The Life of Pi
The Life of Pi is a story of adversity and courage where a boy is stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with an orangutan, hyena, zebra and tiger, all of whom bar the tiger is eaten in 3 short chapters. Oh, turns out the animals were allegories for humans, and the boy is the tiger. Also, Bruce WIllis was a ghost all along, Vader is Luke's father and Rosebud is the name of Citizen Kane's sled he was riding on when he was sent away as a child, which encapsulates his feelings of disappointment and abandonment.
Yes yes I'm a bad person, but chances are if you're reading this you've already read it or never planned to read it anyway. So, after my initial angry reaction at the book, I've managed to compose myself and articulate my thoughts / grievances with the book.
Firstly, Life of Pi is a very well written book. When I say well written, I mean there are large sections of the book where, when recalling a particular memory, the dialogue, description and analogy flow so smoothly that it truly is a pleasure to read.
"I am a Hindu because of sculptured cones of red kumkum powder and baskets of yellow turmeric nuggets, because of garlands of flowers and pieces of broken coconut, because of the clanging of bells to announce one's arrival to God, because of the whine of the reedy nadaswaram and the beating of drums, because of the patter of bare feet against stone floors down dark corridors pierced by shafts of sunlight, because of the fragrance of incense, because of flames of arati lamps circling in the darkness, because of bhajans being sweetly sung, because of elephants standing around to bless, because of colourful murals telling colourful stories, because of foreheads carrying, variously signified, the same word -- faith. I became loyal to these sense impressions even before I knew what they meant or what they were for"
Pi's description of the other religions are equally brilliant. Moreover, the book is packed with interesting lore about keeping animals.
"As an aside, that is why a circus trainer must always enter the lion ring first, and in full sight of the lions. In doing so, he establishes that the ring is his territory, not theirs, a notion he reinforces by shouting, by stomping about, by snapping his whip. The lions are impressed."
The book is also filled with anecdotes and facts which make it interesting to read. So, if it's so great, why do I hate it?
Sadly, most of those sections I mentioned earlier are situated at the beginning of the novel. A full third of the book is pure exposition, little of which have any real bearing on the actual story. Attention is brought to the fact that Pi loves all three religions (Hinduism, Christianity and Islam) equally. He "just wants to love God". However, there is little relevance on the story from that fact. Religion is quickly forgotten after the initial stages of being stranded at sea, until the author (Yann Martel) awkwardly tries to shoehorn the impact of religion on Pi at the end of the book. It's as if he's completely forgotten about it until he's realised he's at the end, and tries to link it back to that facet of Pi's life. It's very similar to a common essay mistake.
Secondly, as alluded to before, there are problems with the pacing of the story. The first third of the book is pure exposition until Part Two, where it suddenly throws Pi (and the reader) into the sea with little warning. Martell quickly establishes the circumstances of how the animals got on the boat. However, most of the animals are quickly shuffled off this mortal coil in the span of three or four chapters. The reader also finds out Pi is stuck at sea for 227 days. However, there is little sense of time. One chapter he's figuring how much food and water is on the boat, the next he's trying to catch food because he's starving, and that he's already even eaten the cigarettes. Jarring to say the least. Part One suffers from disruptive interludes where the fictional interviewer describes Pi with his own eyes. These interludes also add little to the story. The end comes suddenly, and trails off ineffectually.
Thirdly, near the end of Pi's ordeal, the addition of nonsensical/fantastical events of the story also destroys the overall feel an atmosphere of the book. A canivourous algae island? A french cook on a lifeboat? Why?
Fourthly, the ending is just so...bad. Oh, the animals were actually allegories for people, and Pi was the tiger. What the hell? What kind of ending is this? I had suspected it, but had dismissed it due to the pure ridiculousness of it. Not because it wasn't believable, but because it was such a terrible way to end the story I thought no author would do something like that. It's tantamount to the typical primary school story where "it was all a dream". Stupid. Unsatisying, though by the end I had all but given up on the story recovering to some semblance of decency. Still, it's a good book if you can ignore the story. I know how that sounds, but it's true. Happy reading.
Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer.
SUCKS
NOBODY READ LIFE OF PI, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER
Prediction Markets
In the Financial Review last friday an article expounded on the concept of prediction markets - that is, markets (fantasy or real) where people speculate on futures based on the probability of a random event occuring, with an associated payoff for that contract if and when that event occurs. The most common example of such a market is any betting agency that takes bets on who will win a sports championship, such as say, the AFL Premiership, or an election, like the upcoming federal election or the presidential election in the US.
Most prediction markets aren't true financial markets monetarily speaking- payoffs tend to be only $1 or something small. However, it was found that these prediction markets tended to be a very good indicator of the probability of the future event occuring, beyond what could be explained by random chance. This is because a prediction market is the purest form of an efficient market: that is, the prices fully reflect all available information known at that present time.
Lets forget about the theory of it. What interests me are the practical applications of a predictions market. Because these predictions tend to be informationally efficient, the predictions can be used as a relatively accurate forecast of expected future events. The key thing to take away from that is that we could mitigate a lot of the risk in our actions today, based on information prediction markets supply.
