He's still a doctor

okay...this will be a short update because I'm on my iPod in the library so I can only stand this little keyboard for so long. This is basically another Edition of "Word to the Wise."

First:

If you don't undestand the material, it's not that the professor is dumb. Last time I checked, he has a doctor before his name and you do not. If you actually take some time to read BEFORE (gasp) class... I promise it will help you. It also doesn't hurt to put your phone up during class. Texting your BFF and telling them how hard the class is or telling them about the hottie next to you will NOT improve your comprhension of the material (go figure).

Second:

Damn I forgot #2 because it took so long to punch in #1. Maybe I'll remember later.

Why is this not Surprising

Record 2009 deficit - White House
White House blames economic slowdown and stimulus payments to 130 million households as budget deficit headed to nearly half-trillion dollars.

The next president will inherit a record budget deficit of $482 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate released Monday.

Read More...

Why is this not surprsing? Who would have thought....

Let's start with a deficit (Spending>Tax Revenue).

There's two real ways to fix this:
1)Reduce Spending
2)Raise Taxes

Pretty common sense right? Obviously not. What does the Government do?

1)Increase spending (Sending out all those rebate checks? Oh, praise them now for all that extra money. All they did was print those checks, not actually generate any funds to pay for it. Why do you think inflation is so high?)

2)Lower taxes. This is their backward attempt to fix the economy. Let's raise LESS money. It worked with Reagan in the 1980's with the Laffer Curve, but obviously if you hit that key tax rate that generates a lot of tax revenue... STOP LOWERING TAXES!

So kids, what have we learned today? If you're in debt, keep spending and quit your job! The government thinks it will work.

Price Stickiness & Menu Prices

Now I'll actually start my first relevant post about Economics and why it actually does matter to EVERYONE! Below is an example of Price Stickiness and Menu Prices. When the Price Level rises (inflation), sometimes it is just too expensive to change your prices. How to solve that problem? Look no further:




Read more:

http://consumerist.com/5027023/how-would-you-like-your-inflation-served




I did send this to Greg Mankiw in an attempt to have it posted to his blog. We'll see how that goes.

Reality Check

So, this is going to be a quick, short post. I'm in the Student Center eating lunch and there is an Orientation Student across the floor talking about how much of a "bad ass" (my interpretation) he is because he told the BearkatOne office that he was not going to smile. Here's news for all people, regardless of age/classification.

1)Don't piss off people who control the disbursement of your refunds.
2)Don't piss off people who are trying to help you

Look, let's settle things once and for all. You're not better than the student worker taking your picture. You are one of 3000 students that hasn't even started college yet. It doesn't matter how bad ass you were in High school, you're not nearly at that level here. The safest thing to do is adapt to your surroundings that way you don't piss off the school. Simple as that.

(Reality) Check please?

Word to the Wise

Well, today was a productive Economics-filled day. I received the results from my Macrotest today and it was an A. I made the second highest grade, but still not a 100. Oh well, maybe next time.

I overheard some girls behind me in Labor Economics complaining about how hard college is (who would have thought), so here's a word to the wise:

For future students:
Do not take the "easy teacher." I know this sounds like the opposite of all the logic that other collegiate friends, may tell you, but trust me. Too many times people search RateMyProfessor and MySpace Ratings searching for the easiest A possible. Here's the problem with that approach:

You normally learn squat from the "easy A teacher." And when you get into your 400-level Capstone class (google it if you don't know what that means), you will wish you had learned the material earlier.

Trust me, I'm guilty of taking the "easy teachers," but I refuse to take courses from said teachers for anything in my majors because of the fact that I want to learn something.

You are in college to LEARN, not to get out of class early. You are in college to gain EXPERIENCE, not text through the entire class. You are in college to CHALLENGE yourself, not hunt for the easiest professor. Finally, you are in college to EXCEL, not to scoot out with a 'D.' D is not for Diploma, it's for "Damn, I just wasted $40,000." Your job is not going to be easy when you graduate. It's not going to be filled with bosses who let you leave early everyday, but still pay you the same as others who work twice as hard. It's not going to be filled with bosses who allow you to do mediocre work and expect a pay check.

Your job is going to expect you to have:
LEARNED from college
EXPERIENCED different values & ideologies
CHALLENGED yourself to out perform others
EXCELED at your projects.

Soap box has been pushed back in the closet.

The Mac

It's official. This i my first blog post on my newest toy. My new Mac. I have not used a Mac since I was a child in elementary school. I also received my iPod Touch today which is pretty awesome by itself. All this technology hurts my head. I like it A LOT. I just finished transferring music and photos from my Compaq (via flashlight because the back light is out) to the Mac. As I'm writing this, the iPod is updating all my music.

Today I took two test, one in Macroeconomics, the other in Labor Economics. Both were relatively easy. Relative to other tests that is. They had their challenges, but nothing I wasn't expecting. We'll see tomorrow how they turn out.

Everyday I'm in class I listen to other student's conversations and prepare for the complaints from my future students when I begin my professorship. Some girls behind me complained that the professor wanted to lecture following his exam, all because 1 hour & 15 minutes is not enough to finish the test. How sad? Dr. Balderas has already postponed the test 4 days. And that's 4 summer school days which is 3/4 of a month in a long semester. How dare he try to catch up by teaching after a test (whatever!).

