龙门　　：：　Dragon Gate

In Pattern Recognition, William Gibson has a character talk briefly about how, in the early '80s, British kids were playing with Sinclair computers that they had to program themselves, while their American peers were playing Nintendo - and this led to a huge number of British programmers and game developers in the 90s. Following the same logic, I wonder what technological IP we'll see coming out of Brazil in 10-15 years if the country adopts Linux wholesale as this Wired article suggests they might, giving their next generation of kids the opportunity to code for themselves...

Since the big three industries of the next decade seem, by general agreement, to be I.T., nanotechnology, and biotech, it was interesting to read this article in Beijing's City Weekend, about a doctor using fetal stem cells successfully. I'm not going to go into the ethical issues here; it nevertheless seems obvious to me that if the Chinese are able and willing to use these techniques, then the market will invest in it. This trimester, I'm taking B8095 Life Sciences: A Business Perspective to learn more about the biotech industry.

I'm reminded at this point of the Goldman Sachs report on the BRIC economies...

On the subject of biotech, Slashot led to this interesting interview. I hadn't heard of Natalie Jeremijenko or Biotech Hobbyist Magazine before, but... interesting...

Well, what a difference a week makes! It's been our holiday week, between trimesters, so lots of people have been away sunning themselves. Along with about 75 others, I took Global Risk Analysis, a full trimester's course packed into one very busy week. It was hard work, so I haven't had a chance to catch up on my sleep and I'm typing this with a bad fatigue headache, but in terms of refreshing my enthusiasm it has worked wonders! It was taught by a visiting professor from MIT (and other places), Shlomo Maital, who has the wonderful knack of making you feel as if you've known each other for a long time. The course itself was essentially applied macroeconomics plus political analysis and a few other things, and was precisely the sort of course I wanted to get out of an MBA. We had team projects, each team choosing and analysing a particular country. My team chose Myanmar, which I was keen to look at after seeing the Asia Times feature about the Irrawaddy that I mentioned some time ago. It was the best team I've worked with since I started - everybody pulling their weight and contributing, all good humoured - this project was FUN!

Today I've been catching up on all the houskeeping chores that have been neglected during the last few weeks; next to start revising for next week's Knowledge Management exam... after which, Trimester One will be over at last for me! (Trimester Two begins tomorrow).

Yesterday, I picked up the the soundtrack to Kill Bill 2 in a sale at HMV, so that's playing now; it's taking me back to Beijing earlier this year, where a bunch of us watched it a lot... gosh, I'd like to go back to Beijing. Well, next year, if everything works out; it depends on my exam results, which are due out in the next week or two. I'm trying not to think about that... Anyway, I also picked up the eponymous first album by Gotan Project; I gather this is old hat now according to those who know, but I only heard a track, 'Sant Maria (del buen ayre)' on Radio CuBik recently, and it made me buy the album.

OK, on to work, and maybe later I can start to catch up on all my unanswered email...

Even as I wrote my last post, I was wondering why I was so angry and negative. Zapa's comments are useful (thanks, Zapa!) but I'm not really against networking - in fact, I've had a number of jobs over the years that I only found out about through friends and contacts, so I know all too well how valuable networking is!

In fact, in the same way that according to traditional Chinese medicine, problems with the eyes can be caused by imbalances in the liver, the way I was feeling on Saturday night has its roots elsewhere. Now that the first trimester is over, I can take stock to an extent. On the whole, it has been good. I have really enjoyed some of my courses (Sun Zi, Knowledge Management) and I 've learned a great deal from them all - even the ones I haven't enjoyed (Financial Accounting!). I knew that an MBA would be tough, and it has been; I'm not complaining about that, even though I made things extra hard by taking five courses (applicants take note - if you get accepted, don't take five courses in the first trimester!). What's alarmed me is the way I've lost my grip on other things that are equally important to me - my Mandarin is getting worse, I'm forgetting my Ba Gua, and I'm too tired to get up early to practice my Qigong and Taiji. These are important to me and if I get my MBA but lose these skills in the process, I will consider my self to have spent my time badly.

