2manychefs

2010-12-26T00:03:00.000-05:00

I posted this on Bukisa as an experiment, find it here.

Note: this is just for Free Agent portion of the draft. I would not presume to touch the prospect portion, I know nothing about that!

General thoughts on drafting catchers: I think that people overpay for catchers because of the concept of “positional scarcity” in that there are only a few catchers that will really help a fantasy team.
Other than a player like Joe Mauer, I tend to discount the importance of catchers for a few reasons: first, they play fewer games than other players, and therefore have less overall production. Second, because of the demands of their position, they seem to be larger injury risks. This second point is only more true in a dynasty league. You don’t want to draft a player like Russell Martin when you’re not sure he can stay on the field year in-year out.

It’s good to have a steady catcher that you can put in your lineup and get 5 starts a week, but I tend to try and let other managers overpay for the catchers. Just last year, you had a breakout season by John Buck, mid-season callups in Buster Posey and Carlos Santana, and big-time flops like Matt Wieters. My advice: if you can get a steady guy, do it, but don’t overpay at the catcher position.

Rankings:

1) Joe Mauer (MIN) (27): What can you say? The guy is a monster, and will be for years to come. No-brainer, and potentially worth a first-round pick even though he was in the single digits for home runs last year.
2) Brian McCann (ATL) (26): The only fearsome hitter left in the Braves’ lineup, a consistent power threat. Should be an all-star for years to come, but this is the type of guy that it’s easy to overpay for.
3) Buster Posey (SF) (23): I’m high on Buster Posey after a successful rookie campaign. He showed he can hit at the big league level, and also qualifies at 1B. But will he stick at C longterm?
4) Carlos Santana (CLE) (24): In the same league as Posey, but with less of a track record because of his season-ending knee surgery. Cleveland will probably be less of an offensive force, but you probably want to pick this guy up while you can.
5) Victor Martinez (DET) (32): Pure hitter that has a beautiful swing. But falls more in the veteran category and may not stick at C for long due to poor CS% rates. More present value than Posey or Santana, but who would you rather have after the season?
6) Geovany Soto (CHN) (27): Koyie Hill was starting over Soto for some time this past season, which is inexplicable because of the consistently helpful offensive numbers that he put up in 2010. Could be a bit of a question mark as he seems to mix very good seasons with mediocre ones, but young enough and strong enough to fit in here.
7) Miguel Montero (ARI) (27): Sneaky good pick last year as he really came on in the second half of the 2009 season. It’s really a shame that he missed so much time last season, but still has solid value going forward.
8) Matt Wieters (BAL) (24): Do you believe the hype? Will he ever have that breakout season? His numbers last year were pretty poor, so he’s due for some improvement, or even post-hype sleeper breakout. I’d be happy if I landed him in a keeper league, but I would rate him as more risky than any of the other players rated higher.
9) Mike Napoli (LAA) (29): Last year’s HR leader for catchers would be ranked higher, except for two things: his low BA and the potential that he’ll lose at-bats because of the return of Kendry Morales. Also another risk to stick at the C position.
10) Russell Martin (NYY) (27): An intriguing buy-low candidate after two sub-par and injury riddled seasons. Will benefit from playing in Yankees’ lineup, but it’s difficult to know what to expect after so much time away. Certainly we can’t expect the same SB totals as before (18 in ’08).
11) John Buck (FLA) (30): Solid season in Toronto landed him a multi-year contract with the Marlins. I’m not sold on his value going forward, needs more success to move up in the rankings, but could provide good value late in drafts.
12) Carlos Ruiz (PHI) (31): Unsung hero of the Phillies, but can’t be counted on for more seasons like 2010. Seems to be becoming a better hitter as he ages though, so he probably has a few useful seasons left.
13) Ryan Doumit (PIT) (29): Could be due for an upswing in production, but could also be due for permanent move to the OF with Chris Snyder in town.
14) Kurt Suzuki (OAK) (27): Numbers not that great, but is still only 27 and hit 10+ homeruns the last two seasons.
15) Chris Iannetta (COL) (27): Always been on the cusp, and still just 27. Worth picking up if only for the increased production of Colorado batters.
16) Jared Saltalamacchia (BOS) (25): Will he ever live up to potential? It’s a gamble, but a shot at the starting job in Boston is very valuable.
17) Jorge Posada (NYY) (39): Addition of Russell Martin shows that Yankees don’t have much confidence in him long-term. Could be a one season C rental, but can still swing the bat.
18) Miguel Olivo (SEA) (32): An effective season, but on the wrong side of 30, and won’t be playing at Coors Field.
19) Chris Snyder (PIT) (29): Surprising production in the place of Montero, but how much does he have left? And the BA (.201) is not helping.
20) John Jaso (TB) (27): Intriguing player that could be useful stopgap if you’ve missed on everyone else above.
21) Josh Thole (NYM) (24): The Mets think this guy is a starter. That’s not saying much on that team but at this point he could be a good player to stash.
22) Yorvit Torrealba (TEX) (32): Decent performer but shouldn’t be counted on for more than 2-3 years of average production.
23) Ramon Hernandez (CIN) (34): If you must.
24) Yadier Molina (STL) (28): More valuable in real life. Poor fantasy production that probably isn’t getting any better.
25) Tyler Flowers (CWS) (24): Catcher of the future for the White Sox?
26) Wilson Ramos (WAS) (23): Hyped prospect came to the Capitals in the Matt Capps deal… but is he still valued as highly? Still behind Ivan Rodriguez this year.

