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!

And then there was one.

Week, that is. As in, there is one week left before I leave Boston and head to Chicago.

I missed posting this past week, mostly because I spent my spare time working on some projects when I might otherwise have been typing posts. I say this not as an excuse but as an explanation, the difference being excuses are meant to absolve guilt with the implication that the guilty party regrets their actions, whereas I’d probably do the same thing again and again if in the same situation.

That said, what have I learned and experienced lately?

--Until last week I had never seen a college student dressed as Abraham Lincoln (complete with suit, top hat, and beard) ride a Segway across a bridge. Now, I suppose I can only say that I’ve never seen it with a boat underneath a train underneath said lookalike underneath a plane, but that’s only because he was one bridge over from the only place in the USA where that actually could occur.

--Not having much social activities has let me get out jogging again, and I’ve gotten my standard trek down to about one hour to run 5 miles. I’m fairly pleased with that.

--I wandered out around the city this weekend and rode to the top of the Prudential tower. Though the restaurant my family went to in Vegas was higher, at 107 stories, the restaurant and bar on the 52nd floor here did still offer some nice views of the city; I attached some of them at the end of the post.

--The animated Clone Wars movie was terrible. As an irredeemable Star Wars fan my hands were tied, so last Saturday I walked into town and watched it. The basic concept was alright, but like every movie kinda meant for kids, there is at least one character (in this movie only one, but that was one too many) that is completely unrealistic insofar as behaving like someone their age should. In this movie, the child lead is intended to illustrate that kids can do the same things as adults. Not to sound too much like Maddox, but no, they can’t. Kids aren’t adults. That’s why we have those words for them, indicating they are different from that other group. Hollywood, stop thinking that to make a movie a winner with kids, you have to make the kid role in a movie completely unrealistic. Instead of making them wittier and smarter than the adults, make the boys love sports and the girls dolls or something (that’s not PC but oh well). Kids might believe and understand those characters. Adults might, too.

That’s all I really have for now. My plan will be to not consistently make people wait a whole week or more for posts, but who can say, right? I’ll post again soon, I hope.

Another Day, Another Journey

This past Saturday I resumed my meandering ways and got out into the city to visit some places I had marked on my to-do list; in other words, I visited the Sam Adams brewery. I did other things as well, but let’s start here, where in fact I started.

The brewery is located southwest of downtown Boston (in Jamaica Plains if any of you know the city). I rode the T (from MBTA, Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority; it’s what everyone calls the subway) down to the nearest stop and wandered the streets until I found it. After waiting for an hour and a half because the tours are quite popular, I got to wander through the brewery. The Boston site is actually the smallest brewery they own, with larger ones in Cincinnati, somewhere in New York, I think, and a new one somewhere else (maybe North Carolina?). They may have more also, I can’t recall. The others are used to produce their products for mass consumption, while the Boston site is for R&D. The guide we had basically said that this meant they use it to refine and sample new formula ideas, to brew competition beers, and when the tanks are empty the employees can sometimes just come up with their own ideas and give them a try, presumably with the understanding that anything great will be the property of Sam Adams.

We got to taste the barley and smell the hops they use for some of their brews, and then a complimentary glass and two free tastes of their products. We got the Boston Lager, their main brand, and the Summer Ale, their current seasonal. While getting to drink samples of these, we got told some of what the employees of the brewery do in the course of their jobs. I just don’t know if I could show up to a brewery and start tasting beer at 10:30am every day to make sure the product on the market is up to specs.

Wait, did I just type that?

I also got to try 2 concepts for a new product that they have. One was a coffee flavored stout (dark beer) that I believe was appropriately titled Coffee Stout, and the other had a hint of blackberries and was, also appropriately, called Blackberry Ale. How do you think they came up with the names? The tastes were set up so the tasters could vote for the one they liked better, so I voted (secret ballot, thank you very much; I voted for the Coffee Stout, though).

After that I went to the Museum of Science (it might have a real name but I don’t know it) where there was an exhibit on baseball. I was like a moth to a flame; once I saw the ad for it a few weeks ago a visit was inevitable. The exhibit (and the whole museum) was alright, mostly set up for younger people to try and get kids interested in baseball (and science, respectively). The one nice thing they had was a 60’6” cage with a padded wall painted with the plate half of the battery on one side and a radar gun. So I threw. Caveats:

1) I didn’t get to warm up.
2) I wore flip flops, so I wound up throwing barefoot.
3) I was wearing khaki shorts and a button up shirt, so I had a suboptimal range of motion.
4) I am a wimp.
5) I didn’t get to warm up (maybe if I repeat it you’ll forget #4).

Anyway, everyone gets three throws, and with a wide variety of ages, from kids barely into live pitching (who got to throw from closer) to people who were actually adults (I don’t count me as being an adult yet), most of the people were bouncing one of the floor, one off the ceiling, and the other would hit either the radar gun which was off to the side or the back wall about where the batter’s head was painted. Regardless of speed, they weren’t going to get anyone out. As it turns out I wouldn’t have gotten anyone out either, but that was due to the speed component of velocity and not the direction component; all three of my throws hit the painted catcher’s mitt. The highest velocities I saw there were two teenagers who bounced every throw; one hit 62 for his best, the other reached 59. I was third for the time I was there, hitting 49, 50, and 51 for my three throws. If I had been warmed… I’m just saying.

After that, I went to a location recommended by the Florida folk: the Bull & Finch Pub. This is the pub used as the inspiration for Cheers. I had a few beers and ate dinner there, and it was decent and reasonably priced. I didn’t get any Cheers gear, but that’s only because I don’t know the show that well and I’m not really that kind of souvenir person.

So that was the weekend. The head of the program employing me is finally in Cambridge from his summer visit to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, so I’ll be getting busier in the upcoming weeks (note: I am considering that a good thing). He has mentioned the possibility of continuing some of my current responsibilities even after I leave Cambridge, so I may have an easier time than I thought keeping in this circle.

That’s all I have for you today. What’s new with everyone out there?

Oh, here are a few pictures for everyone.

This one was for my brother, who should be amused. If not, he’s wrong.

This is the Museum of Science (it stretches across the river) as seen from the Longfellow Bridge to its south. Yes, that is a baseball design to symbolize the exhibit. Yes it’s awesome.

This is the exterior of the Bull and Finch Pub (Cheers).

This is the yellow flag that flies outside the Bull and Finch Pub to ensure everyone knows that they should enter.

It’s been a while.

I promised to myself that I would update this once a week or so, and the way that I would make sure to do that was to make sure to post on whatever fun activity the weekend held for me. Since the weekend is my chance to get out and explore, my weekends should be fairly busy and thus post topics would abound.

This plan fell through this past weekend, though, as halfway through my wanders around Boston rain seemed imminent. I started walking back home to try and escape the rain, but alas it was not to be and my journey ended completely soaked.

So nothing really interesting to report from MA this week, unless people are just dying for my reviews of some of the local restaurants or interested to know about the route I’ve been jogging lately. No offense, but I wouldn’t want to learn about those things from my friends so I won’t force those on unwilling readers.

So there it is. Not all of these can be masterpieces (or, for the more critical reader, not any can).