special! Heidelberg share many things in common with Oxford. Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking world, while Heidelberg is its counterpart in the German speaking world. They're not campus-based universities. They excelled at traditional academic disciplines, such as history, art, literature, theology and medicine. I personally visited Heidelberg two years ago and stayed there for more than a week. That was a wonderful experience. 
Heidelberg am Neckar 
Irgendwo im Stadt 
Auditorium der Universität 
Studentenkarzer 
April 27 It's almost 100 years, lol. I hope I can go back to the beautiful campus in 2011. 
April 25 昨天在BBC Four上面看到了一档关于中国教育的专题节目，Chinese School: Hard Beginnings. 节目从三个学校的新生的角度，讲述了中国学生在刚刚进入小学、高中和大学所面临的一系列转变过程。 其中的大学新生恰好是清华7字班经管的，从她到学校报到、军训讲起，到大一在班上面临的激烈竞争为止。节目里面的一切都那么熟悉，东操篮球场，顶着烈日站一下午军姿，卧倒，在东操垒球场上黄土上匍匐……20天的军训，的确是清华生活中最简单的一步。 真正艰难的是其后大一的学习。一个班的人并不多，可谁不是历经了千军万马过独木桥的高考过来的，个个都是自己原来学校的尖子，谁愿意在班上垫底呢？其中的竞争如何惨烈，恐怕只有经历过的人才能领会。当年我所在的中外文化综合班，所谓的“大师班”，班里仅仅十几个人，基本都是经过了更加惨烈的保送考试进来的，我们每个人对自己的要求都非常严格，到了最后的考试，我们之间的差距十分微小，单位是小数点后两位…… 大一在我的印象里，基本就是半夜三更开着应急灯在冷冰冰的走廊里蹲着写数学作业，或者抱着大部头的《史记》狂啃。我不清楚经管的情况，可我完全可以想象，所有的清华学子是多么勤奋。电视里的女主人公非常幸运，能遇到钱颖一这样的导师。我印象当中，我们3字班人文学院的在大一是没有导师的，和老师的接触也非常少，老师们基本上是上完课甩手走人…… 清华能在本科教育上有这样的进步，我感到由衷的高兴，也非常羡慕，恨不得自己晚生4年。 其实我最怀念的是在平日游客稀少的日子里，到近春园的荷塘边散步，到工字厅旁边读书……能在电视上重温那种感觉也很美好。不知道以后还有没有机会在美丽的清华园里漫步呢？ 太崩溃了, 半夜3点我还在看Hamilton的Time Series Analysis!!! Prof Rob Taylor害我们害得够惨, spurious regression problem的cures要让我们自己去研究...... 唉, 今天在Hallward Library呆了一整天, 连time series和topics的一半都没搞定. 不是一般的郁闷. 不知道为什么, 看到Taylor的笔记我感觉浑身难受, 绿色的手写体, orz, 还有红的, 蓝的...... 我当初为啥打了个彩色的notes啊?! Mathematical Econ也很烦人, 老师讲得很一般, 关键的证明和演算从来就没讲清楚过, 他又不愿意答疑, 最恼火的是, 每次上课就摆出一副我们欠了他东西似的表情, 怎么看怎么叫人难受. 他讲的那一大堆东西, 我看的欲望都没有了...... 昨天晚上电脑系统崩了, 我费了很长时间才重新把机子装好, 只是很多软件都没了, 最心疼的就是Microsoft OneNote没了, 我手里只有最基本的Microsoft Word, PPT, Excel. 我好多experimental, topics的notes都在上面, 现在都打不开了, 气死我了, 真是倒霉透顶. 今天本来是想找personal tutor谈谈postgraduate的事情,可走到他办公室门口了, 某professor说:"Wyn's away this week." 无语了...... 最无语的是, 晚上回来看联盟杯的结果, 拜仁......又在主场被无名小队给逼平了. 很好很强大, 这下我们又得等Getafe奇迹的来临了. 我想起了LM上有人对Lucio的评价, 此人是拜仁后场折射王, 果然啊, 折射王名不虚传, 学习里瑟, 折进了一个乌龙..... April 20 
Aber die beide Teams sind meine lieblings... 
Der frühere BVB-Trainer und der BVB-Trainer. 
Flo Kringe gegen Schweini. 
Der Titan! 
Philipp Lahm zeigte, dass man den Pokal auch als Stuhl benutzen kann. 
