The Four Dimensional Vector

November

2009-11-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

I've done my normal November retreat again this year. And by retreat, I don't mean vacation in the mountains, I mean cut myself off from the outside world. This year, my professors have decided to change things up and make all sorts of things due before Thanksgiving break, not after. This isn't great for me, since I always plan on using my escape from Thanksgiving as a time when I can get all sorts of work done.

So this year, I'll once again have the house to myself (and the dogs) but I'm not going to have hardly any work to do (compared to what I'll be doing in the preceding weeks). But that's okay, I'll have Nano to keep me company.

I recently bought a new game called Munchkin (recently = October) and got to finally play it (it requires 3 people to play, not two like I originally thought). The wait was well worth it. The game is basically a spoof on D&D games, with humorous monsters, potions, and items used to get your character to be the first to level 10. I played with three teenage girls, and they enjoyed it enough to agree to play again sometime (we had to cut the game short because people had to go home), so I count that as a success, and think I'll be able to get all my friends to play, even those that aren't inclined to D&D and the like. Consider yourselves forewarned.

Trust

2009-11-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

As much as I sometimes think that dogs lead great lives of sleeping, eating, and playing almost all the time, I realize that I wouldn't be happy with the amount of trust that you have to put in other people as a dog, or as any type of pet. Dogs rely on people for their food, although they can apparently learn to fend for themselves on the streets (but still, they're probably most eating people-food still), to be let outside (would you willing lock yourself in a building where you were completely unable to open up the doors or windows?), and just in general (how many people do you know who consistently come when called?).

So yeah, I think it would be fun to sleep half the day and go run through the brush after squirrels and rabbits the other half, but I really think I'd have issues with not being able to do anything for myself.

Found my thesis

2009-11-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Because I've recently been told that making assumptions is a bad thing (and one of the reasons that economics is inferior to the 'real' sciences) I think I shall do my thesis based on the earning power of people based on the astrological sign. Because we can't assume anything.

From an article I had to read:
"Because an individual's date of birth is probably unrelated to their ability and motivation (ruling out astrological effects), date of birth should provide a valid instrument for earnings."

Geocities

2009-10-25T21:53:00.001-07:00

Dear Geocities,

I'm sad to hear that you're leaving, and you won't be coming back. I remember fondly when we first met. I knew nothing about html, and you were always patient with me as I made mistake after mistake. I remember the first time we made frames, and how excited you were when I finally figured out table syntax.

Unfortunately, there will be no more young website creators who can use your sandbox to discover their inner designer. Perhaps that's a good thing, seeing the horribleness that has been created. But none of that was your fault. After all, abilities and those that teach them aren't inherently evil, only those who use them.

You had a long and eventful life, and fare thee well.

Your friend,
Becca

Sucker

2009-10-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

I just can't help myself - I signed up to do Nano this year. Now, because I'm not completely insane, I realize that I probably won't be able to finish 50k words, but I'm going to make an effort at 25k. Of course, this means that Rachel and I have to figure out new categories for our best out of three this year, but that should be doable. I think I'm going to double-y cheat this year by also continuing my novel from last year. I should have at least another 25k words in there. This, however, means that I have to figure out what to do next with my plot. Both 50k words and the end of the month coincided with me hitting wall in my plot, and I was happy to stop there and not need to solve the problem.

But I have a week to figure this all out, right?

Econ Definitions

2009-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Stochasticity - portraying a stochastic tendency. Example: You thoughts display stochasticity that is alarming.

Heteroskedastastic - Amazingly heteroskedastic data. Example: Those results are heteroskedastastic! Opposite: Homoskedastastic - Fantastically homoskedastic data.

(For readers not in the know, homoskedasticity is characterized by regression residuals whose variance does not depend on any exogenous variables. In other words, the conditional variance of the residual given X is constant).

One of these words is made up, but that doesn't make the other one any less fun to use and say.

Math pick-up translations

2009-10-20T13:15:00.001-07:00

Pick-up line: You complete me.
Math translation: You span my vector space.

I need to see this

2009-10-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

My Name is Bruce: B Movie Legend Bruce Campbell is mistaken for his character Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and forced to fight a real monster in a small town in Oregon (from imdb).

I don't need to know anything else about this movie.

More soccer talk

2009-10-12T23:16:00.000-07:00

So, whenever we have an odd number of people at practice, I tend to have to play (to keep the numbers even). Unfortunately, this usually gives my team an advantage, but there's no way around it. I try my best not to play my best (ironic, I know), and sometimes it actually works to an advantage.

Some of my stronger players have discovered that it's fun to go up against me, and see it as something of a challenge to mark me. This is great, because it means they're pushing themselves, but it saddens me that they don't play that well against their teammates (or opponents for that matter). I think that's one of the advantages of playing on a high school (varsity) team as a freshman or sophomore. While you might play more (as one of the better players) on a JV team, you won't be pushed as much in practice, and you spend far more time during the season practicing than you do playing games.

Quite a few of my players have definitely hit their teenage years, and while there's a group that would rather just talk all through practice, I think there's only one player who is actively trying to not do what I say. Which I'm fine with, because I can easily bench one player, but it would be much more difficult to bench four.

I need to move

2009-10-09T09:51:00.001-07:00

I really wish I lived in LA so I could go to things like this on a regular basis.

Basically, they're showing how cool people have conquered the internet: The Guild and Dr. Horrible on the big screen. And some of the people involved will be there, too.

Oh well, I'll just have to remind myself that I have the river.

I've found a use for them!

2009-10-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

I really wish I had a kid so I'd have enough power over somebody to make them wear this.

Okay, that came out wrong.

I really wish one of my friends had a kid so I could sucker them into wearing this.

Hmmm, still wrong. I'll have to work on that.

Running

2009-09-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

There is nothing that makes my day better than being able to run west along the levy after the sun has gone down. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn't allow for that very often this fall, what with night classes and practice going until after the sun has set. But yesterday we had a furlough day (canceled class) and I was able to go for a run around 7pm.

I ride my bike to school almost every day (during the week), and usually the only days I can run are Friday - Sunday, so I'm getting exercise almost every day, but bike riding just isn't the same. I see that as a necessary evil as an alternative mode of transportation, but don't do it often just for fun. I much prefer to run for fun.

But while running makes my day good, running at dusk makes it even better. Not sure why, but I just love that time of day. The only problem is that I can never go for as long as I want because the sun beats me. So I have this tension between dusk making me want to run more, and being unable to run more because of dusk.

Which leads me to opportunity costs and trade-offs. I love it when everything leads back to economics.

And since I'm talking about econometrics

2009-09-28T22:28:00.001-07:00

If anybody needs to buy me something in the future this comic is in shirt form. Only thing missing is the mouse-over text of, "Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'."

Actually, I may just end up buying it for myself. That's allowed, right?

Autoregression methods in Macroeconometrics

2009-09-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, there's a lot of discussion about what economists should be doing. Are we merely to report? Explain? Forecast? Or (heaven forbid) prescribe? Anyways, one that I've always taken for granted as a necessary part of economic is the "explain" part. That should be the point of any area of study - understand and explain the 'why' of what's going on - because everything else requires and understanding of the basics. Medicine, for example, would be worthless if doctors didn't understand the whys of diseases and maladies. Now, some people may disagree, saying that we can often fix things without truly understanding why it works. To those people, I have to say that you're just guessing. If you prescribe something without understanding why it works, you have no idea what you're doing.

Anyways, back to economics. Much of macroeconomics is about trying to understand why economies behave the way they do. Macroeconomists study why (or if) countries converge in output, how quickly developing countries develop and why, what effect money has on output, and all sorts of other (interesting) things. So, we take data (and lots of it) and try to make functions for output, growth, and all sorts of fun things. But then came along a group of economists in the 1970s who said, "All you (stupid) economists from 1950 until today who were trying to explain why output changes? Well, you're prediction powers are crappy at best. But look! If we use no explanatory variables, we can do such a better job than you, you Keynesians!"

And along came the Box-Jenkins ARIMA method, which only uses lagged measurements of the dependent variable to explain, yep, that dependent variable.

So my question, is this: so what? Yay, you can much more accurately explain what's going on this year by looking at last year, but why? What could possibly be the point of a regression like that, besides an exercise in saying, "Look how close I can get while explaining absolutely nothing!"

Or am I the only one that thinks explanations (and therefore explanatory variables) are important?

It's like saying in medicine, "Let's explain how healthy this patient is based on how healthy they've been in the past!" Or in psychology, "We can guess how this person will behave based on how they've behaved in the past!"

And also....

