May 30th, 2015 Goals Set

1. Financial, Information, and Supply Chain Management PBL Business Competition

Goal: William, cover 5 chapters each week

• Duration: 3 weeks
• Start: May 31st
• End: June 23rd
• Details:
• Read a chapter and review a chapter every weekday
• Take solid notes for weekend review
• Talk about material everyday 
• Test yourself often, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
• Embrace case studies - they are stories from the past with lessons to be learned
• William, have fun and be responsible!

2. Electrical Engineering PhD

Goal: William, dive into interesting research

• Duration: 5 weeks
• Start: May 31st
• End: July 5th
• Details:
• Read interesting papers
• Communicate your plan (research, audit graduate course, start in Spring 2016)
• Talk to graduate students
• Explore other fields as well
• Prepare application for August
• William, live intensely and be a champion of the ordinary!

3. Job or Startup

Goal: William, apply/interview for awesome jobs

• Duration: 10 weeks
• Start: May 31st
• End: August 9th
• Details:
• Communicate your plans and interests (with close friends and family weekly)
• Discover your passions, get inspired, and move forward
• Can't find your job? Become a CEO - form a startup - choose your co-founders
• William, give the people you work with a greater purpose and they will run through walls with you!

4. The Chinese Language

Goal: William, properly practice Mandarin

• Duration: 10 weeks
• Start: May 31st
• End: August 9th
• Details:
• Write and recite ready-made scripts (introductions, certain situations) 
• Learn characters efficiently; use textbooks and dictionary 
• Ask for help when struggling
• Practice with people on HelloTalk, Skype, and/or Facebook!
• William, give the people you work with a greater purpose and they will run through walls with you!

Week 1,2,3 of Spring 2015

What have I done: (past)

• I have developed a habit of flossing daily, and now I am practicing to floss twice a day
• I got into the groove of using a daily list planner (pocket moleskin) to plan out my days, and now I am practicing to use weekly (sheet of paper) and annual planners (calendar)
• This semester I am taking Game Theory and Economics, Design of Algorithms, Solar Cell Design, Electromagnetic Fields, and Capstone, (smart cruise control)
• I am auditing a few courses with different approaches
• Complete Communication System Design Lab - 1 lab/wk
• Financial Management - 2 h/ch, 2 ch/wk
• Review Physical Electronics and Optoelectronics for Solar cells design
• Economic Applications of Game Theory - MITocw, 20 min/d
• Economics and Psychology - MITocw, 20min/d
• Data mining for business intelligence - attending lectures, doing modules
• Business Law 2 - attending lectures, reading wsj and text
• I have been applying to one job every few days, trying to reach the goal of applying to one/day

What I aspire to accomplish: (short term)

• I want to finish Comm Sys Design Lab 8, 3/4, 5/6, 7 by March 17th in that order, doing one lab/wk
• I want to obtain and ace some interviews - I plan to get some interviewing practice done with friends
• Get condominiums rented out 

Down-the-line:
Get some jobs lined up and solidify graduate school plans
Get Scott involved - (recently we started competing in ping-pong nowadays; he posted his first apt advertisement a few days ago; today he signed up to volunteer for FBLA SLC 2015!)

Notes:
After writing down all the responsibilities I have put upon myself I realized I may be biting off more than I can chew. I ordered the additional topics I want to learn based on priority - it all comes after my coursework p-sets.

Blog Goal Change

Dear Bill Cycle,

After the 2 week Quantitative Biology bootcamp started, I found little time to write daily blog posts. The bootcamp ended last week. It was a great experience - I'm grateful to have been accepted into such a well-organized and memorable bootcamp; it helped me further explore my graduate school interests.

This blog will change from a daily review to a weekly review. Furthermore it will include weekly goals and an individual development plan (IDP) to help position myself for the future, (this idea was presented in Kenneth McGuiness' seminar about "Positioning yourself for the future").