2010-06-01T09:54:00.002-04:00

"Both were viewed by their contemporaries as sweet-natured, disorganized, bright but lacking obvious direction - the kind of guys who might turn up at their fifteenth high school reunions with surprising facial hair and a complicated life story."

-- Michael Lewis, describing characters in The Big Short

My word, if that doesn't describe me nearly perfectly.....

My Thesis - Wordle

2009-05-26T11:19:00.001-04:00

Decided to plug that thesis into Wordle, and see what came out. It's a hundred pages long.

A lot of talk about weather risk, apparently.

My New Toy

2009-05-15T19:55:00.001-04:00

My jog on the Garmin Forerunner 305

This video...

2009-04-18T23:35:00.001-04:00

... was seared into my memory in the early 90s.. good to see it again...

As part of Cracked magazine's feature, 9 Corporate Attempts At "Edgy" That Failed (Hilariously)

$1100 for playing softball?

2009-04-05T14:59:00.001-04:00

Seriously, who has that kind of money? For playing in a softball league? This city is insane...

http://www.centralparksoftball.com/

Oops

2009-03-31T14:28:00.001-04:00

Oh crap, forgot to post link to the Kolb Cup...

http://thekolbcup.blogspot.com

The Kolb Cup

2009-03-29T17:43:00.002-04:00

Kind of a random, dumb idea... that I had a lot of fun with...

Our fantasy baseball league has had the same guys in it for like 5 years, and we don't play for money, so someone had the idea of a trophy-like thing that would go to the winner. Well, I did the next best thing and created a trophy itself.

I wanted to put a baseball on the top. Since everyone would never agree to one good player that we could all respect (and the fact that baseball heroes have been strangely unreliable in their substance use the last few years), it's much better to go with a player that we can all make fun of.

Genesis of the story is that in our first year, this guy Dan Kolb was supposed to be awesome, but stank it up pretty good and was pretty much out of the league within a year or two. And it wasn't just that he was bad, but he'd wait until the very last minute, the last game on Sunday night, to ruin your entire week. And this happened to enough people that a phrase was born - "Kolbed".

Anyway, it's dorky and funny, and I don't feel as if I get to creat things often. (Material things anyway, I'm a programmer!) So I'm looking for the next project, etc. This art thing is fun!

Roommates

2009-03-16T21:20:00.003-04:00

I'm in this weird living situation. When I moved here to Manhattan, I definitely wanted to get a one-bedroom or a studio, having learned the lesson countless times before that random roommates are a pure gamble. And that's the case - I don't ever want to share space with anyone ever again that I'm not already good friends with. Not that I consider myself tough to live with, but rather the opposite... I think that I tend to be considerate and respectful, and other people usually aren't.

Unfortunately, I was in for a little bit of sticker shock while searching for apartments in Manhattan - not only were they overpriced and tiny, but the real estate agent would often require a fee of 10% of the yearly rent. It's enough to make a $1200/month apartment go for something like $1400/month. (And strangely enough, by their pricing scheme and my income they calculated that I could afford a $1200/month apartment. Apparently they don't know about my student loans!)

Yeah so I got a place off of Craigslist close to the university, where I catch the shuttle every morning. It's a sweaty little box of a room, barely big enough for a queen-size bed. It's 4 figures, but barely so.

Yeah and I've got one of those random roommates that turns out to be inconsiderate, go figure. Case in point: he moved two cats in the apartment without telling the landlord. And now his girlfriend is sort of moved in? Come on, it's cramped already! And other things, like going through a room full of belongings that don't belong to him. One of these MBA types, taught to be aggressive from day one, and probably a little spoiled to boot.

Well, I just got off the phone with the person who is renting us the apartment, and she's not too happy about the arrangement at all. She's actually coming tomorrow to check things out for the first time since I moved in 2.5 months ago. Should be interesting.

Thought I'll end on: kind of sucks to tell someone to be more considerate.

This news...

2009-03-11T22:43:00.003-04:00

...just reminds me why I'm keeping my old cell phones for posterity, to show my kids or something. Granted, I've only had two so far, but they show their age pretty quickly. It'll be the old dinosaur museum, or like my parents with their box full of Polaroid instant cameras.

Charging batteries in 10-20 minutes???