2009-09-24T14:24:00.001-07:00

... vector functions are my new favorite thing.

What to write about

2009-09-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

I find that there is an inverse relationship between how much I blog and how much I'm on Facebook. I guess it just comes down to the simple fact that it's far easier to write one or two sentences about what I've been thinking about lately than try to string together a couple paragraphs. So prepare yourselves for a very random post.

Glee
Loved the first three episodes. Unfortunately for the show, episode four contained what will probably be the long term plot devices for the season, and they're really not that interesting to me - they do, in fact, border on the opposite of interesting. Luckily the show has hilarious music numbers going for it, so I'll keep watching, but I certainly hope that the writers and producers of the show can manage to come up with something better than plot revolving around pregnancy (faking it, lying about it, and worrying about it).

School - Thesis
This semester I'm supposed to do two projects that are intended to be used as jumping boards for my thesis. Now, I think we all know that the applied-side of things is not my strong point, mostly through inclination than any sort of lack of ability. When I'm handed at least a vague topic to apply, I can generally do a good job. But when it comes to thinking up a topic on my own, all it seems I'm able to do is think up topics that are impossible (at least at this point) to do. Exhibit A: I want to examine the income elasticity of demand for video game markets (in other words, examine if video games are an inferior or normal good and how much), but that data would require buying it (which I'm not going to do). Exhibit B: I want to examine household decision modeling, especially as pertains to divorce rates in the 1970s. No go, this time because that would involve far too much theory for a thesis. Can't I just take a test or something instead of writing a paper?

Soccer
Soccer is frustrating, and we'll just leave it at that for now.

School - Econometrics
So, this semester my evening classes are Advanced Economic Theory and Applied Econometrics. Now, this is a pretty good combination of applied and theory - in theory, that is. It turns out that I'm really taking Advanced Applied Econometrics and Applications of Econometrics. One class goes over the theory, reasoning, and uses of econometrics with some applications, and the other class goes through applications and corrections for econometrics with some theory. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy econometrics, but I love me some economic theory. At least in theory you feel like you're getting somewhere. In econometrics - especially macroeconometrics - it's almost like there is no right answer. I read an article titled The Standard Error of Regressions which tried to argue that economists incorrectly use regression analysis. The argument wasn't great, but the article did have an interesting throw away point that I immediately latched onto because it's one of my biggest complaints in macroeconomics - that regression analysis never seems to prove anything. Half the time this is because of ridiculously low R2 statistics in articles that get published, but the other half the time it's because we all know that it's pretty easy to data-mine with the available software packages. As the article says, "The low and falling cost of calculation... has meant that statistical significance has been valued at its cost. Essentially no one believes a finding of statistical significance or insignificance. This is bad for the temper of the field. My statistical significance is a 'finding'; yours is an ornamented prejudice. Contrary to the decisive rhetoric of rejection in the mechanical test, statistical significance has not in fact changed the minds of economic scientists."

Econometrics Articles

2009-09-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is just a sample of what I'll be spending most of my time reading this semester:

"Since we will be interested in departures from the maintained hypothesis that innovations "e" are i.i.d., we also include the heteroskedastic-consistent unit root test of Phillips and Perron (1988). This test does not rely on a "nite order AR, but instead employs a correction for serial correlation based in part on the spectral representation of the innovation sequence at frequency zero. The quadratic spectral kernel is used to estimate the spectrum, and Andrews' (1991) procedure is used to determine the number of autocovariance terms used. The Phillips}Perron (PP) test has the same limiting distribution as ADF."

Classes, such as they are

2009-09-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

This semester I'm taking 5 classes, teaching 1, and attending another (for the one I'm teaching). This translates to being on campus for at least 8 hours almost every day (and for 12 hours on Wednesdays). I'm not sure how this is going to work, especially as the semester gets on and I have some important papers due during prime test time.

At least my professors seem to be interesting this semester. Only one is seemingly horrible - unfortunately he's teaching a series, and I'll probably be taking part B next semester. I've also discovered that Indian is not one of the accents I can easily understand. British is fine, but not Indian. It also is not helpful that this professor's handwriting is tiny and illegible, and that he insists on standing in front of what he's written much of the time.

I'm teaching an adjunct section for Econ 1A, which basically means that twice a week for an hour I help students review and understand what was covered in Introduction to Macroeconomics. It should be fun, and thankfully I have some of the handouts and notes from somebody who's done it before, so I shouldn't have to do much prep.

My graduate classes this semester are probably going to leave something to be desired, not because they won't be interesting, but because I think there's going to be very little theory involved in them. Both are centered around statistics, which is definitely not my favorite math subject. I may get a bit more appreciation for it because one of my other classes is Introduction to Probability Theory, but I doubt it. I think I'll have to find some theory articles (or perhaps some articles on methodology) to read during my (lack of) free time.

Two of my favorite things

2009-09-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

"If theory adjudicates the rules of science, then so does philosophy (methodology). In the absence of demarcation, philosophy is just very general, very abstract science and has the same kind of prescriptive force for the practice of science as any scientific theory. Because of its generality and abstractness it will have less detailed bearing on day-to-day science then, say, prescriptions about the calibration of pH meters, but it must have the same kind of bearing."

Annoyed

2009-09-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today as I was riding to class I passed two police cruisers parked along the bike path. I figured they were there responding to something, but since there were no cones or anything up, I was still allowed to pass. Only upon seeing two more parked ahead and hearing a shout did I realize I was wrong. There was an officer running after me waving (how he expected to get my attention that way is beyond me). Luckily, I stopped and turned of Soren.

I was promptly told that there were dogs out searching for somebody and I would have to find a new way to campus. It's a good thing I was getting to campus early.

Then, after I had to go back and cross to the other side of the river, as I approached campus, the trail was blocked off due to tree triming. So I had to get off my bike and walk it up the gravel path (it's a road bike, not a mountain one).

Unfortunately I'm rational enough to understand that both of these things are necessary, just personally annoying.

Finally, I had to stay after class 10 minutes just to be able to copy down everything from the board because my professor insists on standing in front of what he writes (and writing almost illegibly).

So my girls had better be on their best behavior at practice today, because I really don't think I'm going to handle much more annoyance well.

It starts....

2009-08-31T22:26:00.001-07:00

Classes started today. I didn't like four - five hour chunks of learning and class sitting when I could sleep through most of them, so I really have no hope of enjoying it now. Oh well, I imagine I'll survive (even if I don't want to). That said, I think I'm taking way too many classes to even think about Nano (and yet, even now I'm trying to figure out a way) which is sad. Plus side, the Friday before my birthday is a campus wide furlough day. Now if I can just manage to get that Saturday's soccer game rescheduled, I could have a long weekend!

I have to figure out something fun to do next weekend since it celebrates my last free weekend of the fall/early winter. Thoughts?

Things That Annoy Me

2009-08-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

You know when the administrator of a group sends out a mass email, sharing business, news, or something of the like? Well, while those can be annoying, what's even more annoying are the people who decide that they need to send an email to everybody on the list, only to share one sentence that has absolutely no bearing on the matter. "Very well said," "Thank you," or "Congratulations" are not good reasons to hit reply all on an email.

I can only think of a few reasons to do that. First of all, it could have been a mistake to hit reply all instead of reply. But honestly, I think this rarely happens (because most email programs do not have reply all as default). Another reason is that you could be trying to show everybody how "cool" you are (and by cool, of course I mean stupid) by agreeing or commenting on whatever was said. If I wanted your opinion, I would ask for it. Or, if the person who sent the email wanted your comment or agreement, they would have asked for it.

It's like sitting in a meeting and saying, "Yeah!" without anybody asking you to. And it's even worse when the mass email is to a huge group who don't know each other. I don't know who you are, and frankly, I don't care what you think. So keep your comments to yourself.

Guilty

2009-08-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have this guitly feeling telling me that I've been neglecting my blog lately, but I find I don't have anything to write. Of course, there are things I probably could talk about, but perhaps my brain has shut off to recharge for the last few days before classes start because nothing seems appealing to write.

Of course, my brain could also have shut off because I've been using it too much recently for things that aren't for school (like creating websites and servers). Oh well, the first two weeks of the semester are pretty slow, right? I should be able to recharge then. Of course, one of the books for one of my classes is titled Intro to Econometrics, which I believe was the same title for my undergrad econometrics class (at least it's not the same book). So it could be a slow semester.

Weekend Warrior

2009-08-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

My weekend trip to Bakersfield and Santa Barbara turned out to be a bit longer than I had planned. First I stayed an extra day in SB hanging out with the family and playing some volleyball. Quite fun. Then I was ready to head out to Sacramento on Tuesday, but my mom had driven off with my wallet which delayed my departure until after the time that I would have made it back in time for practice (which was the only reason I was leaving), so there was no reason to go until Thursday, leaving me more time to set up my server.