Sometimes I wish my professors were more strict and did things they way they wanted to. I wish that they wouldn't always give a curve because the class (as a whole) fails, even though there are people that make a 100 (take a wild guess who). I enjoy the curve just as much as other students, but really. Nothing in life is free. The boss isn't going to say... "Well, you only finished 3/4 of what I asked you to do, I'll let you slide this time. Congratulations."

I'm in the Newspaper

Coolness. Every now and then I like to read my hometown newspaper to see what pops up. I also occasionally "google" my name to see if anything pops up. This was kind of a combo of the two:

Beaumont Enterprise (June 30, 2008)

Sam Houston honor roll

Several area students have been named to the Presidential Honor Roll at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Making the list for the spring 2008 semester are seniors: Kayla Leanne Barlow of Lumberton, academic studies; Meagan F. Goldsmith of Silsbee, criminal justice; Ashton Mouton of Lumberton, English; and Jadrian J. Wooten of Lumberton, management. The Sam Houston State President's Honor Roll is for full-time undergraduate students having a perfect grade-point average of 4.0 for the semester.

The only other things I found were from SHSU's Today@Sam where it listed inductees to Alpha Chi and also some old links from when I played High School football. Oh, and also my name is on the SHSU Hall Council website under Vice-President of Spivey House. It also listed some stuff about Dean's list, President's list and Intramural soccer.

Relatively unimpressive. Maybe next month.

My Future in Economics

Okay. I want to be an Economics Professor. Plain and simple, no ifs, ands, or butts. I would also like to do some consulting work, as well as be an Economic Adviser for the government/President. There is only a few minor problems that I can see arising:

1. I'm relatively good at math, but not nearly experienced enough to work through graduate level/doctoral level.
2. I would love to get my MBA first and foremost, but I haven't taken the GMAT or the GRE.
3. I'm not so hot with Macroeconomics. I'm not sure why, it's always been a problem.
4. I haven't done any undergraduate research, which most doctoral programs like to see.
   

So, to solve these dilemmas, I'm reading a book on Economics research methods that discusses basic data analysis, univariate statistics, bivariate analysis, and mulitvariate analysis. Hopefull this will help me brush up on the statistics side of my math deficiency.

I'm also taking the GMAT and GRE in August. I've been studying for the GMAT for about 3 weeks now, but I haven't started the GRE study material yet. Lot's of work ahead.

I'm taking an Intermediate Macroeconomics curently for Summer II. I want to read the entire textbook, cover to back. For my Economics electve, I'm going to try and find a specialized section that focuses more on the Macro side, perhaps International Economics or Monetary Economics.

I have a few ideas for research, but I just don't know how to go about starting it. I'm going to talk to one of my professors and see what he thinks I can do. I've also discussed being a reaseach assistant during my MBA year.

Oh the stress associated with school.

So I'm an Introvert

I think it's relatively accurate.

1) I can't stand when people talk. Mainly because the majority of stuff that spews out of that mouth is so far from a coherent thought. I think people talk just to hear themselves talk, sadly, it's only interesting because of the lack of intelligence behind their thought.

2) Also, I like to think before I do stuff, mainly because I don't want to regret muttering a stupid remark (refer to point 1)

3) I just like internet comics =)

This Isn't the First Day of Being an Overachiever

o·ver·a·chieve

intr.v. o·ver·a·chieved, o·ver·a·chiev·ing, o·ver·a·chieves

To perform better or achieve more success than expected.

So, this is definitely not the first day that I've realized I'm an overachiever. I think I might have realized this when I was a freshman in college. The only reason I recognized my "disorder" is because I wasn't involved in any activities my freshman year. You may hear me refer to being an overachiever as a disorder, but in truth, occasionally I see it as valuable, while other times I see it as a disorder, but I digress:

Just a brief list of activities in High School:
Debate (3 years), Public Speaking (3 years), Computer Applications (1 year), Football (4 years), Soccer (3 years), Track (1 year), Student Council (3 years), National Honor Society (2 years), Spanish Club (1 year). I also took AP classes all four years of HS and worked a steady part time job on the weekends and after football practice for 2.5 years. And I was officers in the majority of the clubs. And had different girlfriends for various lengths of time.

Needless to say, I had a rather full resume. I'm a classic overachiever in the sense. I do too much with too little time. So I took a little hiatus, a sabbatical if you will. I dropped out of different activities and just stuck with work. But now, oh nay nay. And here's the college list, it's a combination of last year and this upcoming year (assuming my position will remain unchanged):

Honors Students Advisory Council Vice President
Spivey House Council Vice President
Alpha Chi Honor Society Member
Golden Keys International Honour Society
Campus Caller (job)
Economics and Business Analysis tutor (job)

So it doesn't look that full (it really is), but I'm also considering:

Orange Keys (SHSU Ambassadors)
College of Business Ambassadors
Student Regency (for 2009)

Annnd... i've made the Dean's List (>3.5) every semester and the President's List (4.0) for the past year and a half. I have a 3.89 GPA and I will literally freak out if I get another B. Oh, school wise... I'm a double major in Economics and Management with a minor in Entrepreneurship. I want to get my MBA after I graduate and then proceed to get my Doctorate in Economics.

I know, I go way overboard way too often. Enough about me for one day. This is just the start of my crazy overachieving life.