The Start of Another Night

 

So, tonight is another night of all-night studying, which has become a routine the past few weeks. I think we've all gotten to the point where we read stuff, and we feel like we know this, and we're not sure what's left to learn. Then we look at old tests and wonder why we never learned anything. 

Stats test was yesterday, and to say the least, it was BAD. That's just my analysis, it varies from door to door. Tomorrow is micro and macro, which I feel relatively confident about, but a lot of that has to do with my good grade on my last micro test. We'll see.

Back to the books.

Curious to know what we're working on:

Arrow Debreu Equilibrium

General Equilibrium Theory

Cournot Competition

Stackelberg Competition 

Externalities

Curious about my music selection for the night?
Elvis Presley - Maybelline

Fuzzy Math at Wendy's

So the funny thing about this photo is that they put someone actually paid attention in class. If you're relatively familiar with statistics, you know that 256 should seem a little low. Well, by MY MATH, and someone who did pay attention in math class,

There are 9 different items you can put on a hamburger (mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, cheese, and bacon), there are also 3 different size burgers (1, 2, or 3 patties)

That comes out to roughly 1,088,640 assuming you don't do anything crazy like no buns, double buns, ranch, etc.

It seems like Wendy's just did a simple on/off probability, but failed to consider all the different combinations that could be possible.

So It's Been a While...

Yes, it's been a while. A long, long while. A lot has happened, and a lot more hasn't happened. I promise to attempt to update this on a more regular basis. I'll try to mix it up with the following topics, we'll see if this works:

• Random Happenings - You wouldn't believe some of the crazy stuff that happens to me on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes it's not that interesting, but sometimes it's REALLY weird.
• Real-World Econ - So, I am in an econ PhD program, so my life REVOLVES around grad school and economics, which is primarily why I haven't updated this semester. Don't worry though, I'll pick things that are actually interesting
• Cool Findings - So if I try a new recipe or find a comic/site that I like, I'll post it on here so that everyone can see.

To Start:

So, it snows here A LOT! And I like it. I've only seen Texas Snow, which according to certain Northern friends back home, isn't real snow. I now know what they mean. It's really pretty, even though it's almost solid white. Also, it gets VERY cold. I'm actually starting to get annoyed with all the people back home complaining about it being cold. Trust me, people, you don't know what it's like:

 

As far as school goes, we're about done with our first semester, and it was ridiculously hard. Only two more weeks and I get a whole month off to prepare for our summer quals. I may be the only person in our group working on quals during the break, but I've been told that's one of the BEST ways to prepare for them. 

If anyone out there is actually curious about being in an econ grad school, you should DEFINITELY check out the Greg Mankiw blog. It helped me tons:

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

If you're IN grad school, there's a good letter to first year students about surviving. It's mainly for econ students, but I think it's pretty applicable to a lot of people in their first year of grad school:

http://law.vanderbilt.edu/academics/academic-programs/phd-program-in-law--economics/student-resources/download.aspx?id=3285

Texting and Driving

So, I know this is a very controversial issue in the U.S. right now, and I'm not quite sure why people make such a big deal about it. Turns out, in Washington, it is against the law to use your cell phone without a hands-free device. I was thinking about this the other day, as I was texting BELOW the dashboard, and I started thinking about the rationality and legality behind it.

First, they say it's EXTREMELY dangerous because you're not paying attention to the road when you should be. My thought behind this is, yea, so is eating while driving and putting make-up on while driving. Hell, I've even changed clothes while driving. All three of those activities take up more time and attention than a quick 150 character text message. I think police depts. should spend a little more time on more important driving infractions then texting

Second, how in the world did they get away with this? Seriously, the texting issue is really centered around drivers 16-24. I would argue that the primary users of texting are those 16-18 for the pure fact that my "generation" only really got into texting about 3-4 years ago. Hell, I just got an unlimited plan about 1 1/2 years ago. As it turns out, my age group (under 25), is the least likely to vote in any type of election, especially local elections.