So, I've been aware that this is happening and growing increasingly alarmed and frustrated aabout it. I vented about the networking because extra pressure I really didn't need has come from a major falling out with a member of staff (I haven't blogged about this and won't; they've left the school now anyway), and also by some of my fellow-students - IMHO staying up all night watching TV reruns, or clubbing are not good reasons for not contributing to group projects. Going shopping on Orchard Road is not a reason to give a contribution which is, well, close to an example in the textbook. So, overall concern about things kind of vented out through those issues, hence the last post.

Next term will start heavy and then get lighter. Hopefully I'll learn from T1 to manage my time better, and I'll give up some other MBA-related but extracurricular activities.

There was an MBA event tonight; a leaving party for the senior batch, most of whom I don't know. Some faculty I haven't seen before made speeches. I talked to many of of my fellow students. Some of them are stars, who I really like and admire. Some are nice and likeable. Some are nonentities, who don't inspire me to make the effort. I'm sorry to be so blunt. I don't mean to be disrespectful either; I realise that each of us makes our way through life to the best of our ability, and I don't claim to be doing so well myself. Nevertheless, I keep hearing - from NBS and from MBA bloggers elsewhere - that the point of an MBA is to network. Sorry, but I don't agree. The point of an MBA is to learn, and to develop one's understanding and ability. It isn't required that one should spend any more time than necessary with people who have entirely different interests.

When the Boston Consulting Group came recruiting here recently to talk to the undergraduates, one of my classmates asked them if they recruited MBAs from NBS; apparently the recruiter just laughed, and said "We don't recruit MBAs from here." I don't know if this is accurate or not; I had something else to do that evening and wasn't present. So, while it's nice that we got ranked as 93/100 this year by the Economist Intelligence Unit, I don't think it's as epochal an event as some of my peers seem to think.

Why am I so downbeat tonight? I'm not entirely sure myself; I'm worrying at this like a tooth that's a bit loose. Maybe I'll work it out.

More on China's Eurobond issue here at the FT. Does China need the money? No. Does China need low interest rates? No, not if they are trying to slow down their economy gently, which they are. So why is the US' biggest creditor beginning to issue debt in Euros now? An interesting snippet from that FT article: Bankers said that more than 40 per cent of the demand for the euro portion of the Chinese issue, which will pay a low level of interest relative to similar bonds, came from investors that had never previously bought into Asian debt. We've been hearing a lot of rumours over the last couple of years that OPEC wants to move from dollars to Euros, too.

The E-commerce & IT exam yesterday was tougher than I expected. Once again, I slept badly the night before, so I was tired for it. Anyhow, that's all of my exams over for a couple of weeks, with the Knowledge Management exam on Nov 5.

It's begun - from China Business Express: "A 10-year one billion euro bond issued by the Chinese government met with high demand from European pension funds and asset managers. [...] The success of the issue means that the Asian countries will most likely issue more euro-denominated debt, as faith in the new currency grows. For the US government, it will mean that it will most likely have to raise US interest rates to attract buyers of US debt instruments.

I wonder what Morgan Stanley, Brad DeLong et al will have to say about this...

Two down, one to go! The Financial Accountancy exam wasn't the nightmare I expected it to be, although I'm pretty sure that I got a lot wrong. I think I've got enough marks to pass, though, which is all I hope for with that course. Future MBA Girl wrote in her blog recently that one of her aims at Wharton is not so much to pass the exams as to master the material, and I feel the same way. I'll never be a star accountancy student (not that I ever had visions of future accountants putting up statues of me), but I do feel that I understand accountancy much better than I did before, and that's a big positive take-away.

I went to Jurong to unwind and read the paper over coffee yesterday afternoon, after the exam, and was just about to go back to NTU when I got a call on my handphone from an unfamiliar number - it was someone I've known for years, on a stopover for one night only, calling from his hotel. Was I free to meet up? This has happened twice in a week!

I went first to kill time and eat at Cafe le Caire, then we met a couple of hours later at the Penny Black in Boat Quay. Although we've known each other for years, he's actually a friend of my brother rather than mine, so last night was the first time we've ever had a good one-to-one conversation. Many interesting things came up; he's a migrant to New Zealand, with his South African wife, and a young daughter, and working in the recruitment field. He thought with my background and qualifications, I would easily qualify for residence in NZ. It isn't something I'd considered, but now I'll mull it over... Everyone says NZ is great... Hmm.

