Back to school again

One lecture of each class is enough to assure me that, for two of my professors at least, I can resume my favorite note-taking game: writing down the jokes made in class. Classes are made easier when professors have a sense of humor and a personality that shows when they teach.

In other news, September means that new seasons of television shows are starting. That said, based on my schedule so far, I’ve spent more time watching old episodes of shows than new ones. Some have always been favorites: House, Law and Order, Scrubs, South Park, to lesser extent Futurama; others are new and growing on me, namely NCIS and CSI: NY. Both were given a chance because they feature actors in other good shows or movies: Mark Harmon of NCIS was on a few episodes of the West Wing (and was a great character for the few episodes he was there) and Gary Sinise of CSI:NY was in Apollo 13. Both shows are driven by these two, the leaders of groups in the titular organization.

Side question: why does someone act [i]in[/i] a movie but [i]on[/i] a television show?

So far I have refrained from making a judgment on the current credit and banking situation, in terms of what are the causes and the solution. Suggestions have ranged all over the map, from needing more regulation to needing less or no regulation; from a government intervention such as the $700B deal to letting the market correct itself; and even a suggestion that we punish those thieving executives by putting CEOs of companies accepting bailout money on a federal salary schedule to keep them from raking in money in the deal. I have refrained because I don’t want to preach the free market gospel too much [though it ranks in the top 5 of importance when it comes to gospels I have read (number 5, to be exact)]. I know my basic position but won’t post it for now. I’m trying to come up with a coherent way to describe my thoughts on some of these things, and when I have come up with one (not typing this while watching The Colbert Report might help) I will post it. As a preview: bailout bad, less regulation good (especially less forced sub-prime mortgages), and despising wealthy CEOs bad as well.

Getting settled

Friday saw the math “boot camp” come to a close with a two-hour exam, and since I’ve been out of the student life for a little while now I took it, though optional. That brought my preseason to a close, with the regular season starting on Tuesday. In celebration of this, as well as mourning for the last free days we’d have for months, a group of about 10 of us went into Chicago Friday evening. The trip was nice, and gave most of us a chance to try out our free passes to Chicago’s “subway” (it’s in the open air, so should it be “superway”? I don’t know.).

Other than that there has just been more settling in to the new place and new town. Evanston has been good so far, and Chicago seems fun as well. The whole moving process has gotten me noticing the small differences between places I’ve stayed. Wal-Marts not being palaces is one of those differences, an easily noticeable one for an Arkansas native. But much more fun, and one I couldn’t track in Cambridge due to my lack of a television, is noticing the local business commercials. A great friend of mine used to drive his girlfriend crazy (and amused the rest of us) by reciting part of a furniture commercial. Then there are the fun jingles that some local marketing expert writes and that no person with any self-respect would sing seriously (which is why they find those great out-of-work acting talents, who have none). Two local commercials have a tie over the best jingle here: a store called Menards, with a jingle that has much better staying power in the mind because there is only one line of words in the jingle, “Save big money at Menards”; and a flooring store called, I believe, Luma, where a young married woman plays a guitar while sitting on the steps and singing to her floors (much to the amusement of her husband, who is watching a television show that I’m sure she didn’t find entertaining).

That’s all that I have for this week; maybe next week I’ll take some pictures of campus to post.

Random thoughts

In lieu of posting something meaningful and worthwhile, here are random thoughts that have been bouncing around my head lately.

-- I’d rather not venture into politics, but I keep hearing about how great a speaker Barack Obama is and I just don’t see it. I didn’t think Bill Clinton was a good speaker either, though everyone said he was, but I think he (during his presidency and shortly thereafter) was better than Obama is. We know McCain isn’t a good speaker, and we know Biden rambles, so the only one who might be a good one is Palin (haven’t heard her speak yet) and I don’t have much hope of that being true.

When I say they aren’t good, I suppose I should clarify. McCain is terrible. He only sometimes gets a point across, and does it without meter, without passion. Obama and Clinton at least get across the point and sometimes hit a great line or speech. But neither is a Churchill, a Reagan, a JFK, or even an FDR. And yet, based on what people keep saying, he’s better than all of them.

-- Something feels wrong about having to wear pants and a jacket during the first few weeks of September. Winter gets fairly cold back home, but fall won’t start until at least midway through October. I guess this is a good fact to keep in mind for the upcoming years.

-- Why couldn’t Tampa beat the Saints? Seriously, guys.

-- A few classmates and I were talking today about why economics graduate programs (and others who force students into economics graduate classes) are the only ones who have a “boot camp” before the program starts. The only thing we can think is that economics is one of the few disciplines where undergraduate and graduate level work have such a large disconnect between the expectations for student knowledge in a related field (mathematics, for us). Can anyone think of others?

-- I've encountered adjustable chairs that always fall to the lowest height before, and that made me assume failing to overcome gravity was the default flaw in these chairs. The one I have now does the opposite--if left alone, it always returns to the highest setting. Every time I sit in it, I get confused because of my expectations.

-- Am I the only one who loves watching Peyton Manning commercials? My new favorite is of course the Oreo "Double Stuff Racing League" commercial that also includes the Williams sisters of tennis, specifically the part where Peyton announces that for himself and Eli, "it's on like Donkey Kong." He seems to have a great sense of humor (judging by his other commercials), and I can't wait to see him on TV when he retires from the NFL.

Back to school

I got moved in to my place in Evanston today. Although it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, after my parents helped clean and organize everything (which will last maybe a week) it feels like home. I think it’ll work out. The bad news is there’s no living room area, so if someone wants to visit me and stay here, the floor is all that I have to offer.

After spending a year out of school working for a living, I am trying to ease my way back into this school thing. The good news is that, by getting used to putting in an 8-5 or 9-5 (depending on the day, the location, my lunch plans, etc.), I have gotten used to being doing things all day long. This means that during the breaks we’ve had so far I’ve gone to the next room and started working on the problem sets, and that aside from the fact that the teacher of the last class is, well, not a great lecturer we’ll say, I haven’t been so tired of thought that I’ve stopped paying attention. This bodes well for the rest of the program.

On top of these things, I’m trying to finish a few extracurricular projects. I enjoyed listening to one of the instructors talk about how most papers written these days are coauthored papers, and how when we start writing papers in the third year we’ll probably write with coauthors. I was amused because I’m already working on 2 papers (and finished my part of a third and am starting a fourth analysis that could become a paper) with coauthors. One of them won’t get published in a great journal, but it will get published somewhere and that’s what matters. The second, I’m not sure. We’re definitely contributing to the body of research, but it depends on how well we can do the analysis. I don’t have all the data yet, so I don’t know. The third, depending on how we can solve a few issues, could go to a really good journal, and that’s the one I’m working on the most right now. So needless to say, I know what he’s saying.

I imagine that I’ll try to get out and into the city some this weekend, but that will depend on my ability to connect a laptop to my TV and watch a certain football game. If I can, I will definitely be watching that. Sunday, of course, is for church and football, most likely at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Well, that’s all for me right now. Here are some pictures of my setup. Other than the dresser, bed frame/box spring, and desk, which were provided, if it looks nice or clean, my mom did it, and if it looks functional, my dad did it. If it looks like a TV, computer, or video game, though, that was all me.

That’s not a good thing to claim? Oh well. Enjoy!