Monday, March 25, 2013

Accounting is NOT math

This is serious lack of blogging. My life is busy and it is so hard to find time to blog. Plus when I have time to blog, I feel very tired. It is not that I have nothing to blog; however, I have SO MUCH things I want to express in here. If you followed me, several of my recent posts were the something I wanted to write for a long time. Well, this is another one. I have been studying for accounting for two years now, and 99% people would say "You Must Be Good at Math!!" to me. I am sick of denying the answer. So here is the post to clarify the real meaning of accounting. 

1. Language of the Math and Number: Accounting is not just math, it is more about the meaning of the math. Not only we have to have the compute the correct number, but also we need to understand and explain the reason behind. The number often tells the liquidity and risk of financial situation in a company. Management uses the number to make decision and forecast. 

2. Right Number in the Right Place and Time: Most of the time, the accounting software can do the math for us.  Jobs for us are make sure we enter the number in the right place and at right time. We usually deals with series of data and some numbers are even accruals and deferrals, so we must difficiate. If one step was mixed up, it will ruin the entire result. It is pretty scary. 

3. A LOT of Rules/Laws of Math: Math in accounting is more complicated and tricky. There are SO MANY formulas, tables, rules, limits, and policies must follow. It is easy to get the wrong answer. Furthermore, we have to use human judgement applying those rules/laws to make sure the number make sense. 

4. Enter the Right Amount of Zeros: Math in accounting is extremely DETAIL oriented. One zero can make a HUGE difference. We really need to be organized and careful about our data entry.  

5. Make Sure to Balance and Match: This is VERY important (above four are important as well). If the number does not balance nor match, that means the financial information is wrong. We could spend hours and hours to find out what went wrong. Sometimes I feel accounting is "finding the penny." (no joke)


All in all, accounting is so hard!! I don't blame anyone who think that way. This is my face when I study accounting.... 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

My Five Favorite Things to Conquer Stress and Get Motivated

Once up the time, I heard this phrase from a wise woman "life would not get easier, it only gets different." My understanding is "stress happens to people regardless of their age, gender, nationality, occupation and economic status." Everybody is the same, no one is better than other. Stress seemed never end, so I had to come up with ways to conquer stress.  

1. Music: I love listening to songs. This help me a lot. I forgot how many times I was saved by all the wonderful and powerful lyrics. Every time I feel scared, down, or pressured, I will listen to my favorites, then I would stand up again. 

2. Exercise: I release a lot of stress from exercising. I feel refreshed and cleared my mind after a good work-out. If you do not like exercise, you can just simply take a walk. You will be surprised how much you will feel better after that. 

3. Food: Eating is the easiest way to enjoy life. Great food is always make me love life, and all the stress will be forgotten. I also like to cook. After I finish a wonderful meal, I would feel motivated again. 

4. Movies: Good movies teach people life lessons. Movies shows different side of life and make us see things we don't usually see. Sometimes I watch movies to learn how to get over with all the problems and tough times in life. 

5. Writing: Part of blogging is my stress management. That is why  I kept writing. Writing is a way to "express" your stress. I believe portion of the stress will be released after "expressing it." This blog is not only where I use it to release my stress, this somewhere I can just be "me."

If you love music, you will life will be fill with melody
If you love exercise, your life will be filled with energy
If you love food, your life will be filled with abundance
If you love movie, your life will be filled with entertainment
If you love writing, your life will be filled beauty

Friday, March 1, 2013

SOU vs. PSU

I have been to two universities for my college experience; they are Southern Oregon University (SOU) and Portland State University (PSU). I like both of them very much. Each school has its own uniqueness. I will share the good things I discovered. 

*These are based on my opinion about the schools, so they might not be 100% accurate, and if you been to either of the school, feel free to disagree with me. 

Individual Good Things
SOU
1. Cheaper Tuition: SOU has the cheapest tuition in Oregon. It saved me several hundred dollars going to SOU instead of other schools in Oregon. 
2. Smaller Classrooms: If you prefer bigger classroom, this might not be the good thing for you. However, I liked the classroom size of SOU because I can reach out to professors easily when there are not many students in the classroom. 
3. Free Wifi: I do not have to log in every time I use Wifi on campus. It stresses me up sometime when I have to log in whenever I want to go online. 

Here are some photos of me in SOU: 




PSU
1. More Convenient: PSU is in the middle of downtown area of Portland. Students can easily access to the city and there are more public transportation options such as bus and train. 
2. Larger Diversity: PSU probably has the largest diversity in the US. It is a non traditional campus, so there are people from all over the world, and the age range of graduation class is always huge (my class was 19 to 76, I believe). 
3. A Lot of Opportunities:  Various local communities work with PSU, so students have different kinds of opportunities to explore. It is a great place to network. 

Here are some photos of me in PSU

Shared Good Things
1. Friendly Staff and Great Professors: I did not like taking test and being graded, but I really enjoyed going school and attend all my classes. Thanks to all the kind school staff and genuine professors for making student life easier and fun.  
2. Strong School Spirit: I love both Raider and Viking!! It is so hard to choose. Even I am not a sports fan, I still liked the spirit. It motivates me for studying and achieving my goals. 
3. Beautiful Campuses With Great Sustainability: Not only the building itself is gorgeous looking, but also very clean inside. Buildings are always been remodeled and spaces are expanding. Both schools embrace nice environment and encourage recycling.