Miro... Er sieht enttäuscht aus... April 18 The University of Nottingham Definitive Examination Timetable Assessed by end of Spring Semester07/08 12 May 2008,13:30 L13616E1 Advanced Microeconomics II
Portland Building, C11 14 May 2008,09:00 L13620E1 Topics in Econometrics II
Pope Building, A14 21 May 2008,09:00 L13621E1 Advanced Time Series
Law & Social Sciences, B1 23 May 2008,13:30 L13619E1 Advanced Mathematical Economics
Coates Building, C27 27 May 2008,09:00 L13617E1 Advanced Experimental Economics
Coates Building, A1A3April 09 I have been accepted into Keble College, Oxford. It's absolutely amazing! Very close to the Stats department and Natural History Museum~~ And it's a large college and traditionally very strong in academics, especially in science. Their computer facilities are the best in Oxford. The college has one of the most important Victorian architecture in history, quite similar to St John's in Cambridge. Keble's dining hall is one of the best in Oxford. Harry Porter film makers almost shot their scenes in it, but the college authorities declined their request. Still, you can see what Keble looks like in the Harry Potter films.
The pictures of Keble are fantastic...
 
Source: www.keble.ox.ac.uk
I have nothing to say... I may have preferred LSE's top master programme, but Oxford's history and culture attracted me more.
If I can't hear anything good from Economics at Merton, then I'll go for Statistics at Keble. March 01 It's the first time for me to write a blog using Windows Live Writer! Last week was really dramatic! In the Tuesday midnight, I experienced the second earthquake in my life so far... in England!!! Can you believe it? The magnitude is 5.3, the biggest in 25 years in the UK! I can't remember exactly what I've learnt in my high school geography, but UK shouldn't belong to those places where earthquakes often hit, at least in the structural earthquake case. UK's safely in the Eurasia plate, unlike the place I'm from, which is close to the border of Eurasia plate with Indian ocean plate. Anyway, it's not too bad to have an earthquake like that. What's funny is that the English press are like drama queens, yelling "breaking news", "OMG it's so scaring!". It's no big deal actually! When the earthquake hit, I was reading this econometrics paper written by the 'bastard' Perron on the unit root tests in the case of structural breaks. I was so exhausted for the presentation and so were my mates in the group. Our presentation isn't bad honestly speaking. Another funny thing from our econometrics lecture! It's time to write module feedbacks for the lecturer. Prof. Taylor was really nice and funny and we simply left him a lot of amusing comments on the back of the form. "Hero", "legend" or "big gun" is not enough. Someone's writing "give him the Nobel prize!" and "I sh*g him for a 2:1!" What's more, Rob Taylor mentioned our reputation in writing feedbacks and he quoted what we wrote last year for Dr Harvey, "He's well fit. I sh*g him." Poor Dr Harvey... January 25 Last night was really a crazy night with Linkin Park live in Nottingham!
After dinner @ Red Hot, some mates and I walked to Nottingham Arena and arrived there at about 7.40pm. Entering the Arena, we saw loads of people being checked of their bags (luckily we weren't checked!) and queuing for LP's official merch. Well, that didn't really bother us and we walked to our seats inside.
Our seats were located on the side of the stage with a very close view of the band. There, some local rock band was playing their music. That's the so called warming up, huh? They finished their rock 'n roll at about 8:10pm and some curtains were put off around the stage so that the crowd couldn't see who was inside. They played some kind of old-fashioned music, like Michael Jackson's music and we could hear Linkin Park's testing mics, drums, guitar, bass etc. Mike was practising rap, but we couldn't hear Chester singing.
After a long long wait, at 9:10pm, curtains fell and the rocking sound emersed! And there was this familiar intro from What I've Done! Our enthusiasm and craze was lit up and we screamed and shouted with the whole crowd. With Chester's breaking voice, we sang together. Suddenly, Chester walked to us and he was that close to me! He was wearing white t-shirt and black jacket and black trousers, and that fabulous pair of Nike trainers! He looks hotter and more handsome that in TV or Internet!
Then there came "Faint" and everyone kinda went crazy with Chester's screaming. They extended the song a bit and linked this with their new hit, "No More Sorrow". Chester was shaking that mic holder back and forth madly. OMG, he's such a good performer. All of us were motivated and we stood up until the end of the show! I really like the crowd shouting together with him, "thieves and hypocrites", again and again.
Then it was one of my favourites, "Somewhere I Belong". Then "Lying from you" and "From the Inside". They played quite a lot of things from Meteora. After Meteora, Mike was asking us to make some noise, lol. Then, they jumped back to Hybrid Theory! It was "Points of Authority", but they did a little remix to it, well, not the same as the remix on Reanimation. I like this song because it well represented their early 20s' anger. At the end of that song, Chester climbed up to Rob's place, lol.
