Springtime for somebody.

Spring is in the air for sure, because my throat has been itchy all week. As in I want to remove the front part of my throat in order to scratch it. Other than that, I've had two soccer practices this week before we have try-outs tomorrow, and I've really missed coaching. It's going to be a long journey to get this team playing the way their age group should, but it will be a fun time, I think. It'll be nice to have permission to go hard on all of them, and I'm already imagining drills to kick some 12 year old butt.

In one of my classes (my favorite) my teacher was feeling lazy today. I did my usual second class of the day routine, which involves snack time, just like it did in a certain English class (although I'm not doing it to be annoying). While I was eating the prof was talking to some of the other students about her house and architecture in general, so once I finished I got out a piece of paper to take a few notes on JS Mill (not many since I've studied him way too much in philosophy). I think she saw that I was now ready for class and said that she didn't feel like being there today. I said great, and promptly put my stuff away. I did find out some fun information, like that our last paper will probably be extra credit (hmm, I wonder which student is making it necessary for the others to get extra credit?).

In Calc, the prof spent 50 minutes explaining how to graph, find distance, and midpoints in space (ie with three coordinate planes). All she had to say was that you do the same thing for two coordinate planes and add the z-coordinate, but apparently this wasn't good enough, so she had to waste yet another 50 minutes of my life that I will not get back.

I really should have taken Calc II for Engineers or something like that.

But yay for Spring Break! Now I can return to Bakersfield and hopefully sub all week so I have some money!

Malthusian Population Doctrine

The title of my post will have nothing to do with the content, but I like the word "Malthusian." Also, he deserves to be given some props since during his life he got the snot beaten out of him (intellectually), and didn't get vindication until something like 100 years later. Sucks to be him.

Anyways, I haven't posted in a while because I was around so many people that normally read this over the weekend, but I decided that since there are a few of you out there who weren't in Bakersfield for Easter, I would update.

I got into town last Thursday, thanks to carpooling with my aunt. Thursday and Friday were spent lazing around and downloading The Sarah Conner Chronicles and Smallville to catch up. I was pretty impressed with the Terminator show, especially never being a huge fan of the movies. I am, however, going to watch all of them this weekend, since they're all on (although on different channels, fancy that). Saturday was the engagement party, which was a ton of fun, except for the pictures to which I was subjugated. And, Jan took my plate away, but let the boys keep their cups for the picture. How is that fair? Afterwards a bunch of people went to BJs for a pizza buffet, and then we played Apples to Apples, which is always a crowd pleaser.

This week I had my first soccer practice (and I now know how much work I have in store for me this fall), took another test, and waited at the doctor's office for 40 minutes for a 40 second TB test procedure. And the place wasn't even busy. Before I can officially go on break I have another practice, and then some sort of try out (no, I'm not the one trying out) on Saturday where hopefully I'll get to round out my team. Then it's off to the train (probably) Saturday afternoon for a week of relaxation. Or making money, whichever comes first.

New poll (or at least there will be one soon, as soon as I figure out what to ask).

Sad day.

I went snowboarding today with the fam (or the adopted fam, I guess). It was a good day, although no Mammoth by any stretch of the imaginiation. Seeing my cousins snowboarding around with their friends made me miss the Mammoth trips with the gang. I don't think I often get nostalgic, but I was definitely reminiscing today about those trips, especially the second one when we had a packed house with 9 of us.

Níl ní ar bith is áille ...

.... Ná'n ghealach os cionn a' tsáile r.

It's Irish Day, so I'm listening to The Corrs' Home CD, and I thought it appropriate that I put in a lyric that somewhat applies to my weekend. I went over to the Bay Area (El Cerrito, to be exact), and had a great weekend with my aunt and uncle. When I arrived on Saturday, I was promptly greeted by a sight I was excited to see - a stack of 360 games, most of which I have heard about and been very interested in seeing.

This weekend I got to play and see: Army of Two, Mass Effect, Dark Odyssey, Assassin's Creed, and Two Worlds. It made me want to buy a 360, but I think that Billy is planning on buying one for Tiger Woods, and I can wait till then and play it when I'm home. I also got some very yummy Italian (crushed pepper in Carbonara = amazing), ice cream, a bike, and about 800 new songs on my iPod. This is all in addition to having a great time talking with my aunt and uncle. Oh yeah, we also watched Death at a Funeral, which I'd suggest to anybody. It's hilariously British, and a dark comedy, which also equals amazing. Plus is has Alan Tudyk and Matthew Macfadyen, both of whom I am a fan.