One down, two to go. This morning brought the exam for Economic Analysis. The microeconomics section was case based; we were given the case study a week ago. I was up late last night because I realised at the last minute that some of my assumptions were wrong and had to redo the figures. A lot of rumours were going around about the case and how tough it was, so we were all pretty nervous about what questions we were going to get. In the end it didn't seem too bad. The macroeconomics questions also seemed OK.

Someone at NBS need to rethink how they lay out the paper, though. The macro section had three questions, of which we had to do two. However, each of the three had 'Required' next to it; why, I don't know. The questions were multi-part, so maybe it was supposed to indicate we should do all parts. Still, it confused a number of non-native English speakers, who then answered all three questions. This was a really stupid thing for the school to have done. I came out feeling that the exam wasn't too hard - which, in my experience is a sure indicator that I missed something important.

Never mind, it's over so I won't think any more about it. Next is Financial Accounting on Wednesday and, if it was hard to motivate myself to study for EA, this is worse by far...

Some friends from the UK turned up unexpectedly, stopping off in Singapore for one night only. Friends are more important than exams, so I went to meet them, rather than study. I went straight from my Knowledge Management course; tonight we had a great guest speaker from NexLabs, who specialise in competitive intelligence. Fantastic presentation. This is the sort of field in which I could work quite happily, I think..

Very well. If cola and Pringles are what my body needs to get me through the exams, cola and Pringles it shall have. I'm pretty much resigned to doing badly, though.

This is the life: TOMA and I are sitting at the new International Students' cafe, which I can inform you serves great ginger tea and Vietnamese coffee.

At least, it would be the life if only I could study! I'm so tired, I can't concentrate. I think this is partly sleep debt from the last couple of weeks, and partly because I was fuelling those long nights with lots of Vanilla Coke and Pringles, and my body is still craving those sugar and carbs... With the first exam only a few days away, it's not looking good.

We got our second e-commerce project out of the way this morning; my team's project and presentation weren't brilliant but certainly satisfactory, and seemed well received. Our professor from the first half of the trimester came by and returned our first project - the one where I split from my group and did an individual contribution. I got an A-, which I'm happy enough with. I was hoping for a full A, but the Prof's comments are good, and identify some problems I hadn't seen. So, that's OK. Most of my presentations and assignments are getting an A so far, so I'm reasonably satisfied. But I really need to worry about the exams. The horror! The horror! (My ex-team got a B+ for their project, BTW, so I think I did the right thing in splitting...)

TOMA is making silly faces at me over the table; better go...

Exams are imminent, but I'm finding it very hard to study. My enthusiasm is at a low right now.

Spoke to my old instructor, who can come to campus to give me 1-on-1 training in Taiji gong (Qi Gong, Tai Ji fist and sabre; maybe starting jian - straight sword - later). The price she's asking is too high, but I think I can cut a deal.

I need to work hard on my Mandarin; it's deteriorated since the MBA started, and I can't afford to let that happen - speaking good Chinese is important to my future plans. Trouble is, I haven't had time to study, because I've taken so many courses this trimester. Next trimester, I'm taking 5 again, but because one is compressed into the October break, there will only be 4 in the trimester period per se. BUT: the courses are heavy before Christmas - 3 of the 4 half-courses are in this period, which again won't leave me any time for studying Chinese. In fact, the workload will be even heavier than this trimester, and that doesn't bear thinking about... I could drop one of the half courses and take another that's after Christmas, but there aren't really any that appeal. Hmmm.

Made the first moves on the internship opportunity I identified a few weeks ago. Slowly does it... Met someone I know yesterday who hinted that an internship in his company might be possible; I need to follow that up... And someone from an online forum wants my resume; the company looks good, but it's a complete unknown for me; not sure how to approach that one yet.

Lots of emails flying around internally about the Economist's ranking; seems lots of people are sounding out job prospects at the moment.

New hit counter, which is pretty but isn't registering lots of the hits that sitemeter says I'm getting...

