Academics vs. Beer

Being a full-time worker bee, a part-time grad student, a friendly socializer, and a doer of a hodgepodge of other things (gym goer, volunteerer, etc) I face time constraints in life.

The hodgepodge always is the first to get axed from my schedule.

Work can't really get axed, with the exception of taking a couple hours off now and then. I like making money and having a job.

So the two variables here that I value are school and socializing. Socializing generally involves alcohol. This leads to the epic, ongoing, and longstanding conflict of academics vs. beer.

I was sad today because my awesome ex-supervisor (he retired in July) set up a happy hour. I thought about going before class, because it was feasible, but in the end decided to be responsible since I had a HUGE presentation.

School won the battle tonight.

But not the war.

PHD?

I think I'm gonna switch from Masters to Phd! There are lots of things that annoy me about my grad program, but I can do it cheaply and with relative quickness and ease...I'm excited because I like classes. Not psyched about the dissertation.

Random and Minor Things that are Pissing Me Off

1) The Favre Cam is stupid. You've got to be kidding me.

2) MS Word's equation editor is the most pointless thing I have ever encountered in my entire life. AND it is compatible with nothing, not even previous versions of itself.

3) My room is messy. It's cold. It's now dark as well, thanks to Daylight Savings Time.

4) There's a guy in one of my classes whose wife recently had a kid and apparently his sense of humor has gone the way of his free time, because he seemed offended when I jokingly asked how the spawn was doing. And he gets all "won't somebody think of the children"?!?! Dude for as libertarian as you are, and for how much you want to screw poor people, I'm surprised by your newfound empathy toward society's least productive people.

5) There's a really annoying person in another one of my classes. She seems to think the teacher is speaking directly to her and says "mm hmm, yeah, ohhh right" as he is lecturing. She also cuts people off when they're speaking because her interesting and unique viewpoint MUST be heard.

6) My fantasy football team sucks and I want to cry.

7) This is NOT pissing me off--My Life Is Average is the best waste of time. It's hilarious.

Busy Bee

Grad School + Full Time Job = Dark Circles

I needz a nap.

Fortunately, the forecast calls for cold wind and rain all weekend (WTF, it's only October 16, it should NOT be 40 degrees). So I won't be itching to go play outside, at least, and I'll crack down and get my work done.

That's the plan anyway.

owwww

So, I guess I have bad ankles. I've always been clumsy, but it's started to dawn on me that sometimes, my ankles give out for no apparent reason.

So I hurt it again the other day playing ultimate. of course, it's stupid to play ultimate frisbee, about 4 weeks after a very bad sprain--where pain and swelling are still present--without a brace, and wearing running shoes--in other words, no cleat-spikes to keep me from slipping, and no ankle support to keep me from twisting.

I've injured the same ankle over and over again, since high school. It sucks, because you don't build up a resistance or anything. You just get more injury prone! This is lame.

I was incredibly petulant in high school, as were a number of girls on my team. I refused to wear tennis shoes--which have ankle support, and instead wore running shoes, mainly because I had running shoes and didn't want to cough up another $75. so I hurt myself a few times--the first wasn't bad, the second I was sidelined for a month.

What happened in my bad injury about a month ago--the one that still hadn't healed when I decided to test my limits--was I got semi-drunk and stepped off a curb. Mother f-er!

Zen and economics

So, I was looking over some old notes about bubbles from a previous class.

My notes said:

p(1-π) --> P(t+1) collapses to zero

I read my bad handwriting as:

p(1-π) --> P(t+1) collapses to zen


Basically this is the probability that the bubble associated with a certain asset (stock share, beanie baby, tulip, housing) will burst in the next time period.

Imagine if instead of the housing bubble bursting in 2007, it had just gone to zen. I like my way better.

The Opposite of Fun

Work clothes are boring. I get excited on days when I wear my bright yellow shirt because it's about as wild as I can get. That's depressing. One of the few things I miss about my old job was that we could wear ripped up jeans, flip flops, shorts, anything, and people looked at you strangely if you wore so much as a collared shirt.

I have such fond memories of getting onto the metro wearing jeans and a t-shirt and seeing all of the other worker bees wearing skirts and structured jackets, and thinking, HAHA SUCKERS.

I work for the government. Things are rather formal, and although the government is making a huge effort to get all up with the web 2.0 (the Interior Department has a twitter account, the State Department has a Flickr page), the dress code has not changed and likely never will.

I just wish I didn't have to iron.