Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis...

The first time I heard the Latin phrase, "tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis" I was watching an episode of that really funny television series (on DVD, as I'm still quite young) Yes, Prime Minister. For those of you in the know, yes it was indeed the infamous or the famous Sir Humphrey. The Cabinet Secretary went on to say that times change, and we change with the times.

(The other funny thing Sir Humphrey said was, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses", which in his own translation is "if you had kept your mouth shut, we might have thought you were clever"!)

It actually got me thinking that it's quite true. Times do change, and we have to change with the times. Often we are too easily seduced by the old and the charming past - and while it is good to keep in touch with the legacy of the past and good to be reminded of where we came from and what we have done before, it might be a good idea to think of how we can adapt ourselves to new and changing circumstances. 

Now, I'm far from saying that the past is not important. After all, I did read Economic History. There are lots of lessons to be learnt, and certainly where we are today is the product of what we did yesterday. It also brings the sobering reminder that what we do today determines our tomorrows. That should be a good reminder of the importance of the past and what we have learnt from it. 

However, not keeping up with current knowledge and current events and trends is not doing oneself a service. 

So I've started keeping myself up to date and trying to see what interests youngsters these days, and some can be quite interesting and some can be quite ugly. 

Let's share a bit of leisure stuff that I have recently picked up from asking some teenagers about what interests them before I get back to work again...

(Don't judge me! :))

ONE DIRECTION, BRUNO MARS, ADELE, SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA, JERSEY BOYS, MADILYN BAILEY, HOUSE MUSIC, TRAIN, AMERICAN HORROR STORY :)

Yeah, these people are new leisure to me. That's because I quote Latin phrases!

Anything that interests me!

Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis...

As promised, here I am blogging once again. I'll take this as an opportunity to share some of the strange things floating around in my head, as well as some rare nuggets of information or knowledge that might be useful to you some day (then again, no, not really). Once in a while I will write about NUS, USP, and university stuff again because that's what most of my readers like, since I started this blog when I was at university. That seems like a really long time ago!

Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis

is in the next post, not this one! :)

"Re-employment" :)

Hello my dearest readers, 

I have been receiving so much fanmail after my retirement from blogging, that I have decided to come back again and continue writing. 

It is amazing to receive wonderful feedback rather than brickbats, and these have really made my writing journey very pleasant:

(All these are the verbatim quotes :))

Hi Shawn, althouh I do not know you personally, I have read and enjoyed your posts very much, I hope we might meet someday should fates cross. Good luck for all your future endeavours.

ec3303 is killing me, the language is so alienish for linear regression. i dont wanna screw up 

Anon: really helpful artcle no how to study econometrics, thanks! 

ZY: Sry to disturb...I kw u retired, but there's juz one last critical qn that I have to ask...I have a-level econs bkgrd...but shld i still take 1101E or shld I go ahead and take 1301?

ZY: I really do hop that u can continue writing, coz i LOVE yr writing style, but since u wanna quit, I will wish u a happy retirement. But I juz wanna let u know that yr posts rox=D

ZY: I like to read yr blog. Nw I need 9 more ppl to comment here, haha 

Kaimin: hehe pity your not gonna blog here anymore... you write well and think deep! 

OK sure, well happy to oblige, I will blog here once again and share ... erm, well, my insights and perspectives!

Cheers,

Shawn

Anything that interests me!