Tomorrow I head up to Tahoe to hit the slopes, assuming that I get enough of my paper written tonight to warrant a gift to myself, which I'm certain will happen. Then I have one more day of class until I head home for a long weekend, which is exciting, because it's going to be a long weekend of parties.

The Art of Economics

Often, when I was an under-graduate student, people would express surprise at my chosen majors. They often wondered how I could possibly be interested in two such different subjects as economics and philosophy. The reasoning behind this is that economics is all about graphs, numbers, and equations, and can't possibly have anything to do with philosophy. I would patiently respond that there are areas in economics which are more theoretical, and that's what I enjoy most.

But as it turns out, I was being way too conservative in my explanation of the fit of philosophy and economics. In the beginning of economics, these two areas weren't even seperate - oeconomics (the Greek term phrased by Xenophon) was just a small area of economics. In fact, the "father" of economics, Adam Smith, was the chair of moral philosophy at a college in Scotland for a good chunk of his life.

In fact, I'd say that economics needs to move from being the 'science' that is has become (I use quotes because the 'true scientists' of physics and chemistry don't like us calling economics a science), back to the 'art' that it could be (I use quotes because I'm sure painters wouldn't like me calling economics an art). Before Smith could even think of writing his treatise on wealth, he had to start with a treatise on human nature. Unfortunately, it seems like most economists like to think that Smith got it right regarding human nature (the whole invisible hand of self-interest), but even so, philosophy has a lot to offer economics, most of which gets marginalized when people assume that economics is only concerned with numbers, equations, and graphs (as fun as those graphs are).

Can anybody tell that I'm writing a paper on this?

My own wild animal park adventures

Since I don't think I've stated enough, there is an amazing river and park that goes right by the house. It's about 3 minutes walk to get to the trails from the house (I have to walk it because it's pavement), and then miles and miles of trails along or circa the river. Apparently during the summer many of the trails I'm using right now will be under water (when they release water from the two dams that feed the river), and there are parts that are very rocky, but it still rocks.

Because the area is so wide and long, there are a ton of wild animals that I see daily. So far, I think I've seen 4 jack rabbits (3 of them today), 5 coyotes, a handful of young wild turkeys, and too many geese, herons, and ducks to count. Plus there's chipmunks all over the place. I keep forgetting to take my camera to school to take pictures of the walk along the way, but if I forget tomorrow, I think I'll just take a bike out and snap some pictures during an easy ride.

New Poll

A couple of random things.

Apparently my prof is a Presbyterian Marxist. I'm still not sure how that works out.

While I've been planning on getting the highs in my classes, I wasn't planning on announcing it to the class. One of my profs decided to do this for me, however, when he announced to the class, "If you'd like to see good answers to the test, with Rebecca's permission, I've made copies of the high." This was, of course, before he either asked my permission or gave me back my test, so I was a little surprised.

Last night I watched the last four episodes of The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I haven't seen the first four, but I will download them once I get home. So far, so good, and I'm looking forward to the next season, although the fate of Summer Glau is in question for next season, and I'll be disappointed if she's not in the series (I expect she will be, though). I guess I'm going to have to get used to liking new science fictions shows, since networks seem determined to cancel them frequently.

New newness

I have a new phone. The old one is dead and beyond resuscitation, so I need phone numbers. If I previously had your phone number, could you please either call me or email me with your number? Gracias.

Newness this semester

Beccanomics is still sitting in the back of my mind, I just haven't had time to type it up and draw the graphs (yes, there are graphs involved!). Perhaps I'll get to it this weekend, but that depends on the distractions.

I've told numerous people that the most exciting thing about being back in school is perhaps the opportunities I have to walk and run daily. I park about a mile away from campus (which means I save on gas and don't have to buy a parking pass, and then walking on the amazing bike path next to the river for the rest of the way. This will be even more amazing when I have a bike up here and don't have to drive at all (it will take the same amount of time to bike to school as to drive and walk - perhaps less).

Also, along the river (which is 5 minutes away from the house), there are a ton of dirt paths. This is important because I can't run on pavement, or any hard surface without sending my back into spasms. So far this week I've been running four days in a row, and have yet to have more than minimal back pain (which I sometimes randomly get). Absolutely amazing. So pretty soon, friends, you'll have two people obsessing over running. Get used to it!

