So close, yet so far away

I'm on the second-to-last level of The Force Unleashed, and the game keeps freezing. I really can't figure it out. My cousin has gotten past this part (under another username), and there's nothing on the disk. It's really frustrating, especially since I know I'm so close to the end, which I'm hoping contains a little scene with a Star Destroyer. I'm thinking about calling Microsoft customer service and complaining until they send me a new disk, which really won't solve the problem, since I'd have to wait for that.

Oh well, back to Mass Effect for a while, I guess.

Not so stupid human tricks

Today on my way back from campus, there was a guy riding a mountain bike on the trail. Of course, this is much more impressive when I add the fact that he was juggling at the same time. And this guy was cruising, not just going slowly.

I have to wonder what brought on the desire to learn how to do that, and if this guy is also a clown entertaining at birthday parties. I was sure entertained by that trick.

The story of my (TV) life

I think this comic from Ctrl-Alt-Del pretty much sums it up.

Shopping Lists

The other day I was at Costco (buying The Force Unleashed!), and the guy in line in front of me was buying an interesting assortment of items. They were: green beans, flax cereal, organic carrot juice (from Bolthouse!), a 36 can case of Coors, and a large bottle of Vodka. I want to go to that party.

Of course, my shopping list was just as interesting. All I bought was the game. (Although I thought about adding a couple seasons of Smallville).

True procrastination is an art

And it takes a lot of effort to be good at. My latest version of procrastination takes the form of playing in Photoshop. I'm not very picky, so I'll play with both photographs and images, depending on my mood and resources at hand. Tonight's project was something I've been thinking about lately, but unfortunately not everybody is going to understand. That's okay, because I think it's funny, and that's all that matters.

Note: These images are not meant to be derogatory towards a particular candidate, nor to show my support for one of the other. It just happens that one has a slogan I can make fun of.

Problems of Economy

There's one pretty glaring problem I have with studying economics, and it's really only glaring because I've also studied philosophy. This is a problem of ethics. You see, almost everything in economics that evaluates policy (which is actually quite a bit of it) has to operate within a Utilitarian framework. And I, personally, follow a much more Deontological and Virtue based ethical framework.

This is really coming out in one of my current classes, Cost Benefit Analysis. As you'd guess, in this class we look at the different costs and benefits of different policies and compare this to either other policies or the status quo (it's actually more complicated than it sounds). Obviously, the best option is to choose the policy that has the highest net benefits; if a policy has net costs the status quo is preferred.

During class and while reading, everything within me wants to scream that some things are worth doing - I'd even go so far as to say morally correct - no matter what the cost, and in spite of whatever benefits there are. Of course, this can't really be said in economics, because it's all about costs and benefits, and it's all about Utilitarianism.

At least economics doesn't go quite as far as Utilitarianism and say that the policy which has highest net benefits is the morally right one to choose, and should be implemented, but it gets pretty close when coupled with politics. And of course there are branches of economics that deal with other ethical frameworks, but still, it's definitely a Utilitarian world, and I'm definitely wearing spots in a world of mostly stripes.

It starts.

The first day of class is such a waste. I really don't understand what professors are thinking. Do they think that we're incapable of reading a syllabus on our own? We're only in college, after all. Of course, I've only had one class, so there's still hope that the day won't be a total waste, but I really don't have any hope for it until my class in the evening, which is three hours long. We can't spend that whole time playing 'get to know everybody' and reading over the course description and expectations. I hope.

I used to like my class schedule, but now that I'm looking at wasting 6 hours here on campus with nothing to do, I'm not so sure about it. Perhaps I'll have to ride my bike to my first class, and return after my second one, so I only have to waste a little over three hours here. That might be doable, but I question whether it's a good choice once it starts raining.

Political philosophy should be fun, even if we won't be reading the historical philosophers that I know and love. I guess contemporary philosophy can't be too bad, right? I'll just have to stop myself from talking about Aristotle and Plato too much in class.

This past weekend I started a project that I'll probably be working on for years, but it should be fun. I've begun to scan all the random pictures that are all around the house. My mom doesn't scrapbook like some people out there, so we have a ton of pictures that just piled in boxes. I'm going to tackle those first, and then move on to the ones in albums, but those are mostly much older. Of course, the first step was to start scanning the pictures that I have from high school, college, and beyond, which I can now play with in Photoshop. Here's one of my favorites.