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090311/tc_nm/us_batteries_3

The Cost of Living

2009-02-22T16:14:00.002-05:00

It's been about a month, so I'm still formulating thoughts on living in Manhattan, but one thing that stands out is how obscenely expensive everything is.

For one quick example, a 10oz box of Cheerios goes for $4.59 at the local chain drug store. What's that you say? Don't shop for groceries at the drug store? Well, at the local grocery store two blocks away the same box was $6.59. Amazing.

I made sure to look last time I was up in Ithaca; they charged $2.89 up there - quite a markup!

Jimmy Fallon!?!?!?!?

2009-02-21T13:27:00.001-05:00

I have been meaning to break my blog silence now that things are calming down a little, with the new job and move and everything. This does it, it's really beyond the pale.

When your favorite hip-hop artists, Philly's own Roots, agree to become the house band for Jimmy Freakin' Fallon's late night NBC show.... why, that smacks of betrayal. What the fuck?

http://www.highlineballroom.com/bio.php?id=850

Whoa

2008-12-16T13:57:00.002-05:00

I still have a blog? Whoa.

Yeah, well not too much to talk about lately. But I opened up the local newspaper and got a little surprise today.

When I first got here to Ithaca, over two years ago, I did a little to try and improve my social life. There was this one girl, B., a Mexican-American lass who was a friend of a friend. A PhD student who was studying Anthropology or Spanish Literature or something. Kind of a chunky girl with an enormous head, very nice but I didn't feel an incredible connection.

We all went speed-dating together, and although I wasn't particularly interested in her I picked her afterwards because after all we had arrived there together, right? That led to having dinner together at a Chinese restaurant downtown one night early into my first year. Sadly, the potentially interesting romantic details more or less end there - I kind of lost touch with her, and so did our mutual friend. I wasn't into her, and she seemed far more interested in finding a boyfriend than having friends and hanging out.

Well, in a completely inconsequential revelation today, she appeared in the local free paper. It was the section where they ask questions of people on the street. The question was "What is the greatest gift you've ever given?" And her answer was "I had my baby just before Christmas last year." Whoa.

Strange how people's lives diverge when left to their own devices. And I had no one to tell this little meaningless story, so it appears here....

Moving to NYC

2008-12-03T15:04:00.003-05:00

It's not a done deal yet, but it looks like I'm moving to NYC in the next month or so....

Gold Rush & The Big Gamble

2008-11-20T11:45:00.003-05:00

So, in thinking about my options, if nothing pans out in the next few weeks, then I need to start thinking about the next step. As in, where I'm going to live. (I realize that I don't always post about momentous occasions in my life but I am no longer couch-surfing...)

So I went to look at Craigslist/DC for a spring sublet - I figure 4 months is enough time to figure out a job & another place to stay down there... and it seems as if everyone wants to rent their apartment out for inauguration weekend! My brother has even been talking about it, word on the street is that there are 4 million people expected to descend on the city for the event, and everyone wants a piece of the action. James wanted to rent his 3-br apartment for $6000 or so for a four day weekend - not a bad haul. Everyone else, unfortunately, seems to have the same idea....

Minor League Baseball

2008-11-19T11:41:00.002-05:00

I was just killing some time, looking into minor league baseball around here - there's a short season A league in the area called the New York-Penn League. Get this - the city of Auburn has a team named the Doubledays. The Auburn Doubledays! How clever!

Reminds me of my post about the Worcester Ruby Legs, who were NOT actually an ancestor of my beloved Phillies - the confusion comes about because the WRL's spot in the league was taken up by the Philadelphia Quakers the season after they folded, but there's no actual relation there.

That said, I think the concept of the "Worcester Ruby Legs" has some, er, legs itself. Maybe some of my more artistically inclined friends would be interested in producing some t-shirts? Brian? Take a look at this guy from the Ruby Legs - he needs a logo on his t-shirt....

A small pet peeve of mine

2008-11-17T19:07:00.002-05:00

One English teacher I had in high school chastised me for using the word "evidence" as a verb. It's strange - if something is evident, it can be evidenced? What if it really is evidence, like for a crime?

It's grammatically correct, but lazy, like trying to use a more sophisticated word when you could just use the word "show".

From Yahoo! Sports today:

The Warriors could have a promising young nucleus, further evidenced by Saturday’s 37-point performance from undrafted rookie Anthony Morrow.

Every time I see the word conjugated it takes me back to those red-pen-in-the-margin days. Don't do it, people!

Front Page of The NY Times

2008-11-14T15:28:00.002-05:00

Or their website anyway. If anyone wants to know anything about Ithaca, here's the real estate guide...

Astonishing Fact

2008-11-13T13:39:00.001-05:00

From the BBC:

A recent study by computer scientists... found that spammers manage to turn a profit despite only getting one response to every 12.5 million emails they send.

The response rate is that high?