And just because I can, some shots from the weekend, none of which include any of my family.

So true

2009-07-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Just switch out Batman for Superman and it's me.

2009-07-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've recently decided to start using iGoogle because I discovered that they have some really fun comic themes. I really don't need to use it because I never look at all the feeds, but it's still fun to see comics. Perhaps I'll have to start using Google Calendar once school starts.

I was going through my wallet recently and found that I had three BN gift cards, so since it is close to where I play soccer on Sundays I decided to head in and see if there was anything I wanted. So now I have three new fiction books on top of all the very interesting library books I found when I was on campus on Friday and I have to decide if I want to read The General Theory (Keynes) or a book on Superman and Batman. Start placing your bets now.

Yesterday was the penultimate day of the Tour de France, which is really the last day for placement among the overall leaders. We had a bunch of people over and had pasta with pesto sauce (made from fresh ingredients). It was quite fun, with people over with whom I can talk about anything from Popperian philosophy to Scotch to Firefly.

Soccer is Life (the rest is just details)

2009-07-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend begins the pre-season soccer tournament portion of my summer. It's a bit difficult for me to adjust to soccer up here because it is so different from how I grew up playing. When I was playing, we took the winter off (at least before I got to high school) and played tournaments all through the summer. If people were gone for a week, they made sure they were back for the tournament on the weekend, and we didn't consistently have half of the team show up for practice.

But up here, I just can't figure out why about half the parents on my team seem to think that it's okay to miss one, even two tournaments. My family would have never done that (unless absolutely necessary due to a family reunion or something).

Suffice to say, it hasn't been a great summer of practicing. There's only so much I can do when only 8 or 9 kids show up to practice. Unfortunately for those that show up ever week, we have to repeat a lot of things, because it's impossible to move on to more difficult ideas until everybody has had a chance to work on the basics.

Then there's also the problem of none of them coming to practice willing to work. Half of them giggle most of the time, and the other half just go through the motions, not even trying. Practice was never the strong part of my game until high school (I just need pressure to perform well), but at least I had a work ethic at practice. My team won't run unless I sit there yelling at them the whole time.

Anyways, all this leads to me being very worried about our tournament that are happening in August, not the least because I don't even know who is going to show up for them. But we finally had a good practice last night (even if it was with only 8 of them), so hopefully it won't be as bad as I expect.

I should add that while I love winning, that's never my goal when I coach. My goal is that we should improve every game, so perhaps it's good (in a wrong sort of way) if we start at a really low spot.

Of course, none of this is helped by the fact that we don't have a goalie..... anybody know how to doctor birth certificates?

Probably just heat stroke

2009-07-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

I used to think I was purely a mountains person. If I was asked where I would like to spend a vacation, I was much more likely to say something like Yosemite or Yellowstone than Santa Barbara or Los Angeles (at least if relatives weren't involved in the decision). But in the last couple of years, I've gotten a much more healthy respect for the beach as a place both to vacation and to live.

I think the problem was that I always associated the beach with doing nothing but playing in the water, while I associated the mountains with all sorts of fun things like hiking, camping, and other assorted activities (or course, the best of both worlds was the ranch in SB, but that's an entirely different story).

Lately, I've discovered that the beach has many things to offer: it's own brand of hiking, frisbee in the sand, kayaking, volleyball, and various other pursuits.

Suffice to say that I no longer see no point in living at the beach, and I wouldn't be disappointed if I end up near it at my next location of higher learning. Or perhaps I'm finally getting tired of much-too-hot summers and want to live someplace cooler.

Pipe Dream

2009-07-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was intrigued by this pipe going no where at Malibu this weekend when I visited the beach. Here's the full color shot for those of you who like a bit of color in your photos.

Too much protein

2009-07-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

I don't normally consider myself an adventurous eater, but I did my level best this weekend to not be myself. On Saturday I tried 8 different types of animal (skipped the shrimp) and 19 different wines (there were an additional 4 on Friday evening). This was all interspersed with two state beaches completely with the requisite frisbee throwing. I think my system went into shock with all that protein that it isn't used to getting.

Then we stopped in Ventura and spent some time with Natalie and Scott, playing games and just enjoying the nice weather in general. I'm really trying to think of a better way to spend the weekend, and just can't. Only thing that would have made it better would have been more friends. Anybody want to start making an annual trip out of this (I promise you won't be disappointed). I'll put up some pictures later.

CNN

2009-07-09T20:28:00.001-07:00

I'm in the airport waiting for my (delayed) flight, and I look up at the television. CNN is showing the following headline "Polygamists vs. Drug Cartels." Can't hear the story, but I suddenly have visions of a potential made-for-TV movie.

Cryptonomicon

2009-07-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few days mostly reading a hefty book by Neal Stephenson called Cryptonomicon. Rob read it first and I'm highly enjoying it. On the surface, it seems like a very rambly book, taking over half the page count to finally get to where the mystery starts to reveal itself. I'm about two-thirds through now and I'm still not entirely sure what the point of it is.

But the characters are very likable and engrossing. It's a story told in three main parts). Two of the parts are parellel stories set during WWII and the third is set in the present day. There's lots of math, code breaking, and techno-talk, but at the same time there's plenty of military action for those who need a little less cerebral plot.

I'd suggest it for anybody looking for a challenge (it's abour 1200 pages long) and enjoys thinking about patterns and math (you don't necessarily have to know a lot about math, and you may even learn some math names to drop at parties).

Flare

2009-07-05T23:57:00.001-07:00

I watched Star Trek again, this time on the IMAX. I was struck again by something that I noticed the first time: the lens flares on most of the scenes. Watching it the first time, I didn't like it, but this second time I was a bit more accepting. It was obviously manufactured (most of the flare is in scenes in space) and I can't really figure out why they would have chosen to do that. Possibly to make it more life like?

But the thing is, I like my Scifi movies to be flashy and polished, which is perhaps why I didn't like the effect ruining things. It did seperate the movie from the shows, none of which (to my knowledge) exhibit any lens flare. Also, when did that become the in thing? I'm pretty sure I've seen it in other movies (although none are coming to mind). To me flare has always seemed to mean that they did do a good job framing the shot. Perhaps I'll have to change my outlook on it.

4th of July

2009-07-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

So I was stuck in Sacramento for the 4th this year because my cousins flew in from Italy today. It's fine, because I'm still a bit out of sorts from being sick all week.

I spent some time sitting on the front lawn watching the neighbors set off fireworks, but they seemed rather pathetic this year. None of them seemed to last very long, nor were they very interesting. Perhaps it was the fact that I wasn't lighting things on fire.

Now I'm sitting inside watching Casino Royale, because what could be more patriotic than showing a marathon of movies about a British spy on the USA network? I've realized that while I'm not yet prepared to admit that Daniel Craig is the best Bond (I haven't seen the second one yet) I am willing to admit that he is the best looking one.

Space Camp

2009-07-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

So the best part of camp is the day we get to spend at the Challenger Center. The day is centered around a simulated space mission, which, in my opinion, isn't great (although last year I apparently saw the lamer of the two missions).

The other parts of the day involve setting off rockets and building cars.

This was the day that I was most happy that I had my new toy.
Can't wait to set off more rockets next year.

Back, but too tired to post much

2009-06-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

I saw Transformers and it was exactly what I wanted in the movie. Lots of fighting, flashy cars, and pretty explosions. I'm really looking forward to GI Joe, which looks to promise much of the same, although possibly more plot. But really, in the summer movies I watch at theaters, plot is usually just a bonus.

The first third of my summer was very busy, and I'm looking forward to a bit more relaxation now. I also have a considerable amount of work that I should get done before the Fall semester starts, but we'll see how that goes.

More to update, but don't really feel like it today. I still feel like I haven't caught up with everything that happened when I didn't have my normal internet access.

New toy

2009-06-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Despite my fear of turning into Robert, I recently bought a new toy. See if you can figure out what it is.

Free!

2009-06-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Robert sent me an article on Wired about how 'Free' is the next business model. Basically, it comes down to this: In a perfectly competitive market, price drop to the marginal cost, so if the marginal cost drops to $0, then prices will drop to zero.

Of course, it's difficult to find a market that is actually perfectly competitive (homogeneous product, many producers, no barriers to entry in the market), yet some markets in the internet come close. I'm thinking of some music, video, and game markets on the internet. Also email providers (gmail, yahoo).