Obviously Chester was quite happy with Nottingham's pubs and he kind of said we had the best bars in the UK and called the crowd "you motherf***ers". Then he stepped back, doing back vocals for Mike. Of course Mike's singing "Hands Held High". Chester raised his voice a lot and that sounded absolutely amazing. It reminded me of Mike's remarks on Chester, "he's got the best voice in our generation."
After shouting a lot, we all feld deaf and dumb. "Wake" just gave us a break and it also signalled the beginning of "Given up". I started taking more photos and videos since I couldn't shout any more. Chester jumped off the stage and joined the standing crowd. There, crazy fans were pushing him around and female fans tried their best to kiss him (or even his ass!)
Back to the stage, Chester kind of calmed himself down and started singing "Valentine's Day". It's one of my favourites from their new album. Chester's voice sounded quite sad, but really touching. Suddenly, this "You guys are f***ing great crowd" bursted out from Chester. Haha.
Then this everybody's favourite "Numb" came and we were so excited! Andrea almost jumped off the seat, lol. After this, we saw Mike got a keyboard in front of him and it seemed that they wanna do something using the sound of piano. Suddenly they were playing some kind of new demo, very gentle, very slow, with the nice piano sound. Within my expectation, they played "Shadow of the Day". Then it was the Reanimation remix of "Crawling" and my absolute always favourite "In the End"! Well, Mike requested that we could only sing with Chester, not rap with him, lol. And they had this non-stop play of "Bleed It Out".
Now that LP guys seemed quite tired and they took a little break. However, we shouted "Linkin Park" with the crowd and Chester and Mike came out. Mike sat still at the keyboard and this "Linkin Park" shout resumed. Chester adjusted himself a bit, kind of threw away his jacket and showed off his tattoos on his arms with his short-sleeved t-shirt on. And then there came "My December", the only LP song that sounds quite "adult contemporary". Chester's voice was soothing, sad and touching. People in the Arena held up their hands, with light sticks, mobile phones with led light screens. The whole Arena seemed really peaceful and beautiful. Certainly, Chester was totally emerged in the music he sang to. I was hugely impressed by the scene.
Then they started with a slower version of "Breaking the Habit". The whole crowd sang with it. Strangely enough, Chester said good night and thank you to us and the band went to backstage. It seemed that it was over. Then we were told there were two more songs left, so we we started to shout "Linkin Park" again. I was expecting them playing "Leave out all the Rest" or "Pushing me away", but there was some creepy sound and the band came out again! To my surprise, they put the powerful ones to the end! The strong beats of "A Place for My Head" came and we started clapping. What we heard then was Mike's super fast rap and Chester's angry voice. The most breathtaking point was when Chester sing "You, try to take the best of me - go away". The similar case came when the last one "One Step Closer" came, and Chester shouted and screamed "Shut up, when I'm talking to you". That force was really amazing!
Sadly, everything finished within one hour and a half. Around, 10.30pm, the band started to thank the crowd and threw their stuff to us. Rob's drum stick almost flew to us and Chester took of his shirt and we all screamed for his hot body filled with cool tattoos! Chester came to our side and thanked us and even bowed! I just can't forget this scene. I heard that Linkin Park is the most considerate band for fans and I can really tell that.
Walking out of the arena, we queued for buying LP merch. Everyone bought a t-shirt with the shadow of the band in the front and the 2008 tour dates at the back. Well, I've already shown off my new t-shirt during today's Topics and Experimental lectures, lol.
This LP concert was absolutely unforgettable and fabulous. This was definitely one of the happiest days of my life and the most impressive of my LP "fan career"! I just can't wait for their next concert I'll go to, probably Beijing, Hong Kong or London?
List of songs played @ Nottingham Arena, 24/01/08
1. What I've Done
2. Faint
3. No More Sorrow
4. Somewhere I Belong
5. Lying from You
6. From the Inside
7. Points of Authority
8. Hand Held High
9. Wake
10. Given up
11. Valentine's Day
12. Numb
13. Shadow of the Day
14. Crawling
15. In the End
16. Bleed It Out
17. My December
18. Breaking the Habit
19. A Place for My Head
20. One Step Closer November 20 Just feel so stressed that I really need somewhere to relieve all this.
I'm facing these deadlines, 23 November, gathered field 2 ends and submission of development economics essay. 14 december, submission of two extended essays!!!
This year there's neither reading week nor revision week. Exam starts on January 7th! I just can't believe that the library opens 24 hours a day from this week on... September 28 I haven't updated msn space for a long time, though many interesting things happened in the summer.