Obama's win

2008-11-05T08:28:00.002-05:00

I'll leave it to others to describe the historic nature of Obama's win, or how excited nearly everyone seems to be at the prospect of our new President-Elect. But I saw a story in the Washington Post about the reaction in Kenya that tickled my fancy:

"It's like a miracle," he said, confessing to a cynicism that seemed to vanish with Obama's victory. "There was that doubt that with black-white relations in America, a black man could not be elected. But he was," said Odihiambo, a government worker who drew a parallel that many here did, between overcoming racism in the U.S. and rising above tribalism, the bane of Kenyan society. "If America can elect a black man, then why can't Kenya shun tribalism and elect anyone, regardless of tribe?"

Also:

"It is time for a younger generation," said Stanley, who lives day-to-day selling vegetables in Kogelo, quotes Martin Luther King Jr. and Lincoln, and has tentative political ambitions himself. "This is an inspiration to all young people we can see that America is a country of many tribes -- you have Germans, British, French, Africans. . . I see that America can only be great if they all come together."

It's all starting to sink in....

Worcester Ruby Legs

2008-10-31T13:32:00.001-04:00

ok, so i can't go to the parade today, and i was watching it streaming live on the internet, so i had to at least chip this in:

Cole on Letterman last night.

Read the Top 10-
10. "Maybe I'll get to be on 'Dancing With The Stars.'"

9. "Can I wear my cup in the offseason?" (Letterman: "Well, sure, you know I'm wearing one right now.")

8. "The Rays collapsed faster than my 401(k)." Hamels then improvised with an expressive "hi-yo" -- clearly making sure Evan Longoria et al know he's joking.

7. "How cool a name is Cole Hamels?"

6. "This must be how the Yankees used to feel." (Letterman: "Hey, wait a minute ...")

5. "Is the Phillie Phanatic hitting on my wife?" Hamels was referring to another former CBS personality, the former Heidi Strobel, who was a contestant on "Survivor: The Amazon."

4. "Seriously, how cool a name is Cole Hamels?"

3. "How can I celebrate when the nation's economic output is the weakest it's been since the third quarter of 2001?"

2. "I hope John McCain will start calling me 'Cole the pitcher.'"

1. "Now maybe I'll get to appear on Leno."

Thesis

2008-10-20T14:35:00.002-04:00

I kind of wish I failed, that might have been easier.

As it is, I have the sneaking suspicion that I may have solved the problem I set out to solve. I wrote it up as being a fruitless search, but I wonder if my advisors will see some interesting aspect of my work in the thesis defense and ask me to follow up on that obvious, promising lead that appears right towards the end.

In any case, if I want to publish the results somewhere, I'm probably going to have to do that. Crap.

Thesis defense

2008-10-11T01:09:00.003-04:00

1 am on a Friday night and I'm dorking it up again. Truthfully, I haven't been sleeping very well lately, as keyed up as I am about recent events.

I should explain: I finally set my thesis defense date - Oct. 29th. I was dragging things out before, exploring different avenues of research to make a more robust paper, but really I had no strong impetus for finishing. (Figuring out what I am going to do when I finish being an obvious concern.) So! It looks like I might have a job - a really, really cool job - down in NYC in a month or two. It's with a huge university research group with ties to the UN and World Bank. I'd be working on technical issues on the very same topic that my thesis is based on - weather index insurance - with a focus on programs in developing countries. In an odd coincidence, the one country with the most advanced technical project is ... Malawi.

So my degree and experience are just about perfect for the institute. In fact, no promises, but the director just told me that he was going to fund, create, and advertise a position with me in mind. He told me that he thought it "would be a real shame if they couldn't bring me on."

So I'm pretty psyched at the prospect of this job at such an amazing institution, and I've got some strong motivation for finishing things off. I was thinking that I had until the 29th to prepare the document in some sort of decent order for the presentation, but no - it's got to be in on the 22nd, to give the principals a chance to read it. So I've got 12 days to get everything together!

Global Financial Crisis

2008-10-10T13:43:00.002-04:00

This is something that I've been wondering about since the news hit the front pages, and it's nice (?) for someone to state their opinion so unequivocally:

Philip Stephens, in the Financial Times:

"For more than two centuries, the US and Europe have exercised an effortless economic, political and cultural hegemony. That era is ending."

Right, is this the collapse of the old Western order? Is it the dramatic event that will allow China and India to enter the world stage as major players? There's really no fundamental reason for US/European cultural domination - are we going to see a major shift in political and financial power in our lifetimes?

Everything Hits At Once

2008-10-09T23:31:00.001-04:00

Why do the ~~Worcester Ruby Legs~~ Phillies have to make a series run while I'm trying to finish my thesis?

2008-10-04T00:54:00.003-04:00

So I'm totally dorking it up tonight in the office - it's 1 am now, I'll be up until at least 3 running database updating procedures so that I don't have to do it later. I set my thesis defense date today - October 29th - so I've got a lot to do between now and then.