Of course, the price of these aren't always zero, due to the fact that some companies sell advertising on their sites where they provide a free service (Pandora), but I would assume that those are used to because the marginal cost of services isn't actually zero. And there is that pesky little thing called fixed costs to deal with.

Anyways, interesting article. I won't completely retell it, because you can just click on the link if you're interested. Oh, and there's a longer one here.

Also, strangely, I dreamed about Zeno's paradox last night, and here it is in an article. And I'm not going to decide which is weirder, me dreaming about Zeno's paradox, or it showing up that same day in something I'm reading.

Note to self:

2009-06-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Next time you're thinking of spending more than a week in Bakersfield, just stop thinking.

Top of the World

2009-06-08T11:17:00.001-07:00

My rather long weekend started on Thursday when I headed up to Sacramento for my cousin's graduation ceremony. When I heard there were only about 300 graduates, I figured that the ceremony would only be an hour or so, but apparently when there aren't 700 graduates, you don't have to figure out how to be efficient, and the ceremony lasted about 2.5 hours. Lame.

Friday I took the train down to Fresno where my brother picked me up to head to our annual Yosemite camping trip. The weather was really strange (for June) and the entire valley was covered in clouds. Made for some interesting pictures. Luckily the rain had stopped by the time it turned dark, so we were able to enjoy the campfire and stay dry.

Somehow on Friday evening, I ended up agreeing to do Half Dome in the morning. I had been thinking about doing it, but never said for sure when suddenly it was just assumed that I was going. Never one to turn down a perceived challenge, I agreed to go with some people who had never been to Yosemite. Unfortunately, when the morning came they had decided it was too early to get up and decided not to go.

But since I was already up early, I figured I'd do it anyways (with the company of Soren and John Stewart). The hike is 16.4 miles roundtrip (via the short route which I didn't take because it's killer on my back) so I ended up going more like 18.4 miles. There's also a 4,800 foot elevation climb, including the 400 feet of cables at the very end to get on the top of the dome. Officially, the hike is supposed to take 10-12 hours, not including any time spent on the top (for the shorter version, mind you).

I got up and back in 8 hours, which included time spent on the top, which was between 45 minutes and an hour. It was awesome being up above the clouds and seeing them roll onto the top of the dome.

I had done this hike before (when I was working at camp), but I had apparently blocked the worst part of the hike from my memory - the last mile or so before getting to the cables. It's steps which are very hard on my back to begin with, especially when they are too tall steps that keep going on forever.

I didn't stop for the entire 7ish miles on the way back, mostly because I knew if I stopped (or even slowed down) I probably wouldn't feel like continuing for a couple hours, by which time I would have tightened up. It was actually easier to try and go faster and get into a longer stride than shorten up my steps and take it easy. I know, strange.

Later that night we were sitting around the campfire eating brown bears and s'mores and people were trying to figure out why I killed myself by doing the hike so fast. They asked me if I ran (only a little) and I told them I have the same trouble with running - if I see somebody in front of me I think, "Must catch them!" (which is why I like running where nobody else is, so I don't try to kill myself), and I had this same thought on the trail. Plus, I was honestly feeling pretty good (my back didn't hurt at all!) and I kind of wanted to see how fast I could do the hike.

Summer books

2009-05-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

So I think I'll share what I'll be reading/watching this summer while I wait for the semester to start . I'm planning on hitting a bunch of economic books from history (like The Wealth of Nations and The General Theory), but also some other, quicker reads. First off is a book called Sophie's World.

This is a book about the history of philosophy. Sounds pretty dull to most of you, I bet. But it's actually a novel. I've only just started, but it does indeed appear that it is going to go through the entire history of philosophy, describing all the major players and what they thought. I've only just gotten to Socrates, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I should mention that it was recommended to me by a friend up in Sacramento who read it with his Jr. High age daughter, so it can't be too horrible or dense.

There appears to be a mystery of sorts in it, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it. Anybody interested in understanding how we think the way we do currently might think about reading it. I'll post more once I finish.

I've also been watching Dead Like Me, which was a short-lived Showtime television show. It's very sarcastic and a little dark, which suits me just fine. Unfortunately, it was only around for two seasons, although it looks like they did release a movie that should hopefully close up loose ends.

Basic plot: A 20ish year old dies rather abruptly and is put to work as a grim reaper. She releases the souls of people who are about to die rather gruesome deaths so they aren't stuck with their bodies in the aftermath of such brutality for all of eternity. Her main companions are other grim reapers, all of whom have issues as big as hers. Along the way, she struggles to figure out what the point of her (un)life is and help her family who can no longer recognize her.

The writing is good, the characters are interesting in a very screwed up way, and there's an overall purpose to the characters doing what they're doing. It's also pretty dry, which I enjoy greatly.

Next up after I finish these projects: The Lost Room (short-lived SciFi channel series), Professor Lambert and the Curious Village (a DS game) and either the Cryptonomicon or Quicksilver (both by Neil Stephenson).

Organization

2009-05-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Amazing how much time I can spend organizing things like my bookshelves, dvd shelves, and external hard drives, especially considering I'll spend no time organizing the rest of my room.

At least I know what my priorities are.

Evil friend

2009-05-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

Robert is evil. Both times this semester that I've had a lengthy paper due, he's provided me with new a new project/information. The first time was a link to a code that I then had to solve the day before my paper was due. Luckily, about 10 minutes after being sent the link, the paper was given an extension, so I was able to decipher the code without guilt or time constraint.

Then tonight, as I'm trying to work on my take home final, he sends me information on the Netflix contest that has apparently been going on for years. The contest is to create an algorithm that does a better job at guessing user ratings based on previous ratings then their current method. Movies, econometrics, and computers? I suddenly wish I knew more about programing algorithms than I do, not because I want to try for the prize, but because I just want to play.

Oh well. Back to economic history.

Photoshopping

2009-05-21T14:48:00.001-07:00

I've been having way too much playing with the hue and saturation in Photoshop lately. Of particular amusement has been finding pictures from when I was younger and wore very bright clothing and taking some of the colors out. This leaves me with an almost black and white photograph, but there are still bright colors showing through.

Can't wait to get home and find even more photos to scan and edit.

Stupid Networking

2009-05-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

So a couple of us were discussing last night's final over Facebook when it was pointed out that the friend who's status we were commenting on is also friends with some of the professors at school, including the one who teaches the class we were talking about. Nothing bad was said, but it pointed out to me the problem of networking - if you make your network too big, there's nowhere to vent.

That's one of the reasons that I don't tell my school friends about my blog, so that I can feel safe venting if I have to. I also don't think I'd ever friend a professor on Facebook, even if I am no longer in their class. Perhaps once I graduate I will.

Also, apparently some of my professors have been discussing me. I'm not okay with that (although apparently it was good stuff, so I'm more okay with it than if it had been bad stuff).

Moral of the story: networking is evil.

A further note on Guitar Hero vs Rock Band. Anybody have an idea on which set stands up better to wear and tear? I've heard conflicting view on this. As to functionality, Rock Band has a set of add-on symbols that make it very similar to Guitar Hero.

Finals

2009-05-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

The thing I don't like about finals (and final papers) is that you don't get them back. I always have this very strong desire (that I've never yet acted upon) to go back to professors the next semester and ask for my final, hopefully with what I did wrong marked on it (the same is true of final papers). I wonder what responses would be if I actually did that.

I mean, if the purpose is to learn and not just get a grade, shouldn't be we interested in what we got wrong, and shouldn't professors want to tell us that? It's not like the grade was the purpose of the class and once I find out what my final grade is I shouldn't care about the tests and problem sets.

In fact, professors should hand out the answer key to finals as soon as they're turned in so that students can know what they should have put. That would solve half the problem (but not the part about papers). And if they did that, I would haven't this dilemma.

Rock Band vs Guitar Hero

2009-05-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm contemplating buying a music game for the 360, but can't decide which one I'd get (if I do). We already have Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which means that we already have one guitar. I'm going to have to see if that guitar is compatible with Rock Band I and II. It really depends on whether Guitar Hero includes singing, because if it doesn't, that'd be a deal breaker.

Guess I'm doing some more research on the internet.

Mornings

2009-05-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Lately in the morning, I've frequently woken up with a song in my head. It's usually a different song every morning, and I haven't been listening to it the night before. There hasn't been any singing in the dreams that I can remember, so I can't figure out why I should have songs in my head in the morning.

Any ideas?

Growing up?

2009-05-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what has happened to me. I used to be a slacker and proud of it when it came to school work. I would do the work assigned to me, but I would usually just go so far that it was good enough, and not care. I was not very academically virtuous, according to the Aristotelian use of the word.