Now I'm back at uni, but I feel a little sentimental about my last year here as an undergraduate. Two years slipped away quickly and I've never thought about saying farewell to this place. Lots of friends, nice lecturers and hall tutors... Also I miss my two years in Ancaster Hall. I made a whole lot of nice friends in Ancy, but now as we're doing various courses and living far far away from each other, it's really difficult to meet my Ancy friends. Even if Adam and Daniel are also doing economics, I have hardly met them during lectures... we chose very different modules...
Jennie, Lina and Jemene rent a house outside campus and there's little probability of meeting them randomly. Christina is spending a year in Germany and France, so I guess I won't have a chance to meet her again in Nottingham this year. Lindsey should be doing a master's degree in Math & Physics. Matthias is working now...
Also my course processed to 3rd year now and I can feel the heavy workload already. And my journey to postgraduate has just begun... I don't know whether I'll still be here next September. I actually quite enjoy life here. Maybe I'll stay here next year, lol.  March 18 
On Friday, I saw the biographic film of Edie Sedgwick, Factory Girl. Sienna Miller played Edie, an underground avant-garde film star and muse of Andy Warhol. This film reminded me of the Brit film, Velvet Goldmine. Both films look pretty much similar. Even the posters are of the same style.
Honestly speaking, I went to the cinema just to see Hayden Christensen in this film, but he appeared for only 5 minutes in total and portrayed the role of a folk singer who was supposed to be Bob Dylan. He didn't look too good and there was a nasty sex scene featuring him and Sienna Miller.
I don't think this film is as good as Velvet Goldmine. Certainly the trio of Miller, Guy Pearce and Hayden are not as good as the combination of Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Christian Bale. The chemistry between Miller and Pearce, or between Miller and Hayden, is too weak. And there's too much drug abuse and nudity in Factory Girl, which I think are totally unnecessary.
March 14 Today I saw the new film featuring Anne Hathaway, "Becoming Jane", with Mandy. Anne played Jane Austen in this film and she was stunning! This film is unbelievably beautiful! I recommend this to those who love England and English literature.
And one of the reasons why we chose this film is the male lead. James McAvoy looks so cute in the poster, but we were certainly disappointed after seeing the film. Posters can be very misleading!
We were also depressed by the fact that we are becoming old. Today there were about 40 people in the cinema and including ourselves, only 4 are young people below 30. The rest of them are all senior citizens.
Here are some misleading posters...
    March 10 最近几个月来疯狂追捧Prison Break,在网上看到一箩筐的搞笑的中文译名,不得不佩服汉语的高深和网友们的智慧......
特此转载,因为我最近忙,没时间写blog了.
《神奇史沟飞》
《文身迷综》
《狐狸河的救赎》
《大光头有智慧》
《小史快跑》
《翻墙总动员》
《史沟飞和他的狱友》
《拯救大哥林肯》
《史沟非监狱历险记》
《阿吏正传》
《八仙打洞》
《爱与洞的边缘》
《拿什么来拯救我的老哥》
《将逃跑进行到底》
《监狱豆腐渣工程带来的教育意义——狐狸河监狱越狱事件全程系列跟踪报道》
《逃出断臂岛》
《千纸鹤引发的惨案》
《我爱上了牢房的小哥》
《运动员史考菲的前半生》
《建筑队风云》
《监狱生死恋》
《我的名字叫雏儿》
《逃狱威龙》
《趟过狐狸河的男人们》
《决战医务室》
《史考菲密码 》
《我和监狱有个约会》
《地道战之下水道战》
《我和一群猛男不得不说的秘事》
《怎样从洗漱池里逃走>
《极度追杀令》
《纸鹤敢死队》
《谁动了我的五百万》
《那监狱 那人 那钱》
《暗狱之夺宝奇兵》
《这个光头不太冷》
《条纹勇士之逃离狐狸河》
《史沟非之千纸鹤密码》
《亡命战将之龙在天涯》
《脱狱秀》
《脱狱威龙之为爱狂奔》
《监狱终结者》
《总统秘令》
《大逃杀》
《刺激2005》
《Buck Mahone的名单》
《7人行》
《自由狂想曲》
《狐!狐!狐!》
《Once Upon a Time in Fox River》
《7杆大手枪》
《自由之路》
《判我无罪》
《逃啊逃 逃到外婆桥》
《这个逃犯不太冷》
《屎沟飞传》
《翻火车》
《狐狸河中年翻墙事件》
《一场越狱引发的血案》
《RUN T-BAG RUN!》
《你追我赶的故事》
《我的文身难友》
《疯狂约会犹他州》
《猫和老虎》
《Catch Me If You Can!》
《完全脱狱指南》
《一背文身闯天涯》
《我知道你去年背上纹了什么》
《五百万美元宝贝》
《打洞专家奇遇记》
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