Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Somehow, my previous post about getting an acceptance letter from LSE became one of the most popularly read blog post of today (I kid you not, that post was at one point ranked #45 GLOBALLY in a real-time blog post access ranking...well, for a few seconds, but still, quite amazing). But all the attention I am already getting just make the pressure even worse...Now everyone is sort of assuming that I definitely will attend since, after all, it is the London School of Economics. But the more I think about how I HAVE to attend the program I am accepted into, the more I feel worried about my future. Last time, I already mentioned the financial woes of having to pay for all of the expenses out of my own pocket. I spent close to the entire afternoon today seeking opportunistic (i.e. not too competitive) sources for funding, but with only the highly competitive Fulbright and Marshall (both of which award about a dozen a year out of how many thousands of applicants...) mentioned, the sou...

A sudden new mail completely broke the "silence" of a quiet Friday night. "Dear Xiaochen, I am pleased to make you this unconditional offer of admission to the MSc in International Political Economy for the 2011/12 session as a full-time student..." the mechanical-sounding email from the Admissions Office sounds, just like it perhaps does to many others receiving around the same time (midnight last night for me, in fact). And many of those people are probably just for joy...even now. After all, it is one of the world's premier social science institutions, the London School of Economics (LSE). So it is probably not news anymore that I have been working hard for the past few months to find a way out of my current career, primarily through graduate school applications...And few months later, despite that incredibly (in fact, the most, by far) popular post on this blog about how Yale is overrated and just an empty shell beyond its hyped up reputation , it seems ...

While Japan and indeed, most of East Asia , is being anxious as the number of dead from the Quake continues to mount and the prospects of abnormal nuclear radiation become more and more realistic , on the other side of the world, the long-brewing political changes in the Middle East is overtly taking a turn for "globalization." Specifically, as demands for gasoline gets distorted in Japan because of fear-driven hoarding, perhaps it is also at the same time relevant to take a look the events on the other side of the globe that can easily distort supplies.... Last time I really paid attention to the developments in the Middle East , the riots are just beginning to gather stem in Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen after success in overthrowing long-time strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia. But when I was riding the train (I am surprised just how much stuff I come across while riding trains in this country) the other day, I was jolted by the news that allied forces led by US, UK, and Franc...

The crowds on Mt. Takao could not have been any different from those on any other weekend. The hikers on this iconic peak in western suburbs of Tokyo laughed and joked as they trudged upwards, not showing any sign that the bad news up north shown continuously on TV were taking a mental toll on them. But listen closely and the impression would change. Many hikers, many of them foreign in origin, just cannot stop mentioning that unmentionable doomsday scenario predicted by many professionals and amateurs alike regarding nuclear radiation . Indeed, as time goes on, the nuclear crisis has become an international event, not just a Japanese domestic concern. The fear generated by the nuclear radiation in Japan probably has just as big of a mental impact on the citizens of China and Korea, two of the nations geographically closest to Japan and thus has the greatest potential to be hurt by spreading radiation from Fukushima. And ironically speaking, the panic occurring in those countrie...

The common people are never expected to know the truth and will easily believe any form of the "truth" supplied by information sources that they trust. The media, of all countries and ideologies, act on the belief that its loyal constituents will follow them 100% when they post news articles that present the on-the-ground facts in certain perspectives so that even the most "facts-only" pieces somehow contain sharp and twisted opinions of the editors. The inability of the common people to obtain the truth is exactly why the media can think in this particular way with confident impunity, and it is why governments and political groups seek to control and mange the information as released by the media to the public . But, in times of extraordinary events, even the most trusted and seemingly benign sources come under serious scrutiny, casting a doubt upon their true intentions for portraying certain events only in certain ways. The Quake and its aftermath in Japan has ...

The blood donation center was a sight that could have brought a man to tears. People, with absolutely nothing to gain other than pain and physical weakness braved hour-long waits to have thick needles stuck in their arms. But all of them still managed to put on smiles on their unnaturally whitish faces after 400ml were ruthlessly sucked out from them by a shaking, noisy machine that only made the experience seem more cold-hearted... So I decided to spent this morning at a blood donation center in downtown Tokyo. The building the center was situated is home to both the blood donation center on the 6th floor and a Japanese passport application and processing center on the 2nd floor. Interesting enough, the lines at both of those centers were equally long, with people patiently waiting more than an hour to do what they went there to do. Of course, the news on the TV in both of those places were equally grim. The fear of nuclear disaster is escalating as doubts about whether Tokyo El...

Yesterday, work abruptly ended before noon. In Sales Development, the original plan to deal with inbound calls from customers and shop owners (expected to be many as none of the goods are really be shipped) for the entire day was suddenly scrapped after the 部長 came in and informed us that were are going to be "waiting/working at home" (自宅待機/勤務) until further notice. When somebody actually gathered enough guts to ask what does it mean by 自宅待機/勤務, the awkward answer that came back was something along the lines of "think about how Rakuten can improve services"...