Her Story

上周看了《Elizabeth The Golden Age》，感觉还不错。沉重的历史布景下有女王与宫女臣子玩乐的轻松场面，有展现女王小女人心理的细节描写，有含蓄带过的宫女和勇士的爱情。总之有历史，有人性，有搞笑。

再一次验证了偶比较偏爱多元混合型的电影。把几种元素融化在一个故事里，层次分明，一齐呵成，就可以满足我对商业电影的要求了。比如《KingKong》,还有最近周杰伦的《不能说出的秘密》。 

另外最近在看的书是房龙的《人类的解放》（又名宽容），去年就买了，搁置到现在也只是以每晚三五页的速度进行。不是不感兴趣，只是这本书消化起来确实比小S的《怀孕日记》困难一点。两个小时网上读完的不知道能不能算作书。不过写得真的很生活，很好笑。

前两天看了《花样年华》。若干年前的获奖大片，一直没有看，因为觉得自己可能不懂欣赏，不看也罢。

影片果然不俗。”迷一样的“或能表达它给我的感觉。交错的光影，摇逸的身姿，流动的眼神。每一样物件仿佛都有有灵有性。观众如我只怕少看一秒，就错过了什么似的。看完之后不禁学着张曼玉微侧着身缓缓走上楼梯的姿势，耳边响起那段让心泛起涟漪的小曲。爱情仿佛还及不上影片本身的浪漫和感性。

Wangjianshuo writes a lot about “transportation” in Shanghai. Very interesting and informative.

There’re not a few people in the world worry about transportation and care about transportation, even though they are not in the professional field. Transportation is so close to everyone’s daily life.  It tells a story of a city; it’s a mirror of the society and economics; and it reflects decision maker’s wisdom and what you call “politics”.

Let’s hope best for a good transit in a good city!

This is a story about how do I become a tenant of the famous Graduate House in University of Toronto.

As early as March this year, I made up my mind to live as a graduate student. Since then, my obsession with the graduate house grows. I initially submitted my application with $100 deposit on April 11th, 2006 .Until now - end of August, my dream is half broken: with 103 people ahead of me in the waiting list, I was confirmed by the residence staff that I won’t be possible to get a spot when school starts in September.

“My dream is half broken” is because I decided never to withdraw the application deposit until they offer me a space in the graduate house, whenever it happens throughout the remainder of the year (although I have to find an alternative accommodation for now).

Nevertheless, I have been tracking my position on the Applicant List everyday since it was available online on June 1st. Somehow I found it is very interesting to observe the changing of the list and the progress of my ranking. Maybe it will be an interesting project about data, probability and statistics, queuing theory, consumer behavior, maybe I can even predict my ranking in future and know when I will likely get an offer of residency? Maybe it will provide some insight for applicants in future years?

Here are some facts or assumptions made for the purpose of the project:

Graduate House, University of Toronto

Please ignore the following if you are not interested in the project!

1. Rules of recruitment

a. Applications for residency at Graduate House for the 2006 - 2007 academic year opened on September 15, 2005 and will close on May 31, 2006.

b. Offers of residency will begin on July 1, 2006 and will continue throughout the summer and the subsequent academic year.

c. Offers will be made according to the date on which applications were received, with preference given to those applicants who are current residents of Graduate House in the summer of 2006 and who wish to remain at Graduate House for 2006-2007.

d. Applicant’s name will be kept on the Applicant List throughout the 2006-2007 academic year until such point as he/she is offered a spot. However, if at any point the applicant cease to be interested in residing at Graduate House, he/she is free to withdraw the application prior to receiving an offer for a full release of deposit. Students who are offered a recruitment space must submit a $400 confirmation deposit within a week in order to secure their space. Any unused/unconfirmed recruitment spaces revert back to Graduate House.

e. Before the recruitment of direct applicants, approximately 40% of Graduate House (181 spaces) is awarded to students at the discretion of the various graduate departments, centres, institutes, and faculties. A further 20% of Graduate House (73 spaces) is allocated at the discretion of the six second-entry professional faculties: Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Education, Pharmacy, and Nursing. All recruitment spaces must be awarded by June 15, 2006. Students who are awarded a recruitment space at Graduate House must submit a $400 confirmation deposit within a week in order to secure their space. Any unused/unconfirmed recruitment spaces revert back to Graduate House.

2. About the House

Total of space: 424

3. About me

a. A direct applicant (no Award from my department).

b. GH code: 4445 (Identification code; not associated with ranking).

c. Application was received by Graduate House on April 11, 2005.

d. My ranking is # 104 on Aug 25, 2006.

Now I realize if I keep every updated list on file since June 1, I will have a much more completed data source to start my analysis. Ok, since I am not an insightful person, I can only mine the available data source to find any insight. The first list I collect is the one on Aug 25, 2006.

To be continued….