TOMA and I have been together 2 months today:-)

The second round of course registration opened today, so everyone's been busy. I didn't get all of the courses I wanted: the core courses had all filled up in the last round, and some of the electives I wanted had exam clashes with others that I've already registered for. So, at this point, I've registered for three full courses, and four half-courses:

• Financial Management (full course, core)
• Marketing Management (full course, core)
• Global Risk Analysis (full course, compressed into one week)
• Life Sciences: A Business Perspective (half course)
• Services Marketing (half course)
• Communications Management (half course)
• Negotiation (half course)

This gives me a nice range of topics, all of which are interesting. I couldn't have done such a wide range if I'd specialised, so I'm glad I opted for a general MBA. Unfortunately, I'll have to do four core courses in T3 now, so I'll only have time for one full course, or two half courses, in elective subjects. Never mind.

The school's had a lot of good news lately: we've made the Economist's top 100 at number 93, and been awarded EQUIS accreditation. Go NBS!

Financial news service Reuters Group PLC said yesterday it will eliminate up to 20 editorial positions in the United States and Europe and hire up to 60 replacements in India in a move aimed at cutting costs. Wow!. The movement of jobs to Asia goes a bit further up the value chain... If anybody in the US or Europe still didn't believe that the future is in Asia, I think this should be a wake-up call... It's a small thing in itself - only a few journalist posts - but for me, it seems like a kind of warning canary.

I can feel the weight starting to lift from my shoulders.... It feels good. Just finished this week's Financial Accounting assignment. It sucks, it's wrong, the figures aren't right, but it isn't worth enough marks to be worth any more time. So, this week, I've cleared an Economic Analysis presentation, a Sun Zi presentation, the Sun Zi essay, a Financial accounting group assignment, and this FA individual assignment. Still outstanding: an e-commerce group project, and a Knowledge Management group project. However, the e-commerce project doesn't interest me, the KM one does, and there's someone else who's in both groups and feels the other way. So, we've done a deal: He does my bit in e-commerce, I do his KM stuff, and I now only have one project left to deal with (and it's one I enjoy). The KM project isn't due till early November, so tomorrow I do what I can for it, sleep and spend time with TOMA over the weekend, then start revising for the exams...

That's it. It's done. My Sun Zi term paper is finally finished. It started off with the intention of just being a discussion of quotes from Lao Zi and Kong Fu Zi, and how said quotes could be applied to business. But it seemed a bit lame just to do that. In addition, I know that lots of westeners are a bit dismissive of Chinese philosophy (many are not, of course!) and don't see that there's any way to really apply it in a hard-nosed business context. So, I decided to expand the essay to discuss first of all the Yi Jing, and the concept of constant flux and change between yin and yang. Finally, to bring this into the world of 'applied philosophy' I discussed the beautiful art of Ba Gua Zhang, explaining how it's intricately connected with the principles of the Yi Jing, and yet is an extremely effective fighting art. This took longer than I expected: what was supposed to be a weekend job as consumed pretty much every waking hour for a week. I thought it was done this afternoon, but then I showed it to TOMA, who knows about these things, and got some really useful feedback, so it was back to work. And now it's over. Hehehe I was worried at the beginning, because it has a minimum length requirement of 25 pages. That, um, turned out not to be a problem. I've finished up at 39 pages. Whoops. Despite the effort involved, I've found it really rewarding. I've learned a great deal, and I'm half convinced I should ditch the MBA now and switch to studying Chinese philosophy and martial arts in Beijing... Just joking! (Mostly, anyway).

Now for some sleep! Back to normal life (by MBA standards) tomorrow...

When I get up from my desk to go to bed, see it's 3am, and think "that's nice, an early night for once", that's got to be a warning sign of some sort. Been a bit busy lately...

I'm getting closer to my first work-till-the dawn; I'll probably have an all-nighter in the next few days. Still, before I turn in for a couple of hours, I'll list the courses I've registered for next trimester:

• Global Risk Analysis
• Financial management (core)
• Marketing Management (core)
• Communications Management (half course)
• Management Presentations (half course)

I can book one more course, which might be Managerial Accounting if I feel brave, or Managing Business Operations if I don't. I may also drop Management Presentations in favour of Negotiation....

I'm going to have courses on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so I won't be able to go to the Xing-Yi classes any more. That's no sorrow, as I was increasiingly feeling that they weren't for me; I think I'll be better off going back to my old school to practice Taijiquan, Taiji dao and qigong. I'll just have to study the bagua zhang on my own unless I'm incredibly lucky and find another teacher.