So I was taking a break and researching some new music when I came across the last.fm page for MGMT. They're some kind of band from Brooklyn that's good enough to be on tour with Beck, but that's about all I knew. Until I saw the shirt that the guy on the right was wearing. A supercollider shirt.

I had one of those shirts in high school.

I just knew I was cool.

Yay Phillies Worcester Ruby Legs!

2008-10-03T13:09:00.005-04:00

Obligatory baseball cheerleading post:

Phils beat back the Brew Crew last night for a 2-0 lead in a five game series.

The Phils are now odds-on favorites to take the World Series, at least according to one website. It's very early yet, but for one day at least, that's pretty awesome.

Update (4:45 pm): Turns out that the Phillies' original name was the Worcester Ruby Legs. I've never heard that one before....

I had an interesting day

2008-09-30T18:53:00.007-04:00

The high, from Columbia University:

Hi Michael,

I just wanted to update you on things. We are in the throes of
negotiating funding for positions. They are very likely, but we need to
finalize things a bit more before I can post something concrete. Ive been
pushing as hard as I can but these things take time. We're very
interested in your abilities and experience. Ill keep in touch with you
as things progress, but of course feel free to check in.

Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

The low, from a rejection of a publication: (this, from an invited paper)

Dear Dr. XXXXX:

I have now received two referee reports on your manuscript (MS#2008033), “Weather Risk
Management and the Measurement and Insurability of Plant Disease Risks.” This submission
was part of the 2008 NAREA Workshop. The referees are firmly recommending rejection, and I have therefore decided to reject the manuscript for publication in YYYY Journal.

The referee reports are detailed, and I hope you find them to be of value. One referee argued
that the approach was inadequate and that the paper cannot be enhanced to make a
conceptual contribution. A second referee found the methods to lack rigor and some
assumptions to be arbitrary. Both referees expressed serious concerns with the quality of the written presentation and the descriptions of the data and methods.

I regret that I am not able to give you a more favorable response, but I appreciate your interest in YYYY Journal.

Ouch.

My many houses

2008-09-29T17:40:00.001-04:00

[Insert your own John McCain joke here about not knowing how many houses I have...]

So for the first three weeks I stayed at my friend L.'s place while he was back home in Mexico. That worked pretty well, got to hang out with some of the other guys in the department for a couple weeks. This was in August, and everything was rather comfortable.

Then when L. got back, I went to stay with my friend M. and wife J... They rented an enormous seven-bedroom house that had illegally been turned into apartments by the owner, whose daughter and friends were the previous tenants. There's plenty of space, but it's zoned for a single family so I have to be all cloak and dagger about it. Like, if the landlord announces a visit for a house showing (it's on the market), I have to pick up everything and put it in the storeroom for the day. I don't know how I'd fill seven nights a week without this arrangement, it is a distraction, but one of the few things keeping me in town.

A few weeks ago M. had this guy who wanted to pay him to stay for a few weeks - I said he should do it, so that he could make some money because he wasn't charging me or anything. So I spent two weeks at my professor's house, which was awkward at first because he's basically my boss, but turned out ok because my prof is pretty cool and a bigger alcoholic than I am.* He bought a huge farmhouse north of town, expecting that his family would move down from Ontario. As it is now, there is a ton of space only filled by the cute but un-housetrained puppies that jump all over you and defecate all over the inside of the house. It was nice - lake view, huge porch, large flat-screen TV, peace and quiet that far out of town. That said, I was more comfortable staying with friends my own age than my prof., which bore too much resemblance to staying with my parents. But, yes, who do you think gets stuck dog-sitting when he's in Ontario for the weekend? Not John McCain, that's for sure.

So I've moved back into M.'s place, only interrupted by occasional dog-sitting duties and trips to the girlfriend's house. Friday night I spent the night on J.'s floor because all my other "houses" were inconvenient for one reason or another.... a landlord visit, horse surgery, smelly puppies, whatever.

I'm eating out nearly every meal because I don't really have anywhere to make food. I have no idea where anything I own is that isn't immediately in front of me, and my car is starting to smell like laundry since I'm basically living out of it. (Which is actually better than smelling like puppies, if you ask me.) The office space I've had at the university for the last two years is still mine only through the kindness of the administration. In fact, I lost my health insurance and access to all campus services because I'm technically "on leave" until I finish my thesis. Just last week I had to sign up for a PO Box to keep people like the car insurers happy, so I check my mail in a little metal box at the post office. I still need to update my car & voter registration at the DMV, which I didn't do before because I didn't have an address and didn't know how long I'd be in the state. Add to that - my previous landlord is trying to rip us off for our security deposit, so we might have to go to small-claims court soon. I keep wanting to just finish and get the hell out of here, but it hasn't happened yet.

On the plus side, I'm not paying any rent...