But now I find myself not only doing homework assignments multiple times (to make sure it's as close to perfect as I can manage), but I enjoy doing it. Granted, when the questions asked are boring or straightforward I don't enjoy it so much. But I look forward to the difficult questions that will hopefully show up at least once in every assignment and test.

I'd like to say this is part of growing up, but I don't think so. I think it comes down to two things. One, I'm determined to have the highest grade, which isn't so much academic virtue as plain old competition (and I have a rather large competitive streak in me). Two, I take the more difficult questions as a personal challenge. I know they're thrown in to separate the wheat from the chaff, and I'm determined to be wheat. So I guess that's also the competitive motivation.

And it's probably safe to say that a good amount of my actions spring from that motivation. So maybe not so much of the growing up.

Maybe it's broken

2009-05-16T09:55:00.001-07:00

So it's possible that I've broken my curse, or perhaps it's just decreasing in strength. While SCC got canceled this year, both of the freshman shows that I watched (Castle and Dollhouse) got renewed. Of course, Dollhouse only got renewed for another 13 episodes, but I have to be grateful for at least baby steps. Now I'm just awaiting word on Bones and Chuck and all will be well.

And if anybody's interested, I'll have the Dollhouse season on dvd in July and I'm more than willing to let people watch it.

Summer fun

2009-05-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

So this week is the last of the season finale weeks of shows I watch, with possibly one exception. That means soon will start the long months of what previously was a new-episode-less time. Luckily, cable television has stepped up to fill the gap with good stuff, but still, there are traditionally less things on television to watch during the summer than the rest of the year.

So what that leaves time for is watching more movies and discovering older television shows that you can watch on dvd. I'm going to have to start doing my research so I know what I'm going to watch this summer. Setting up a game plan of classics and niche television shows is going to be a great way to take a break from preparing for finals. And by 'preparing for finals' I mean playing video games, playing soccer, and reading non-school books.

I love finals week!

Scary

2009-05-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

I set my backpack (with Totle (laptop)) inside on a chair. To my horror, it was unbalanced and Totle toppled (heh) to the ground. As I saw this happen, I had a horrible vision of Totle being broken and me being unable to access either my presentation or my paper for class later today. Luckily he was prefectly fine. But still, it was scary.

Note to self: buy a flash drive to go on your keys to save very impotant documents like papers and presentations that you've spent way too much time on relative to other things.

Apparently knowledge does equal power (and therefore money)

2009-05-14T09:54:00.001-07:00

So I do pretty well in my classes. This probably isn't a surprise to most of you. But doing well in my classes is finally starting to pay off monetarily (well, technically I got college scholarships for my good grades, but I don't count that). For the past month I've been tutoring one of my classmates for both of our theory classes. Now that finals are coming around, another classmate has asked me to do the same for the macro final. And on top of that, I have an opportunity to TA next semester and get paid for it which will hopefully work out.

I don't know what to do with all this unexpected income. Intertemporal utility maximization through consumption says that I will try to make my consumption over multiple periods as uniform as possible through saving and borrowing (if I can know my future income), but when there are exogenous and unexpected increases in income, consumption patterns change.

All this to say I think I'm either going to buy a new desktop or Rock Band II.

The other great thing about this tutoring is that I'm forced to study as I go along. This increases the amount of time I'll actually spend studying a great deal (since otherwise it's pretty close to not-studying), which will hopefully mean I'll do even better on the finals, reinforcing my power, and therefore hopefully my money in the time period t + 1.

New Toy

2009-05-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I decided that it was about time I bought a cable to hook up my laptop to the HDTV. It so happened that I have a Best Buy Rewards certificate that expired yesterday, so I headed over to buy it. The timing of the purchase coincided with the fact that we don't have Fox on Dish Network and I wanted to watch the finale of Dollhouse on a big screen, and it worked like a charm (luckily I also had a cable to transfer the sound to the TV, too).

Now I really want to purchase as wireless keyboard so I can sit on the couch with my mouse and keyboard and play games/write papers with a huge monitor. Of course, I could also do this if I bought an extension for the cable, so I may do that instead. I do know that the first moment I possibly can I'm creating a desktop with an appropriate video card to use an HDTV as my only monitor. And yes, I know that will be in many years, but it's still good to have long-term goals, right?

You've got to be effing kidding me

2009-05-07T20:24:00.000-07:00

So I parked a quarter of an inch over the white line today on campus. Normally, I would fix this, but since I was parking after 5:00 pm and the lot isn't full then plus I was parking far away from any stairway (and therefor not in prime space) I figured I'd let it slide this time.

But then I get back from class and see that I have a $40 ticket for parking over the line. In fact, I wasn't over the line, I was on the line. And there were no other cars near mine.

What. The. Eff.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the car (because I didn't see the ticket until I had already moved) but I'm thinking about appealing because the ticket says "over" when in fact I was "on." Not that I think it'll make a difference in a bureaucracy, considering that campus transportation has to pay for all its operations through the sale of permits and tickets.

Pandora

2009-05-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

So I used Pandora when it first came out (when I was at Bolthouse). But since I got Soren I had pretty much stopped using it. Recently, however, I wanted to listen to a specific genre of music that Soren doesn't have. Rob thankfully reminded me of Pandora, and I've been listening to it since. It seems to me like they've gotten better algorithims for picking songs, although that could also be because I've better defined my stations.

Anyways, I recently identified a quandry that Pandora leaves me in. I can't take Pandora with me everywhere. While it's great for doing homework while I'm at home or at school, I can't take it with me in the car, or on the trail. So thanks to Pandora I'm going to be finding all sorts of new songs I like, but I'm still going to have to buy them if I want to take them with me. And facing a 10 hour train ride soon (round trip), I need some new music.

Star Trek

2009-05-07T10:18:00.001-07:00

Who wants to go see Star Trek this weekend?

I learned something today

2009-05-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

Today I got a great example of how to not present a paper.

Some specific points learned:

Do not put up a powerpoint side and then say, "I'll just let you read this for a second."
Do not face the screen for your entire presentation.
Do not put so much information on your slide that you end up using size 8 font.

This one time in band class...

2009-05-02T20:36:00.000-07:00

I went to my cousin's spring concert for band today, and realized that I miss making music with a group of other people. Granted, when I get really desperate for some music, I can go into my room and play my guitar, but there's something about being in band and playing with other people that is much cooler. Part of that comes from the fact that I'm not a soloist (in anything I'd rather do something with a group - projects, sports, and the like), but I think it's just part of the nature of music that it's a social thing.

Anyways, it made me realize that I miss high school wind ensemble, both because I miss that sort of music and because I miss playing with other people. The music that I heard today was more 'band' music than 'wind ensemble' music. I think I shall go on iTunes and download some of the songs we played in high school. That is, if I can remember more than like three of them.

Wa?

2009-05-01T12:50:00.001-07:00

Not sure how I feel about the fact that it's May 1st and it's raining outside. I was going to go on a run today, but that looks unlikely (not because of the rain, but because of the cold).

My dreams last night involved doing my micro homework - not really sure what that means, except that I've been doing too much work lately. I'm not used to mundane dreams and I want my fun adventure ones back!

Loyal to a Fault

2009-04-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

If you haven't checked out Dollhouse yet, this is my plea for you to do so. Everyone I know that's watched it has really liked it, even people who aren't into the types of movies and shows I like. Please don't think that this is a niche show that you wouldn't enjoy.

Anyways, it's Watch Dollhouse Week, which is a not-so-subtly subtle attempt to bring attention to the fact that the fans of Whedon are very loyal and Fox should renew the show. The last five episodes have been really good (not that the ones before weren't, but you could easily jump in starting with "Man on the Street"). Episodes are available on Hulu and Fox On Demand, so you shouldn't have difficulty finding them. It all leads up to the new episode on Friday, which is the penultimate of the season. From the preview, good things promise to happen.

Kindle would destroy me

2009-04-25T16:55:00.001-07:00

After reading 880 pages of a novel in about 12 house, I realize that owning a Kindle would probably destroy me. If I could, at a click, acquire not only a massive book but a massive series, I'm not sure what would happen, but it would probably be bad. The only saving grace would be that I couldn't get graphic novels or comics on Kindle. But that would be a small solace.

So please, friends, if I ever talk to you about a desire to buy a Kindle, talk me out of it. For my own sake.

Late night reading material

2009-04-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

Enjoyable quotes from an article discussing interstellar trade and interest rates with travel approaching the speed of light.

"This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics."

"The second feature of interstellar transactions cannot be so easily dealt with (physicists are not as tolerant as economists of the practice of assuming difficulties away)."

