national longitudinal study 79

Until now I have been so ignorant and disinterested about the source of data used for all these academic papers. I just took it for granted - literally - rather than being inquisitive about where and how these data were processed.

Alas, that's why the experience counts, especially for economists. I realized unless I had an opportunity to write an empirical paper for my seminar, I would not know how to collect data, where I can best find it and arrange it for my use, and how to read it.

I also realized after more than 12 hours of downloading data sets from NLS79, which has not been completed yet, there's some problem with downloading them in my hard disk. Too long to think it's just a large size file, I guess.

basketball and marriage premium

I've always been interested in basketball the most among professional sports though I haven't played it seriously in my life. This semester I've tried taking a PE course but couldn't fit it into my schedule and ended up taking tennis, which I thought might be a better idea in any way.

But finally, I think I am seriously getting a step further into the world of basketball through a different channel - economics. Well, I've never imagined myself doing any analysis with sport statistics. Even when Professor Wang was giving out some fascinating statistical analysis with baseball data in his uniquely entertaining way, I was never drawn to regard sports as a subject of my statistical analysis.

This semester, however, I think I am going to write a long, in-depth paper using sport statistics on NBA players. I will mainly investigate whether there exists a marriage premium on the productivity of NBA players. Does marriage enhance a player's game performance (measured by scores per game divided by the number of attempts at goals)?

I am still at a very much beginning step to predict anything. But I'm hoping to see some positive effect of marriage on productivity to provide a more interesting result and convince myself there has got to be some reason other than the fact that marriage is a social norm if almost everyone gets married at least once in their life.

I'm excited for this project - it'd be fun - except that I'd have to devote so many nights and days, including my spring break, to struggle to find a good instrument, deal with Stata, and justify my methodology. Agh!

Smiley face

:) -> :)
:) -> :(

So the converse does not work between some people.

Love stories...Love Story (Segal, 1970) & Cinema Paradiso (Tonatore, 1988)

Love stories do not have to be mutually exclusively cheesy and touching.

If I were to ever look back at the last week as a special one out of my entire college career, I would call it a week of "back into classics" - whether it be for movies, modes of thinking, or experience.

Nurtured by Love by Suzuki

To merely "want" to do something is not enough (87).

One must be able to put things into practice (88).

It is only doing the thing that counts.. I shall acquire the habit of doing what I have in mind to do (88).

Even small tasks should not be neglected, but completed right away (89).

"If you try it, you can do it" (91).

"Unhappy are the thinkers" ... because thought is often just idle thought, and does not include self-correction. What is the use of pouring repentance on repentance? Too much thought makes thought meaningless, and finally we get so we reject thought altogether. Self-examination not accompanied by change isthe same as not putting into action what we think of doing (90). 

The sooner people realize their mistake, the better. The more the situation is changed, the nearer the human race will come to happiness (107).

"Talent is not inborn, it has to be created" (36).

Talent education (Talent Education Research Institute), Shinichi Suzuki

What would be there, in "Elizabethtown?"

Not a movie review, because I haven't seen the film.

But the snapshots alone are so fascinating enough!

Elizabethtown (Crowe, 2005)

*Picture source: Elizabethtown official movie site

Post preview! Translation of a Korean poem, "님의 침묵"/"Silence of the Beloved"

님의 침묵

한용운 

님은 갔습니다 
아아 사랑하는나의님은 갓슴니다 
푸른 산 빛을깨치고 단풍나무 숲을 향하여 난 
작은 길을 걸어서 차마 떨치고 갔습니다.
황금의 꽃같이 굳고 빛나던 옛 맹세는 차디찬
티끌이 되어서 한숨의 미풍에 날려 갔습니다.

날카로은 첫 키스의 추억은 나의운명의 
지침(指針)을 돌려놓고 뒷걸음처서 사러졌습니다.
나는 향기로운 님의 말소리에 귀먹고 
꽃다운 님의 얼굴에 눈멀었습니다.

사랑도 사람의 일이라 만날 때에 미리 떠날 것을
염려하고경계하지 아니 한 것은 아니지만
이별은 뜻밖의 일이 되고 
놀란 가슴은 새로은 슬븜에 터집니다.

그러나 이별을 쓸데없는 눈물의 원천을 만들고 마는 것은
스스로 사랑을 깨치는 것인 줄 아는 까닭에 
걷잡을 수 없는 슬픔의 힘을 옴겨서 
새 희망의 정수박이에 들이부었습니다.

우리는 만날 때에 떠날 것을 염려하는 것과 같이
떠날 때에 다시 만날 것을 믿습니다.

아아, 님은 갔지마는 
나는 님을 보내지 아니 하였습니다.
제 곡조를 못이기는 사랑의 노래는 
님의 침묵을 휩싸고 돕니다. 

I worked on translating one of my favorite Korean poems, "님의 침묵"/"Silence of the Beloved" with my friend, Aly, who wanted to translate a text in an unfamiliar foreign language into English for her translation workshop assignment. I'll get the fully translated version with all the sounds, nuances, and messages taken into account on my blog as soon as it gets done. 

But here goes a little bit of preview for the post about the translation experience!

The Korean word, 님 (pronounced as nym) in the title and repeated a lots of times throughout the whole poem, was one of very important vocabulary to be dealt with but also quite difficult to be translated into English because this simple single-syllable word, 님, could make scores of implications. It is a word referring to somebody in a superior position or someone whom you love or admire in a very polite way. It also sounds archaic and romantic if you call a person you're in love with by this word, and normally you don't in everyday conversation especially in modern times. We finally made it to give it a possibly closest-meaning English word, the beloved - here it should be also noted that the whole poem speaks of someone/something unspecified but kinda directed at a certain person/object, so allowing the addition of a definite article, the. 

So please stay tuned for another fun post about this translation work that turns out more and more interesting and fascinating. 

*Image source from a Japanese movie, Rainbow Song (虹の女神, Kumazawa, 2006)

**Poem text from a naver cafe site