For example, you're thinking of taking out a home loan tomorrow to buy a house. This is a risky proposition - a home loan for a decent house nowadays could be up to $400 000 (without interest), and you don't know whether repayments can get cheaper, more expensive, or whether it's the right time to buy a house etc. A mistake could cost you tens of thousands over your lifetime, if not cost you everything. So what can prediction markets do for you?
Let's look at the contracts for a number of random events. Find out the underlying determinants of your decision, what can affect it, and see accordingly. What is the possibility of an interest rate increase in the next 6 months? 12? What is the possibility of certain commodities prices (in our case iron, nickel and other minerals) increasing or dropping? What is the possibility of the Shanghai Stock Exchange collapsing in that same period?
If we take the earlier example of a contract paying $1 if the event occurs, we only need to look at the market price for that contract to judge, after all the information has been aggregated, what the expected probabilities of those events are. So, if the market price of a contract of an interest rate hike in the first half of '07/08 is only 33c, we can assume that the probability of a hike NOT happening is 77%. Once all the payoffs for all your chosen economic indicators have been aggregated, you can build a strong base upon which to make your decision.
Of course, prediction markets are exactly that - predictions. There's a chance that it could be wrong. That's the way it works - and thats why I've used words like 'relatively', 'possibility' . However, due to the information efficiency of a predictions market, it allows you to reduce much of your risk in decision making, which in itself can be priceless. Increasingly organisations (especially political organisations) are starting to embrace the use of prediction markets as a better forecast of future events as opposed to tradtional forecasting methods such as polls. Google, ever the innovative company, has been using predictive markets for awhile and find that it tends to be a better predictor for events affecting their company, and the Iowa Electronic Market usually does end up correctly predicting political results.
It just boggles the mind how an idea can have such wide ranging benefits for the community as a whole. Or just plain bore you. Hope it was the former :P
On the facebook front - no takers on the fan club yet =/ So I've decided to join groups that are TOTALLY my bag - first : "hes MY boyfriend, stay the hell away from him" Description: "anyone tired of the stupid bitches that jump all over your bfs dick". Totally.
P.S - classics: "Treat a Man like a Blunt...Hit and Pass" and...
*Why Yo Gurl/Man Blamin' Me Cuz YOU Starin?!*
*Why Yo Gurl/Man Blamin' Me Cuz YOU Starin?!*
*Why Yo Gurl/Man Blamin' Me Cuz YOU Starin?!*
out with the old...
.
...and in with the neutron
I'm getting all new furniture for my bedroom, so I've had to turf out all my old furniture and belongings to the spare room until the new furniture comes in. As you can see:
I have a lot of books. There's actually more behind those books and out of the picture. Also not pictured, stacks of indie-rock / alt music cds, piles of video games, a carton of imported beer, and another bottle of Chivas Regal. It was a real trip down memory lane as I came across things I hadn't seen in years, notables including;
1) An old letter written to NASA when I was 9. (They replied and sent me some really cool stuff too)
2) An old primary school story about robots which the teacher read out in class
3) A catapult Mike and I made in Year 7 (still working)
4) Old poems about love written in high school
5) My old gameboy, complete with crappy Tetris scores. Couldn't find my pokemon carts though.
If a man is judged by his belongings, looking at that picture, what can you say about me?
P.S - Added Eyes by Rogue Wave in the player - check it out!
Facebooked
So, once again Nicole has found me on yet another social networking site, and like previous instances, my profile is devoid of any information, photos or any content whatsoever. My facebook membership had shamefully come about like so many of my other social network memberships: I'd signed up so I could check out the photos of certain chicks, in this case, Barbara Bush. Alas it was in vain. That was over a year ago. Now, caught, I decided to see if Facebook held anybody else I knew - surprises, it did. I was under the impression it was mainly an American thing. I snooped a few profiles - "Jess joined the group I Wish I Were Your Derivative So I Could Lie Tangent To Your Curves!", started my own group "Jason Hoon Fan Club" (I expect all of you to join), and looked for more old friends. I also tested the poke function. I don't quite know what it does though.
It wasn't all for laughs. A couple weeks ago I went with Dom to a going away gathering for an ex colleague of his. I'd met a few of them before so I had been expecting the usual group of DoIR grads congratulating Abby (the girl leaving) for leaving her job mixed in with plentiful moaning on how much they hated their own jobs. So, if any of you are considering it, don't join a DoIR grad program. Anyway, upon arriving I found myself amazed at how many people I knew there. Old UWA classmates, people from work, and people who knew a guy-that-worked-at-a-place-that-knew-this guy-who-worked-with-me-in-Action. It struck me how small this town really is. I had a great time catching up with those I hadn't seen for awhile, meeting people from all areas of WA business (pricing, audit, economics), and it occured to me how important it can be to build and maintain social networks. I've always been aware of how important social networks are in Perth Chinese circles (Guanxi is crucial here in Perth if you're Asian and you want to do business), but that night really opened my eyes to that concept outside of traditional circles. Don't mistake what I say for some kind of "Dial-a-friend" relationships of convenience - but instead, as an encouragement to open up and mix when you normally don't - because you never know how much you really have in common with the strangers next to you.
UNSEXY UPDATE: Denied by Jess :'(
