Rental car and Ownership

As I started traveling to NJ, I rent a car every week. When I see many people who drive rental cars (including myself), I can see the tendency of becoming more reckless drivers. People step on gas too much too quickly and don’t really care if the RPM goes above 4. If there are speed humps, people don’t reduce speed enough with the rental cars, either. When I got a ride with my manager’s own car, however, he drove quite differently (he’s still a reckless driver.) That’s why I am not surprised when I rented a car that’s slightly over 25000 miles on it feels like a 5-6 years old car because of careless drivers.

Why people drive rental cars differently from their own cars? I believe that’s related to their ownership of the car. When you own your car, you have to deal with the consequences of your driving habits/styles. Rental cars, however, are different stories. You rent it for certain amount of time and then, it’s not yours anymore and you don’t have to worry about it.

Ownership is also related to commitment. “Something belongs to me” means I need to take care of it while I decide to have it. In that sense, it’s important to have a nice owner. Who’s the owner of your life? I’m glad my God is the owner of my life who loves me so much.

Nerd, Geek, Dork

You can call me one of them as long as you put "cool" or "hot" in front of it. :)
I admit that I'm a nerd/geek/dork. The followings are only a couple of indications that I'm one of those.

1. It has been a while since I was working on a conference proposal or a journal article. I just couldn't even look at one more article after finishing my dissertation. I thought about writing a journal article with my dissertation. However, I just didn't have any energy to open my dissertation file (Yes.. we're living in a digital era and i don't even have a bounded copy of my dissertation).

I'm so glad to have a friend who encouraged me to work on writing journal articles. Otherwise, I would think about it but wouldn't write anything. I finally looked at a couple of different submission guidelines and started working on writing a short article. I, surprisingly, like this.
Yes... I'm sitting in my hotel room after working 10 hours at the office today. I like to read more about "Problem-Based Learning" and how it was used in different settings. I can't wait to read more tomorrow.

About a month ago, I felt the needs to study about financial statement and basic finance/accounting terms. Fortunately, my co-worker/former classmate/friend wanted to brush up his accounting/finance knowledge and volunteered to lead a small study group. So, three of us started a "Little Seminoles Book Club." We just finished our 3rd discussion today and look forward to starting case studies from next week. I was so excited to learn the difference between balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement and what information it entails. We're thinking about continuing this book club and considering studying statistics for the next topic. I guess, i'm going to lead the discussion. :D

In general, I like to learn (except languages) and enjoys (for the most part) intellectual stimulations. I had been over stimulated in the academic setting for a LONG time and now i miss it. I'm glad I started working on my research again. Yay!

Tennis and relationship

U.S. open started today and during the conversation with my friend, i was thinking about the analogy between tennis and relationship.

No matter how good you are in tennis, you cannot win the match when you play double and your partner and you're not a good fit. To make it worse, if both players play by different rules, you really cannot win the match. It's not about who's a better or worse player. Two good playes cannot guarantee to win, either. When you play double, you need to compliment each other's strengthes and weaknesses. You have to be on the same page in terms of enthusiasm, passion, and purpose behind the game. If one person wants to play tennis for fun vs. the other player wants to win the U.S. open, it might be hard to get along. I can easily see one player has to drag another one to the court to practice. It gets old...

It might better to play single until you find a right partner to play double. At the end, it's all about enjoy the game or your life.. it doesn't matter whether you play single or double.
Until I find the right player, I will enjoy playing single and moving forward to my next dream.
Don't forget that people watch more single's game than double in U.S. Open. At least I do. :)

Grateful

For the last couple of weeks, I felt extra grateful about my life in general.

August 6th in 2001 was the day I came to the U.S. to study at Florida State University. It's been 5 years since I started living alone in this country. While I was celebrating my 5th year anniversary (and going through some difficult time around that period) in the U.S., I appreciated my friends around me. Let's think about it for secound.
These friends are from diverse backgrounds and i wouldn't be able to meet these cool people if I stayed in Korea.
Once again I realized that i have great support system.

Whenever I need advice in my life, I still ask for my parents' opinions. I just can't ask more for better parents than them.
When I need spiritual support, I have Jay and Joyce
When I need emotional support, i have Paul.
When I want different opinions from Paul, I have Eric.
When I want straightforward opinions, i have Joyce, Ferdinand, and Beatrix,
When I want to talk about guys and go out for dancing, I have Becky
When I want to go shopping, I have Kate
When I need academic support and advice, I get it from Ben and Clint
When I want to talk about drinks, I have Ben and Ferdinand
When I want to go out in NJ, I have fellowship group girls from the Praise church
I also have sister-like friends, Jeehyae, Youngjoo, Joohyun, Soyoung, and of course my cousins, Lois, Angie, and Jenny
I have my American mom, my aunt
My american grandmother, Ms. Isaacs
My friends from back in Korea - Soojin, Kumok, and Hyekyung.
I have friends who miss me from Singapore, Jason and Bryan. ;)
Even my project manager who I had tough time to get along in the beginning became one of my closest friends at work.

I wonder what kind of friend I am to them. I hope I can be a good supporter to their lives as well.

I thank God for bringing us together. :)

Love Profile

Your Five Variable Love Profile

Propensity for Monogamy: Your propensity for monogamy is medium.In general, you prefer to have only one love interest.But it's hard for you to stay devoted for too long!There's too much eye candy to keep you from wandering. Experience Level: Your experience level is high.You've loved, lost, and loved again.You have had a wide range of love experiences.And when the real thing comes along, you know it! Dominance: Your dominance is medium.You tend to be the one with more power.You aren't a total control freak in relationships..But of course you don't mind getting you way! Cynicism: Your cynicism is medium.You'd like to believe in true and everlasting love...But you've definitely been burned enough to know better.You're still an optimist, but you also are a realist. Independence: Your independence is high.You don't need to be in love, and sometimes you don't even want love.Having your own life is very important for you...Even more important than having a relationship.

The Five Variable Love Test