(*: Ok, in all honesty I've pretty much stopped drinking but this comment sounds much better if we ignore that :)

Damn

2008-09-26T15:34:00.002-04:00

Damn, my laptop power supply died yesterday and I didn't get a chance to post as usual. As I have been every day for the last year, I mean. So I had to pull a John McCain and suspend my blogging entries, but they are strangely back on this afternoon. Now is not the time for partisan blogging, we need to work together to make sure that ... uh, America is safer. Or something.

And let's not dispute that America may be unsafe - from parts of it, you can actually see Russia!

BREAKING: africaparting.com no longer exists

2008-09-24T13:17:00.004-04:00

SOME people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones! SOME people get nominated for awards for their movies and have fancy-dancy pages on IMDB! SOME people can't be bothered to update their websites with their fancy movies and let them expire! And then complain when this blog sucks*!

(And SOME people get their movies posted to YouTube with their name misspelled....)

Further update in tomorrow's daily entry....

(* Disclaimer: it really does kind of suck)

The blog/thesis relationship

2008-09-22T21:59:00.002-04:00

Blog posts and work on my thesis are inversely proportional, which is to say that as one increases, the other declines. The past month has seen an increasing amount of school work, and all my intellectual activity has gone into that. And you'll notice an increasing marginal relationship, which means as blog posts decline to extreme values, the amount of thesis work done increases exponentially. This is all very scientific.

Oh, and I raced 100 miles last Saturday. That's impressive. That would make for a good blog post!

Math teachers kick ass...

2008-09-18T17:12:00.000-04:00

I'm just sayin....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/09/18/ultimate.fighting.championship/index.html

My new (expensive) hobby

2008-08-11T23:12:00.002-04:00

Well, not so new, I suppose. But I had the good fortune to find a road bike at an estate sale last fall for $100 - a bike that probably retailed for over $1000. It's crazy what bikes cost, really, you could buy almost buy a car for that much.

Yeah so it needed a little maintenance. I had to get the pedals switched ($5) and a tire replaced ($30). It also needed a new pump ($40) for its high pressure tires. And I had to buy a rack for the back of my car ($140) because I can't get my two bikes (mtn & road) inside the car at the same time. And I got a new water bottle ($6) and grips for the mountain bike ($30), which also needed chain oil ($10). Oh, and a weird little battery ($5) for the tiny computer on the road bike.

I really don't want to become one of those guys who runs around in Spandex shorts and some kind of colorful, skintight shirt made of lightweight artificial fabrics. I hate those guys.

My next big purchase may be a tent, which could run me a couple hundred or so. In fact, my uncle was telling me how much it cost to rent a canoe for a wilderness trip up in the Adirondacks - $50 a day! It's amazing how much it costs to go outside these days......

Looking for a Job

2008-08-07T12:44:00.002-04:00

There are a lot of positions open out there for programmers, but in industries like healthcare. *groan*

UPDATE: Or marketing research *double groan*

Couch-Surfing: Week 1

2008-08-06T15:55:00.002-04:00

I am staying at the apartment of my former housemate, who is currently in Mexico. The deal was that I would clean & move everything from the last apartment and I could stay rent-free until he comes back. I'm not sure if it was worth it - last week was an exhausting four days of cleaning and moving, and dealing with landlords is always annoying. How nice it would have been to leave halfway through and someone else sort out all the details!

I don't know when he's coming back, or where I'm going to stay next, so I'm just trying to work hard to finish what I'm doing, first of all... and find a job, second of all. Ideally, I'll find a perfect fit professionally that would not only pay for me to move somewhere, but provide a profitable intellectual outlet for the next few years at least. I'm not sure what the chances of that are, though, and I'm not sure how patient I can be. I admit to having thoughts of just packing everything in my car and driving somewhere, like California. If I time it right, I could still catch some good weather in a nice locale...

Until then, I'm just hanging out on the porch of these nice people and desperately trying to get myself free of grad school!

If you want a conspiracy theory...

2008-08-01T12:38:00.002-04:00

The government behind 9/11? I don't buy it, they're just too incompetent. But if you want to read about shadiness in the government, check out Glenn Greenwald's blog entry today. (He's a great writer, makes a lot of the points that others don't.)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html

Preparing to couch-hop

2008-07-30T00:27:00.005-04:00

One drawback (?) of this couch-hopping comes in casual conversation. Everyone from the landlord to the cashier at the supermarket: Moving out? Where are you moving to?

Uh, someone's couch?

But let's be honest - free from the tyranny of a lease? That's awesome.

Speaking of homeless...

2008-07-28T22:34:00.002-04:00

The Story of Dustin, or Why Not to Do Drugs

As Brian mentioned in previous comments.

We lost one along the way. Dustin went insane, literally insane, about 10 years ago and now receives checks from the government every month. Working on his rap music, often at odds with his family, got back from Australia a few months ago and is sleeping in the woods behind our old development. Guess it's easier to sleep outside in Canberra over the winter months, Pennsylvania is only palatable this time of year.

