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