Economics is consuming my life.

April 2, 2003

I had a pretty good day yesterday, at least for a Tuesday. I actually slept in until about 10 AM, which was abnormal for me, so I was well-rested, and then despite having three hours of class, I had a pretty good time. The weather was really nice yesterday, getting up to be about 75 degrees and sunny, so I wore shorts when I went to my first class at noon. As I was walking to class, I saw people walking back with long pants, long sleeved shirts, and coats. One guy even had a stocking cap on. I was wondering whether either everyone else was really overdressed or I was really underdressed. I decided on the latter since it got to be so hot yesterday. For my first hour of class, we were indoors talking about Angola and South Africa in my African Politics class–with the lights off and the blinds and windows open. That was fantastic. Teachers always turn on those damned overhead lights that make me think of being at the dentist and always make me sleepy, but Beth had just been to see the eye doctor, and her pupils were still dilated, so she wanted more darkness than light. Good thing number one. The first hour of my senior seminar in Economics was really boring as we just watched a couple of videos, but the second hour we went outside and sat in the sun for a discussion. Good thing number two. The weather held all day, thankfully, so right after class I went back to my room, grabbed my folding chair and some beer, and I went out into the quad and downed a couple of beers before dinner. Good thing number three. Not just any beer, either. I found that Everett’s, the local liquor store, sells some really nice beers that I hadn’t noticed before, so in addition to my Newcastle Brown Ale that I’ve grown to love in the last few months, I also had a pint of Samuel Smith’s Old Brewery Pale Ale (thanks Dad!). Three of my friends were outside sitting on the steps on Chapin, and they said when I came out they had wondered how long it would be before I came outside with my chair and a beer. I didn’t think I was THAT predictable. As I sat outside in the sun with a couple of my friends around me, I commented that I could really go for a pizza right then. I hadn’t had pizza in a long time, and it just sounded good. One of my friends works in Commons, and she said that pizza was being served for dinner that night. Good thing number four. It was pretty bad pizza, but I just wanted the taste. I would have ordered a Papa John’s pizza, but I made do with what I had access to for free. Well, already paid for so therefore free.

And that was my good day. I had my Quant presentation on Monday that I prepared for all last week with my group. If I didn’t explain it earlier, it’s a court case, where the class was divided into two teams, the plaintiffs and the defendants, and we would both take the same set of data and try and make a case. The data related to wages and other factors in a fictional company, and the plaintiffs were asserting that the defendant was practicing wage discrimination by giving men higher salaries than women. As the defense, we had to make our case that there are other mitigating factors. We worked on the data and presentation all last week, meeting for nearly ten hours over the weekend, but we finally got it out of the way on Monday. I actually did really horribly on the section of our presentation that I had to present, but I think I did a fantastic job acting as a witness, the HR director for the fictional company. My responsibility last week was to write the personnel manual for the company outlining our policies, so it was only natural that I was called as the HR director. I actually pretty much copied the personnel manual from someone who had this same class either last term or last year, although that’s not as bad as it sounds. They copied it from someone else, who copied it from someone else, so basically the same manual has been floating around Quant for years. That’s pretty much how all the things work in that class, but it’s not plagarism since we have to plagarize in the first place from a real personnel manual to get proper wording. In any case, I changed enough of the language to be my own that I was comfortable doing it. I was particularly proud of what I wrote for the mission statement of the company: “Papa Bell, Inc. strives to provide reliable, affordable, efficient, and progressive 21st-century telecommunications services and equipment to all its customers by engineering best-of-breed networks and embracing customized architectures while maintaining a rich and rewarding work environment for all its employees.” Kind of a long sentence, but I think it crams enough corporate lingo in there to sound just right. I just wish I’d used the word “leverage” somewhere in there. We went back to class today, dressed up in our suits and business attire again, and the judges rendered their decision. They sided with us, so the defense won. Huzzah!

That’s not the last of the work, alas. I have a Quant test on Friday, the 2nd draft of my independent project due on Monday, a class-long presentation (with a group, not by myself) on Tuesday, an exam soon after that, plus another paper for African Politics, then a research paper for the same class, and finally, my client project for Quant (like the court case, but by myself instead of with a group) and the final draft of my final paper for Econ senior seminar. And I believe that’s all I have to do. That’s what’s left of college. That’s still a lot of work, but manageable, hopefully. I have no finals, either, so when classes end, I’m done until graduation, which is about ten days after that, so I have ten days of doing literally nothing. Good deal, if you ask me.

My plans for the rest of the day and week include laundry today, perhaps even doing my dishes that have been piled up since Friday, and some general room picking up. I may go back outside today while I wait for my laundry, but I doubt I’ll have as much beer as I did yesterday. It wasn’t a LOT, but I only had one big bottle of the Samuel Smith Ale, so I’d just be drinking 12 oz. bottles if I went out today. And then of course, “West Wing” tonight. New one, too. Oh right, and maybe I should do some of the work that’s coming up. I guess I’ll have to see about that.

There’s been an idea that I’ve been tossing around in my head for the last week or so, and I’d like to get your input on it. I’m thinking of stopping sending out email notices when I update my website, and leaving it up to my readers (all three of you) to come on your own to read any updates. I keep thing pretty well organized, plus I have a fairly regular update schedule, and it’s worked for a couple of people who aren’t on my email update list but manage to read all my new entries, anyhow. Maybe in the future I’ll create a mailing list that you can subscribe and unsubscribe to without my intervention, but I’d like to get your input on the emails and you having to check on your own. Yay or nay? Let me know. On that note, I will take my leave. Have a good day everyone. Try and get some sun if it’s nice where you are, as I’ll definitely be doing that here this afternoon. Cheers.

People say that the only printed shirts I have are geeky. What would this be considered to be?