Rapping at local shows under the pseudonym "Professor Anarchy" when he can, partying and staying high on whatever.

Anarchy, indeed.

My brother, James, is a little jealous of Dustin's ability to live outside the lines, quoted a line from Jack Kerouac. Better than domestic sterility, for sure, but probably not the best idea for long-term health, mental or physical. I pointed out that Kerouac died at 37, how long will Dustin last living out in the woods, living off crazy money and handouts?

He showed up at my parents' house last night under the pretext of getting cell numbers for James and I. They offered a Coke and called me so I could talk to Dustin. I talked to him for a couple minutes, a nice conversation with only a few strange statements, they said he looked good if skinny.

Do a web search under his pseudonym, you'll find him, I won't link here. Good luck, Dustin, if you read this.

I'm going to find out how popular I am

2008-07-25T11:07:00.002-04:00

At a BBQ last night, I got a couple beers in me and made a decision: I'm going to couch-surf. After looking at my options for places to stay, I don't see why I'd endure the hassle of staying with someone I don't know. Plus, this way I'll save like $1000 in rent, and if it goes too long and I still need a place, I can sublet from some friends starting in October.

So my basic plan is this:

- My current roommate is sticking around for a Ph.D., but is going home to Mexico for a couple weeks in August. So, in exchange for giving him all my old furniture and moving it for him, I get a free place to stay for a couple weeks.

- I might go visit LoSchiavo for a few days out in L.A. If I'm just looking for a job or writing scholarly stuff, why does it matter where I go?

- I have various friends with couches and kind hearts. Enough of them, I'm not so sure.

- I'm thinking about buying a tent.

- My advisor offered to put me up for a while, but will be on vacation for at least a few days here and there.

- I have a girlfriend, but her apartment is really small and she's really busy so I can't stay there too often.

- Our office at the grad school has a couch, so I could probably stay there a few nights before the new students come in.

- My car has a roomy backseat, if not full of all my crap.

- The worst case scenario (and I do mean worst) is going back in with my parents around Philly, a four-hour drive away.

All of which should probably keep me sheltered for about 2 months, esp. if I've got the first 3 weeks covered, then I can sublet from M & J. Should be exciting!

And there's always:
The Couchsurfing Project

I am so fucked

2008-07-24T11:14:00.003-04:00

So, the Boston interview was originally supposed to go off on the 10th of July, but got rescheduled when my flight out of Ithaca was cancelled for mechanical reasons. I was chomping at the bit to make arrangements, but didn't feel as if I could do so without knowing what direction I was heading. It was cutting it a bit close, but going out on the 21st gave me 10 days no matter what happened.

Well, I've been perusing the rental notices here in Ithaca, hoping something good comes up in the short time that I have to find arrangements. I went to a house yesterday that's about 2 blocks away and owned by a nice older lady. She had a very small room available, and she offered it to me for a very reasonable price - $410 a month. I don't think I'm going to take it. I'd be sharing the kitchen & small bath with her and one other woman which doesn't seem like such a good idea. She said that she was very sensitive to smells and so no one could throw any garbage out in the house except for plastic wrappers, and that everything else had to be taken outside. Me, I'm used to living in this awesome bachelor's pad that's comfortable and hassle-free. I could just see living at this place on tiptoes, trying not to offend anyone's sensibilities. That's no fun to do, even if it's cheap.

She also asked in regards to the bathroom, was I a sitter? Did I like to sit and read? Because it was just one small bathroom, and that drove her nuts. I could tell that she was embarrassed asking, but it was funny nonetheless.

So I have to find a place here in town that will give me a sublet for the fall semester, will (hopefully) be OK for the cat (no small feat), and be furnished because I'm giving away all my crap. I had a nice lead today that I hope works out, I suspect the woman was in the vet school because she was extremely sympathetic to finding a place for my cat.

I'm going to stay in Ithaca because this way I can stay connected to everything that's going on here. Going back to my parents' house, I'll lose all my momentum so I'd rather not do that for any number of reasons.

Whew. I think things are going to work out but I sure am cutting it close!

I didn't get the Boston job

2008-07-22T17:23:00.002-04:00

After flying out there yesterday and all. Next step? Not sure. Need a new place to live in 10 days. Got to start thinking about packing up and finding a new place to live. Seems like I'll stay in Ithaca for at least a few more months until I figure out the next step. It's a good place to live and I've got some good friends here.

It's almost just as well. I think it was a tough decision for them but ultimately they decided that I might not have the drive & fire for the position that would keep me there as it was a pretty intense place to work.. That said, it's a pretty intense place to work. So it might have been great for a couple of years, but I can't say that I saw myself there long term.

Sigh. Back to square one. Life is good in Ithaca tho. Stream of consciousness out.

Facebook is weird

2008-07-20T18:56:00.004-04:00

Speaking of Keith, I thought this was Keith screwing with me for a couple minutes.