"Readers may, however, wish to use general relativity to extend the analysis to trade between planets with large relative motion. This extension is left as an exercise for interested readers because the author does not understand the theory of general relativity, and therefore cannot do it himself."

"This proof has been for a special case; but the proposition is in fact relatively general. (The reader must, of course, be careful not to confuse relative generality with general relativity)."

Interesting spring board to think about arbitrage, communication limitations, and interstellar trade.

Summertime

2009-04-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to imagine that there's only a month left of the semester, although my lack of inclination to do work means that it must be true. I have two presentations, two papers, and three finals to look forward to this year, and then the summer starts. I may have to break a long standing tradition of refusing to partake in the horrible institution that is summer this summer, if only so that I can take a class that sounds interesting in the fall. Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations is the class, and the only bad thing about it is that a pre req is Differential Equations.

Other than that, I may be looking at taking two economics classes and as many math classes as I feel I can safely cram in the midst of those and soccer. A Probability Statistics class is almost a definite, and perhaps Calc III or Linear Algebra.

Warmness has finally hit Sacramento, which means that I no longer feel that it's necessary to wait until 3 pm to workout. Waiting until then usually means that I miss my window between lunch and needing to go to class, so this means I run far more regularly, although it also apparently means that I'm forcing the dogs to run in the heat, for which I got reprimanded by some random passerby today.

More Dr. Horrible please!

2009-04-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

We all hoped this would come, but it's nice to hear them actually talking about it. I have to really hope that it's not a theatrical production, because I would more than likely fly to wherever they're putting it on to watch it. A movie or internet movie would be so much cheaper (for me).

Anyways, the people involved in Dr. Horrible are talking about a sequel, although they won't say what medium yet. And there's talk that the writers might find a way to bring back Penny (Felicia Day). This is surely a sequel that wouldn't disappoint.

Never been much for tradition

2009-04-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Much like my thanksgiving escapades (or lack of) I decided to spend Easter in Sacramento watching over the house and dogs. Other than wanting to strangle them frequently (the dogs), I enjoy having run of the house. It lets me get a lot more work done (and movies watched) than I can normally do.

So, despite it not being terribly tradition, I'm thoroughly enjoying my Easter evening of potstickers, a movie, and micro homework.

I hate FOX.

2009-04-09T13:49:00.000-07:00

So so so so so much.

If Dollhouse isn't renewed for another season I will never, ever, trust FOX again.

Cause and Effect

2009-04-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

If I had realized how busy my April was going to be, I'm not sure if I would have decided to do Script Frenzy. As it is, I may have to stop, as much as it pains me to leave something unfinished. I think it'll depend on this week (including the weekend) and how much I get done with an empty house (in November much of my writing also happened on a long weekend with an empty house).

I discovered that Bakersfield is actually bad for my health, as I spent almost four days walking (or more frequently lying down) in misery, yet I feel perfectly fine up here. Granted, most of that probably had to do with something I ate, but still. All correlation means causation!

Not sure if people have heard about the case in the Supreme Court about reverse discrimination of firefighters. Apparently a city threw out the results of an exam for promotion because none of the top 15 scorers (who would have been promoted) were black. 14 were white and one was latino. Anyways, I was discussing this with a classmate who writes code to test if hiring practices are discriminatory because it's what he deals with everyday, and we both think that throwing out the test is a load of bull. Just another example of correlation with no causation, in my opinion. Unless there's some way that the test was biased towards whites, then to throw out the results is discriminatory. I love that one of the city representatives said (to paraphrase) that they decided they could be sued by blacks if they kept the results, so they had to throw them out.

Yes, let's act in ways so that we don't get wrongfully sued, rather than in the correct way. That's a great stance!

Too short of a week

2009-04-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

My family plays this game when we go to a pizza place: see how long you can go before getting a soda refill, then, once somebody else has decided to go, be the first to ask them to also get you a refill (only works for one other person due to the two hand limitation). It's the art of laziness.

My plans to get work done on various projects went badly due to painting projects and pain in general. I spent three days helping a friend paint a house they are planning on renting out, and a couple days lying on either the couch or my bed in pain. And yet I also managed to throw in a Monte Carlo night, ref four soccer games, and make an attempt at bowling (unfortunately it was league night and we couldn't play). Oh, and also watched Fargo for the first time (You betcha!). So not a completely wasted week, although I think I have some catch-up to play with Script Frenzy and my four papers/projects that I have this semester. I seriously thought about not coming to class tonight and staying in Bakersfield for another couple of days to get work done, but realized I'm far more likely to do stuff here in Sacramento than there, especially when the cousins are on spring break, and my quite place will be the campus library.

Necessities

2009-03-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

Dish network still doesn't cary Fox or CBS in Bakersfield. This completely freaked me out around 6. Luckily, uncle has DirectTV (and watches the shows that he should on Friday) so I got my Terminator and Dollhouse fix. Next week is already set up for a repeat. We bring the orange juice (for Screwdrivers), he provides the large television, and I answer any plot questions he has about both shows. All this while my dad falls asleep and misses an entire show.

The Office

2009-03-26T20:08:00.001-07:00

If I worked in an office, I would so buy all of these to show them off. As it is, I think my parents might freak out if I bought yet more toys to try and find a place for in my room.

I'm in trouble

2009-03-25T00:21:00.001-07:00

You're know you're in trouble when you have fun spending hours running statistical regression and analysis on census data from the California Gold Rush.

Yay soccer!

2009-03-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

I much prefer outdoor to indoor soccer. This is mostly because my strength is being in being an outside midfielder is opening up the field and using as much space as possible - and this isn't really something you can do playing indoor. But, it's still soccer, and given no alternative, I'll play whatever I can.

So I decided to check out the indoor league here yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised. The field is much bigger than I expected (not basketball court sized like I was expecting), and instead of playing on hardwood floor, it's a bit closer to turf. So even though I get stretch out like I would prefer, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The really frustrating thing is my team. They're a great group of people, but none of them have played soccer competitively (or if they have, not at the level I'm used to), and I often feel like I'm still coaching when I show up for games. Not that it's horrible - just a little frustrating, although obviously not frustrating enough to make me stop having fun or playing. And besides, maybe they'll learn something!

Of course, it's lame that the league just started and I'm going to miss the next three weeks because I'll be out of town.

Formatting issues

2009-03-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

So I've decided that I'm going to give Script Frenzy a go (anybody feel like competing with me?). Of course, I'm pretty certain that if I don't get a least a third to half of it done during the first week (my spring break) there's no way I'm going to win, so I may end up giving up by the 5th. Apparently the weird thing about writing a scrip is all the formatting issues that you have to deal with. Luckily, there's a few free programs that help you to format stuff, so I've been busy exploring the program I've picked over the past few days.

There are a couple that you can use online - perfect for people at a regular job who want to sneak in some writing through the day. Not so perfect for somebody who occasionally has to escape wi-fi signals to get everything done. So I picked one that I can install on my computer. It has a lot of cool things I'm never going to use (storyboarding, production schedules), but I can imagine that would be really nice for somebody making a no-budget film.

Now to find some shinguards.

Exactly

2009-03-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

Thank you, xkcd.

Castle

2009-03-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

I think it's a little bit sad how much time I spend on my blog talking about television shows and movies, but I'm pretty sure I'm okay with being a little bit sad. My most recent find is a show called Castle. It's on ABC, so I don't know how much advertising time it's been getting, but I hope that they're marketing it well, because I can see this show being a keeper.

It's another crime show set in New York city, so those of you that know me are probably wondering why I even like it. Two words: Nathan Fillion. He plays Richard Castle, a best-selling mystery author who recently got bored with his main character and killed him off. He's now looking for new inspiration, and luckily, a killer decides to kill people in the same way that some of the victims in his books have been killed. This introduces him to NYPD detective Kate Beckett, and he's suddenly found something new and entertaining to do - help with cases.

The murders are actually interesting (complex, convoluted - what you'd expect in a mystery novel), but the real fun is the characters (obviously, or why else would I like it?). Fillion plays the role that he is so good at - a very likeable full-of-himself character that has a quip for everything. There have only been two episodes so far, but I hope that this one sticks around.

Mondays, ABC, 10 PM.

Lesson of the Midterm

2009-03-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

If your professor gives you a function that is not a standard "memorize how to take the derivative" function, assume that he made a mistake, forget that dy/dx of log x is not the same as dy/dx lnx and don't waste 40+ minutes trying to find a way around taking the derivative of the function.

