So it's been a While... Part Deux

Yea, so much for that idea of  updating my blog at least once a week =/ Sorry about that. I had the best intentions of doing that, but life just got in the way. If you're reading this because you want to know how my life is going, then, I would suggest talking to me on the phone, or even Facebook, because I would probably like to talk to you as well. I've come to the realization that if it wasn't for Facebook, I wouldn't know about 95% of my "friends." My closest friends, however, I do chat with on a regular basis, so I still know about them, but the rest... I wish I could talk to more.

If I've learned one thing about Grad School, it's how to balance life. Yea, I've learned about Hamiltonians, positive definite matrices, gamma family of distributions, and consumer theory, but those haven't really impacted my day-to-day life. What I've really learned is how to balance my time with school, personal time, friends, and relationships. That's been the biggest challenge for me since moving to Washington. I've always been go, go, go and find time for myself in-between everything else. Only now am I physically saying "No" to work in place of personal time with friends. It's made my life SOOOOOO much better. If you ever feel like you don't have time for friends, then you really do need to just stop everything you're doing and take a break. Trust me, you'll come back to your work more motivated, more productive, and in an overall better mood. I guarantee it.

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.