I need to work on,

• communicating - speaking, writing, and technical writing (abstracts, posters, papers, applications, progress reports)
• creating - slides, use of pictures vs words, animations, short videos
• planning - calendars and lists

I need to focus on my field - the Joint PhD EE/MD program appeals to me a lot.

I am grateful for the people that have made an impact on my life and for their ongoing support in helping me stay on track.



Yours Truly,
William C. Cheng

Moving Forward

1/3/15, Sat

• Woke relatively early to start the day
• Ate brunch with Family at Hometown Buffet talking about childhood events
• Watched Kiki's Delivery Service with LC
• Watched RU Men's Bball game vs. Penn State with NA and DL
• Ate dinner with them at Stuff Yer Face after
• Considered bringing notebook and pen everywhere I go to take notes 
• Considered idea of working on something continuously (otherwise literally do-nothing)

2015 New Years Resolution

1/2/15, Fri

• Exercised with RC and LC at park; managed RC's seizure 
• Prepared pasta and dumplings and mixed berry smoothie dinner
• Followed Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Posts
• Received Professor Daut's email about Comm Sys Design grading of my incomplete work
• I received a TZ grade until my work is completed. Thank you Professor Daut!
• Read Comm Design book: Binary Modulation Schemes
• antipodal (PAM, BASK) vs. orthogonal (BPPM, BFSK) signaling
• Suggested family go out and explore on the weekends at sunrise, (because of low gas prices)
• Drive somewhere within an hour distance, eat brunch, explore a place for an hour, return home before 1pm

1/1/15, Thurs

• Discuss family matters at McDonalds
• Wrote down compelling reasons to pursue graduate school
• Rented out condominium; compiled negotiation procedure
• Watched football with LC; OH beat Alabama! OSU beat FSU!
• Wrote up Security Quad-copter Capstone Proposal

12/31/14, Wed

• Discuss investments over family brunch: dividend stocks VLY, MCC, RSO
• Practiced Basketball form and did vertical training
• Worked out upper-body
• Watched Porco Rosso with LC
• Celebrated New Years - by getting a little crazy in my room

edit:
I am interested in Mark Zuckerberg's A Year of Books New Years resolution. His task is to read a new book every other week with an emphasis on learning different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies.

Lacking Initiative

12/30/14, Tuesday

• Woke at 11AM
• Went with RC to RU vs Northwestern Men's Basketball Game
• Ate at Teppamyaki buffet with family; talked about investing
• Went to AFC, ShopRite, then home
• Slept 7:30PM - 11:30PM; Slept 2:30PM

12/29/14, Monday

• Woke at 1:30PM
• Cleaned condominium
• Ate at KFC with family 
• Start Coursera course "R Programming"
• Facebook-ed a lot

Take the initiative in making friends, building your network, and in learning material. 

Routine

12/28/14

• Woke at 7AM using white-light lamp
• OS 30min reading
• schedulers, deadlocks, semaphores, concurrency, indeterminacy 
• Rainy day photography
• Discuss economy and current events with parents over breakfast
• Invited HA and DL to LC's birthday celebration; catch up with LC's close friends

12/27/14

• Resisted snacking throughout the day
• Took family out for a long walk along New Market pond
• Robert enjoyed riding the new Razor A5 scooter
• Brought RC to local park to play basketball
• Skipping drill for vertical 
• Slept at 12AM, Woke at 7AM using a cool white light lamp
• Planned for LC's birthday celebration
• eating at Red Robin and watching The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I am trying to get RC to exercise more, snack less, and be more active. Currently he is involved with bowling leagues and Special Olympics, but when those are not in season RC is quite the couch-potato. He seems to unconsciously start eating when he watches TV. It has been difficult to change his snacking habit, but one solution is to provide him a daily structure - a daily routine that includes exercise.

I exercise by competing in basketball and learning soccer, and I want to improve my vertical and agility  as well as strengthen my core and upper-body.