In case you're curious, log x = lnx/log (base), so the derivative of logx = 1/log(base) * x. As it turns out, in the problem you end up dividing two derivitaves of a log by each other, so the log(base) drops out, and you're left with the same exact thing as if they were lnx.

And yes, I realize not everybody is going to know what I'm talking about, but some of you will, and that's all that matters.

Absurdities

2009-03-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm currently watching Gene Kelly in The Three Musketeers when I should be studying. I just can't help it - it's so absurdly hilarious. I think Gene Kelly is trying to be somewhat serious, but it just doesn't work. Everything he does looks to me like the've just expanded the silent scenes from Singing in the Rain - you know, the ones with the overacting and overbearing music. But it's much more entertaining than studying.

Macro is very heavy in algebra and calculus - there's hardly any need to know economic theory, just be able to move variables around. Given enough time, I can easily derive all of the identities that I need to know, but the question is if I'll have enough time to do so. So I have to figure out which ones I need to memorize in order to optimize time. And, of course, I have to keep all of the different models straight, which is perhaps hardest because all of the variables are the same, and there are only slight changes from one to the other.

The nice thing is that the professors decided to actually talk to one another, and all our midterms are in different weeks. Part of me would prefer to just get them over with, but it's nicer for those that aren't as fond of tests as I am. So next week is history, and after that, Micro. Then spring break, which will allow for some parties and game playing. I'm hoping to take another big chunk out of Fable II.

Loving spring

2009-03-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

I love the fact that my window faces the afternoon sun. When I'm wishing that I could take a nap outside in the sun (but won't because it's much too cold), I can pretend that I am by leaving the curtains open and sleeping in the sunshine.

This weekend is the first weekend of soccer tryouts, which means that I have to spend this and next Saturday/Sunday bossing around a bunch of 13 year olds. Should be fun.

Saturday I saw Watchmen, and in general I enjoyed it, although there were a few things that I didn't enjoy too much. If you're interested, I thought this article was really well done (there are spoilers, so you're warned). Basically what it boils down to is this: people who have read the novel will easily see that the director tried his hardest to emulate it, sometimes to the detraction of the film as a stand alone. I saw it with two people who hadn't read the novel, and there were things that I had to explain, although a lot of these were in the beginning when people have to get acclimated to the fact that it's an alternate history.

I also read an interesting article on BSG and feminism.

Discounting Gnomes

2009-03-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

I hate it when the gnomes steal intangible objects - like an hour of my day. Freaking thieving gnomes.

I decided to test an economic theory - well, I guess it's more like an almost assumption - today on some high schoolers. In economics we do something called "discounting the future." This centers around an assumption that consumption (really utility, but they're somewhat interchangeable in economics) today is worth more than consumption tomorrow. So, for example, if you were to postpone consumption today, you would have to be compensated by more consumption at a later date - and how much more consumption you would require is the discount rate. This is very easily seen in things like investments. If there was no interest rate - or if it isn't high enough - very few people would invest money.

Anyways, I tested this as simply as I could, by first asking four teenagers if they would rather have a brand new computer today, or the same brand new computer a year from now, but for 10% cheaper. Of course, I had to add some corallaries that technology will not improve for any computer over the next year. Half said they would take it today and half said next year. But the problem with this situation is that some had functional computers, while others had much less functional computers.

So I decided to change the consumption to something that would be completely used up at the time of consumption and is a luxury item - a nice dinner out. Of coruse, I had to shorten the time period, so I asked if they would rather go out to their favorite eating establishment today at full price, or a week from today and get $20 off. Again, half said today and half said next week. I'd be really intrigued on seeing if discounting is different among age groups, and if different goods bring about different discount rates.

Because something about discount rates just doesn't sit right with me, but I can't really figure out what it is. In Macro we're talking about intertemporal budget constraints, and how, if you could figure out exactly how much money you would make in your life and when, you would end up consuming the same exact amount of money every time period. But that obviously isn't the case with me. My consumption is way down while I'm in school, but it doesn't have to be. I have a lot of loans available to me, which would dramatically increase my consumption now at the price of paying it back later when I have a greater income, but I don't take advantage of it.

So I guess I'll keep asking questions and thinking about discount rates, and maybe (if I'm lucky) I'll figure out a Master's Thesis topic on the way.

Also...

2009-03-05T17:56:00.001-08:00

What's up with BN not having music or movies? Is it just the one up here or are they all like that now?

Heroes

2009-03-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

I am officially caught up on this season of Heroes. I must say, I really enjoyed being able to watch all of the beginning of the season in a row. I think that was really the only problem with it - it was pretty slow to build up (which most people won't enjoy), but once it did, it was awesome. The episodes that have happened since the New Year have been rather cliche and disappointing. Hopefully things will get going, though.

I heard that a lot of people didn't like the early season 3 episodes. I didn't stop watching because of that, but rather because there were other things I had to watch on Mondays. I always planned on catching up and continuing with Heroes. So, I think the problem with the first episodes is that there were a handful of new characters introduced, while others kept dying, or almost dying, or dying and then coming back to life. The problem with all of this is that viewers don't know who to invest in.

For example, much of season 2 was spent investing in DL and Nikki. But whoops, now they're both dead, and their son is pretty much written out of the script (although I have a hope that he'll return).

Another problem is time travel. This is rather key to the show, mostly because they use it as an information gathering device for the characters (either through painting the future or traveling to it), and the more you use time travel, the bigger potential hole you are digging to bury yourself in. I'm getting sick of characters seeing the future, changing it, but then still thinking that other things they've seen will still be true. I'm thinking that they will out of necessity have to keep the time travel/pre-knowledge to a minimum, which means down playing everybody's favorite character and my personal favorite character (who are not the same character).

Hopefully they'll keep the show around. The characters have a lot of room to grow, and I'd like them to have the time to do it. I have a feeling that at the end of this season there is going to be a dynamic change in their setting, and so far no show has really had a chance to explore that setting (the 4400 got close, but it got canceled before it could. X-Men 3 also touched on it, but you can't explore things in a movie the way you can in a show).

Script Frenzy

2009-03-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hmmmmmm. I didn't have anything planned for April yet. Tempting.

Credits

2009-03-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy watching credits. Anybody who has gone to the movies with me knows that I like to watch them all the way through to the end, even after any hope of a post credit scene has gone. The same is true of opening credits. These days, there are two types of credits, and both have their strengths and weaknesses.

One type is to show the actors doing stuff, usually along with their names. This is the standard one that most shows do. I find it really interesting to watch the opening credits of new shows and try to guess what's going on in the clips they've shown. You know that they have to be from the first couple of episodes that they've filmed, so you can try to guess the relationships and personalities of all the characters and what will be revealed early on. Recent example of this: Dollhouse.

The other type of credit doesn't show the actors, but it shows something that is meant to put you in the right type of mood to watch the show. An excellent example of this is Weeds or Dexter, but it isn't only in Showtime or HBO - Saving Grace and The Riches did the same thing.

What I don't really like are the shows that just show images of the actors (ie not clips from episodes). This is what the third season of Veronica Mars did, and what Sarah Connor is doing now. Unless it is really stylized, it doesn't get you into the mood to watch the show, which is what all credits should do.

Lastly, a word on theme songs. This is one of the most crucial things a show has to pick, in my opinion. It sets the mood for every viewing, and viewers have to listen to it every week (or every hour if they're watching from dvd). It would be interesting to choose to watch new shows based on their theme songs. I may have to experiment with that. Some of my favorites themes: Buffy, Veroica Mars (pre-Season 3), Firefly, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Dollhouse is slowly getting up on the list, but I think it's a bit too short.

Time Wasting

2009-02-24T14:03:00.001-08:00

Usually I don't mind review. Okay, that's a lie, but usually I can get over it without being too frustrated, but class last night really tested this.

One of the cool things about microeconomics is that while you have two sides of markets - producers and consumers - looking at how they consume and produce is remarkably similar. Utility and production have many of the same properties, and both are subject to budget constraints. What this means in terms of learning about it is that once you have consumer theory down, it's a very small leap to get to producer theory. Ideally, you shouldn't have to spend much time going over producer theory, except to point out where words are different, and to point out a few things with costs (you don't really look at the average cost of utility like you do the average cost of production).

Unfortunately, this didn't happen. Instead of quickly going over producer theory and moving on to something a little more interesting, we spent just as much time going over producer theory as we did consumer theory. I really can't figure out the need to do this. I mean, once you've talked about minimizing cost in one setting, you've talked about it in the other.

What's more, all of us have gone over it before in previous economic classes (it really doesn't change that much from one level of theory to another - you just get to go a little deeper). Oh well, I guess it just means that I won't have trouble keeping up with the material. At least the homework he gives us is interesting to do - I have that to look forward to.