Some other newness is that I've finally found a way to make myself care about grades, and therefore to work for them. As an undergrad (and this is still true today), I could care less about grades because I don't think they appropriately reflect the amount of material learned. The point of a class should be to learn as much on the topic as you possibly can, and tests really don't serve a purpose rather than making people learn, but the good students should be doing that anyways. I much prefer papers to a bunch of tests (although in math and perhaps some science classes this isn't possible).

But this semester, I've let my competitiveness out in the classroom. In high school and undergrad, I didn't worry about getting the highest grade (for the reasons stated above, and also because I didn't want to set the grading standard too high for the people that were struggling [this was especially true in econ classes]), but now I've decided that there is no possible way that some little peon (my new term for undergrads) is going to get a higher grade than me, and they can all wallow in misery when I set the standard so high that they get C's (although in reality, if that were the case, the prof would probably throw out my grade and set a lower standard). I think that this will easily translate into a competition with other grad students, although we'll have to see. So far, it looks like my plan is working in at least one class, and that's the class that I think I'm going to be most competitive about, because it's my favorite. I haven't gotten enough graded feedback to know about the other classes.

In History of Economic Thought, at least, I think I'll offer to study with people, and although this might seem even more condescending, and it's not meant like that. We'll have to see.

Deep Thoughts

I was struck by how much gas Nascar must waste each year. With the huge increase in gas prices lately, I wonder how much the decrease in demand due to no more Nascar would decrease the price of gas. Probably not a whole lot, but with as much talk as we hear about environmental issues, I'm amazed nobody has pointed out that it's a huge waste of a finite resource, not to mention all the pollution that it produces. Shutting down Nascar probably wouldn't make much of a change, but it's a start! Not to mention the fact that it's not a sport and is boring to watch.

I saw a billboard on the way back to Sacramento that said something like "Jesus is Lord" and had a website at the bottom - jesuslord.com, I think it was. Because it was dark and it had been a long day, I thought this said jesusland.com, and I could just picture Disneyland, but instead of Mickey Mouse and the gang walking around, you have Jesus and his disciples, and also all the important saints, like Aquinas and Augustine. You could also have the Tunnel of Transubstantiation, Water-into-Wine Mountain (Splash Mountain), and something like Superman, but called Ascension. Maybe when they sell off all those Six Flags, they can turn one into JesusLand.

I'm slowly running out of ideas for polls, so email me if you've got any.

Ouchy

Today I was hurrying to my second class because I had a test the class before, and as I was running up the stairs I tripped and totally ate it. Luckily, there was only one person in the stairwell, and he was suitably worried about how I was (he didn't start laughing until I was gone), but I nailed both of my knees right on the edge of a stair. This is particularly annoying because I was very excited to go running along the paths by the river after I got back from campus. It still hurts both my knees to walk, so running today was totally out of the question. Hopefully a night of sleep will be enough to make the pain and swelling go down. Because I really want to go running.

Whirlwind Weekend

I spent almost exactly 49 hours in Bakersfield this weekend. I managed to get a surprising amount of things done in a short amount of time, which is good. Friday night I went to bed somewhat early because I had to get up early before class to make sure I was prepared for a math midterm, which it turns out I didn't really need to do. Saturday was spent lazing around the house, and also taking Max to get a shot and re-registered so he can get a tag. Saturday evening we went to a surprise party for my Grandmother (step), which is the reason I went home. It was fun, although there were only four other people close to my age (including my brother, Robby).

My cousins Nick and Brian are about four months older than Billy and I (they're also twins), and they just graduated from Cal Poly in December, one with a degree in wine making, and the other with a degree in grape growing (in their defenses, they also had other ag-related majors). We had a fun time discussing wine tasting in Paso (since they went to school so close they went often) and in California in general.

After that, I met up with Chris and Jessica, and we went to El Portal, and then returned to the apartment to hang out. We ended up watching an episode of Dexter, which was very good. Sunday was made up of church, lunch, Costco, and my uncle's house, where I got to meet the newest Jennings, my little cousin Lucas. He's very cute, and unlike the other one, didn't scream
at all. I can't wait to see him in the little Green Lantern outfit that I got him, since he's almost big enough for it. (Yes, I've already bought my cousin a super hero outfit - do you have a problem with that?).

I shall post later with my thoughts from driving on the 5 and 99, as well as a tenet of Beccanomics, as soon as I have time to formulate it completely.