So, they have effectively put a law in place that is aimed at fining a section of people who can't vote (16-17), and another group of people who have the lowest voter turnout in the nation (18-24). They've also chosen an infraction that is heavy in this area, while neglecting habits (like eating) that are experienced by a much wider range of people. They won't pass a law against those because those are the people that contribute to campaigns and vote.

Matrices and Apartments

This has been an interesting week, even though it's on Tuesday. I submitted the applications for an apartment complex next semester. One of my biggest requirements for the apartments was that it needed to be AT LEAST two bedrooms because I wanted to have an office/guest room for visitors. My whole life, I've had my bedroom as my bedroom-office-living room-(Somestimes)dining room. I'm tired of that and ready to be an "adult."

As far as my math progression, it's slowed up just a little bit, bu that's because I'm on Chapter 4: Matrices. It's been a while since I've really worked with matrices, so I'm trying to shake off some of the rust. I haven't watched any updates on my MIT Calculus, but that's becasue work has been a little busier than usual.

For my Stategic Management class, I've decided to do a strategic audit over Barnes & Noble. I originally started off with Subway, but they aren't publicly traded, so that makes it a little more difficult. So far, the company seems pretty interesting. I never realized the size of the store and all their business sectors. Should be fun!

Day 1 with Alpha Chiang

Yesterday I received 3 packages in the mail. Two of them I was very happy to see, but 1 of them was not too high on my excitement list. I received the second controller and TV adapter cord for my "new" super nintendo. The third package was Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics by Alpha C. Chiang. This book is so highly regarded in the PhD world of economics, that is simply referred to as "The Chiang Book." It's crazy how many times I've been asked if I've started working out of the Chiange book. So Chapters 1 & 2 weren't bad, especially since Chapter 1 was just 4 pages long! The only downside is that the text only gives selected answers to the problems, so now I'm on the hunt for a solutions manual.

I've also completed Lesson 18 today for MIT OpenCourseWare Single Variable Calculus. We talked about Definite Integrals today, nothing too fancy, yet. I'm crusing through this, and looking forward to moving onto Multi-variate calculs, followed by Linear Algebra. Why am I doing this to myself again? Oh yea, I want to teach.

I also got a letter today about orientation, and it's a week long event. I think that's one of the few things I'm looking forward to this summer. It also mentioned two other textbooks I should start reviewing. Oh, did I mentioned I still have a class left in my MBA program. Fun stuff.

Calculus and more Calculus

So it's been a while (4 months or so), but I finished my last full semester of the MBA program, and I'm one 10-week summer course away from having a 4.0 for the grad program. Prrrrrety exciting. I'm watching a calculus video on Differentials and antiderivatives, fun right? I'm spending this summer getting better at calculus so that when the fall starts, I won't be the worst student in my cohort. That would be bad.

In a few weeks, I'm going to order my graduation stuff so that I can start working on sending out graduation announcements before I leave. I'm trying to decide if I want to make my return address in Washington, just in case some people sent me money. I'm not sure yet. We'll see.

Checking in on 2009-2010 Goals

So from the last post, these are my goals

Score a 1400 on the GRE
Be accepted into 5 MS Econ Programs
Restart the MBA Association at SHSU
Graduate with a 4.0
Finish the SHSU MBA Program within 1 calendar year
Have Golden Key win the Sammy for Outstanding Academic Organization
Win another Individual Sammy award
Finish personal research

I'm not going to lie, I set a REALLY high bar for myself, and looking back on it, I feel kinda like I may have been entering senility early.

To start, I only scored a 1290 on the GRE, which is low, but pretty close to my goal. I busted my butt on the math, and sort of left the verbal behind.

I have been accepted into 1 PhD program so far, but I won't know about any of the rest until next month. I would say 1 PhD program is worth about 3 MS programs, so I'm half way there.

I have not been able to restart the MBA Association at Sam, but I have been named to another committee on campus, and that one requires A LOT of time!

The rest are all on track. So we'll see how the year ends.

More importantly though, I got engaged over the break, and that was a great accomplish that I hadn't planned on in the beginning of this year. So kudos to me!



And you can watch the video here:

My Proposal on YouTube