Tempting

2009-02-23T23:49:00.000-08:00

I'm very tempted to travel over to SF this weekend to check out WonderCon, but I don't think it'd be much fun by myself. Still, the idea is very tempting.

Huh

2009-02-17T16:09:00.001-08:00

I now understand why there are drains all over campus.

Blerg

2009-02-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

It's been raining for four straight days, and I want it to stop just long enough for me to get a good run in. But I know as soon as I get ready and walk outside, the wind and rain will start up again. Oh well, I suppose we need as much rain as we can get.

I have the house to myself until later this evening (and have since Sunday). It's been nice to be able to make a mess and not have to clean it up immediately like I usually do. It's also been nice to have the downstairs to myself. I've gotten through three movies in as many days, mostly due to the fact that there's nobody down here making noise. Wednesday and Thursday I'm housesitting for another family, so I'll have a place to escape to while this house is packed with people.

You know, there is one good thing about all the marketing for V Day - the cheap candy the day after. I'm stocked up for a month, at least!

Temptation

2009-02-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

I know that if I go outside to run, it will be freezing. But if looks so nice and warm from here. You'd think I would have learned this lesson long ago during Spokane springs.

Stuck in class

2009-02-12T18:46:00.001-08:00

I'm seriously about to hit a guy in one of my classes over the head with my book. He's got a serious breathing problem in that his normal breathing sounds like me after I've run a couple miles. Or it sounds like he's breathing through a tube, I can't quite decide.

Anyways, I noticed this the first week, and it's quite distracting to me. So the next week I moved, knowing that if I had a problem, I should be the one to change. But he decided to sit right in front of me. Now this was only a little better than him sitting next to me. But there are four rows of desks in the classroom, and I was in the third, so this week, I figured that if I sat in the very back row, he would stay in the second row (where he had sat the previous two weeks).

But no. He again sat directly in front of me. So now I'm going to do an experiment during break. I'll move a desk down and if, when he comes back, he sits in front of me, I'll know something's up.

The real difference between American and British

2009-02-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

"For the American system of manufactures was, above all, a totally unsentimental approach to the productive process in industry, one in which purely commercial considerations prevailed. The British long consoled themselves with the belief that standardization and mass-production techniques inevitably resulted in an inferior product. Unhappily, from their point of view, they persisted in this belief long after it ceased to contain even an element of truth."

- Why in America? by Nathan Rosenberg, originally published in Yankee Enterprise, the Rise of the American System of Manufactures in 1981

I'm doing my happy dance

2009-02-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

I feel that it's necessary to share this: Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible) is back in television, this time with a show starring Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy and Angel, also Tru from Tru Calling).

Show starts Friday, 9:00 pm, on Fox. Right after Sarah Conner which stars another actress that Joss found. You think they did that on purpose?

In celebration of this new show, I'm going to be doing some posts between now and Friday about why Joss Whedon is the man, and why I'm very worried that this show is on Fox.

Also, thank goodness that the scheduling people didn't screw up and put it during BSG. I would have had to make a tough decision if that was the case (BSG starts at 10 pm).

Lack of Sleepies

2009-02-08T00:18:00.000-08:00

I don't really understand my lack of affinity with going to sleep lately. I find myself surfing the internet, going back to pages that I just looked at 10 minutes ago (with nothing new on them), just too put off going to bed. Usually sleep is one of my most tried and true methods of procrastination. I routinely had to get up at 6 am during college because I had put off doing homework for my 8 am class by going to bed.

Perhaps the first step to recovery is admitting I have a problem, and this post will be the first step. And to continue on my path of recover, I'm going to go to bed now.

That is unless I put in disk three of season six of Buffy. If there's anything that's procrastination fodder, it's rewatching old television seasons (especially if there are vampires/magic/butt-kicking involved).

2009-02-03T23:52:00.000-08:00

So since it's the beginning of the semester, it means I have to find some new procrastination tools until classes start being interesting. This semester, I've decided to take up Twitter. We'll see how long it lasts.

Breaking the Curse

2009-02-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Since Netflix has all of Seasons 1 and 2 of 30 Rock available on streaming, I've decided to see if I can break the curse. If there is any show on television that could break the curse, I think it might be 30 Rock, both because of all the good talk it's gotten lately, and because it looks to have staying power. Plus, perhaps my curse only applies to hour long shows (although AD puts the lie to that, but perhaps that was a fluke). So, if you watch 30 Rock, be aware that it could start sucking in the next month or so, and if it does, I apologize.

More classes

2009-01-30T00:16:00.000-08:00

So the first week is over, and I can continue with my initial musings on my classes. Wednesday night I have Advanced Macro Theory. I used to think that I preferred macro to micro, but in recent years I've come to question that. Now I think I prefer both equally.

Anyways, macro is taught by a guy from Turkey who likes soccer. Yay! The class shouldn't be too bad, although the classroom itself is horrible. It's twice as large as it needs to be for the class size, which means that his voice echos horribly bad. This makes the slight accent a bit harder to understand, but it shouldn't be too bad.

The problem with both theories is that it seems like a lot of time is going to be spent on not a lot of topics. I don't know if this is because they're planning on going incredibly slow, or if the material is really that hard or complex. I guess only time will tell.

Thursday is American Economic History. The only bad thing about this class is also the room its in. Although it doesn't echo, the rows of desks are all connected, which means that if somebody on the other end of the row leans back, the entire row shifts. Super annoying. Plus, the desks are from that 1980's (okay, I'm possibly exaggerating). In general, I don't like desks, and wish that all classrooms had tables.

But the class is going to be awesome (I hope!). I thought it would only be recent history, but am plesantly surprised by the syllabus. We're covering a lot of topics, and there's going to be a lot of work involved, but I think the class will be great. Unfortunately, it's a bit on the applied side, but I guess that's what has to happen if you want to get most economic students interested in history.

All in all, I think it's going to be a good semester for classes.

Initial Thoughs on Advanced Microecnomic Analysis

2009-01-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

After running back and forth between two different buildings multiple times, my prof finally figured out where he wants to hold class. And apparently he uses transparencies, meaning that I'm required to buy a book full of the ones he's going to use. This also means that my chosen seat (back left side) is in just the wrong position to be able to see what's being written. Lame!

It seems like we're going to get through the review section really quickly, although the review is really review. I'm going to guess that the topics will be review in general, while the math won't be. So that will be both good and bad.

More initial thoughts on my later classes as they happen, although I already know that if Thursday is held in the classroom that it's supposed to be, it's going to suck. I got much too spoiled in undergrad with really nice classrooms.

Beginning Again

2009-01-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

Time to start a new semester! I must say, the beginning of the semester brings both pain and pleasure to me. I hate the first week of classes, mostly because they're completely worthless. But I love the fact that I have a whole semester of new knowledge (hopefully) to look forward to (of course this is usually lost on me by the 11th week).

Also, I'm amazingly looking forward to all my classes this semester. That was sort of true last semester, and I was disappointed with two of them, but I'm hoping that won't happen this time. Two advanced theory classes and a history class will be just what the doctor ordered for this semester, I think. Enough reading and writing in the one class coupled with enough math in the others should be just the thing. I've decided not to continue my Arabic class, but that's only because the class itself was worthless. I did buy the answers to my textbook from Amazon, so hopefully I'll continue with the language outside of the class (I also have Rosetta Stone).

More to look forward this semester:

Only night classes, which opens up my days for working (money!) and snowboarding (spending money!).
Running along the river in spring
Kayaking along the river in late spring
Soccer

So I'm excited.

Loving it

2009-01-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Christmas vacation is always rough on me, mostly because it means that pretty much the whole family is all home, occupying the same space for far too large a percentage of waking hours. This translates to me needing to be gone as much as possible during said Christmas vacation (I'm talking about the traditional two weeks off). However, I love my January vacation.

I get to sit home alone, getting stuff done as I choose. It also means that I can have either the television to myself (watching old movies that nobody else in the house really appreciates) or the stereo all to myself (listening to really loud, eclectic music that nobody else in the house really appreciates). I don't have to hide in my room due to the loudness that is my family when I'm trying to watch or do something.

In other words, I love the month of January.

I can't help it

2009-01-07T16:14:00.001-08:00

I'm going to kill another show. I just can't help it. Maybe this one will break my curse, but since its already in its fourth season, and most shows don't last much longer than 5, probably not. But a girl can hope, can't she?

And no, I'm not sharing what show it is, but I don't think anybody I know watches it, so there's no need to worry.