But no, it's just Facebook thinking that it's someone I know. Not that we have any friends in common, just that we have the same name.

Brian, You're The Only One Reading Anymore

2008-07-14T23:09:00.002-04:00

I suppose it's my fault. Don't post for six weeks, and that's what happens - you alienate your few remaining readers.

My advisor has decided that we need to sort out some DB issues before I finish my thesis (which could be very soon). I'm trying to finish everything this week and get the f*** out of here, I don't have time to work with an undergrad that has never programmed or worked on a DB before!

I'm going on a job interview on Monday, and I'm going to tell them that if they hire they're not only going to get a committed, intelligent individual, but they'll also being doing their part to eliminate slave labor in this country!

What the?

2008-07-12T15:46:00.002-04:00

I was walking through the parking lot of the local ghetto drug store, trying to negotiate past an old couple who were inexplicably trying to slowly back up where they should not have been backing up. A woman pulled up behind me and said, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you, do you have a dollar?"

I certainly wasn't going to encourage this behavior,and I didn't want to know anything about it, so I said no even though that was a transparent lie; I was, after all, just about to go into a supermarket and purchase something. I kept walking inside, telling myself that I was going to pay with a credit card, and that's why I didn't have a dollar for the crazy lady.

And then, when I went to check out, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet. And so I didn't, after all, have a dollar. And I didn't, after all, have grocery money. It occurred to me that maybe the crazy lady was trying to tell me something, and I didn't pick up on it. I had to run back home and grab my wallet anyway, but if I had been a little more generous when I was walking in I probably wouldn't have embarrassed myself, however slightly, at the checkout. Damn you, crazy lady.

A-Rod and Madonna

2008-07-11T11:26:00.002-04:00

Yipes, been a long time since I rapped at ya. But the upshot is that I *almost* have a Master's degree and I *almost* have a job. Working on those....

Anyway, I wanted to make a point to marvel at Madonna, who is still in the entertainment game some 25 years after she first hit the scene. I mean, look at Britney Spears, who seems to have had a complete meltdown less than a decade into her career. Now Madonna's rumored to have been shacking up with who is probably the most wealthy athlete ever, A-Rod.

My favorite part about this whole saga is that when the news hit the wire, which town's newspaper published allegations of him sleeping with a local? That's right, the Boston paper. (No, I won't link...) Pile it on, I guess. That's quite a rivalry...

Whew

2008-05-21T23:03:00.002-04:00

Sorry, everyone. I haven't been very good about the blog postings recently, but that's only because my nightlife has really been picking up steam. By which I mean my thesis is really going awesome. Does anybody want to know anything about using a weather index - especially in regard to agriculture? No?

Something stewing

2008-05-14T20:13:00.002-04:00

Now that the semester is finally over, I have a bit more motivation to contribute again to 2manychefs. And I guess I have to pick up the glove laid down by Norton. (BTW, Norton, what's up with the unplublished blog entitled Milli Vanilli?)

New laws are to take affect in LA that will fine taco trucks $1000 (10,485.50 pesos) for being parked in one spot for more than an hour. Angelenos are apparently upset, and the truck owners have created a website, saveourtacotrucks.org/, that explains their plight. I love their themes: carne asada is not a crime, and Taco Libre! Posters and shirts and such are for sale of course. Ok, now I have to find a good taqueria around here.

I can do this

2008-05-06T12:41:00.002-04:00

The prestigious consulting firm wants to fly me to Boston for 2 days of interviews. My last phone interview was last Thursday, and the schedule is for this week on Thursday and Friday - happens quick.

The interview process itself seems very structured and a little intimidating. I'm not applying to be a consultant but the company culture seems to revolve around them, so I have to do a "case" interview like everyone else hired by the company. (At least one, in fact.) A case interview is a situation where they give you a "case" to solve, and they want to see how well you work through problems. There's no right or wrong answer, they stress, it's more important how you work through the problem.

If I think about how MBA students have counselors in their departments dedicated solely to helping graduates pass case interviews, it becomes a little intimidating. Especially as i don't study business in the first place, and although things like revenues and market share make perfect sense to me, I'm not very deft in playing with figures. I'm just trying to approach the situation with a lot of confidence and view the whole thing as one complicated formality. And honestly if they like me enough to fly me out to Boston and put me up for two nights, then that's something that gives me confidence.

There is a mechanism for not wasting everyone's time. Apparently I'm going to get a call at the hotel on Thursday night informing me whether or not I've been cleared to go on to Friday's interviews.

So the next few days I've got some running around to do - getting my dry cleaning done, for one thing, preparing for the case, for another. Whatever. I can do this.

So Close!

2008-04-28T11:16:00.002-04:00

My cat woke me up at 5:30 this morning. This is nothing out of the ordinary, he scratches at my door at first light until I straggle out of bed and scoop him a handful of cat food. I really have no choice, but it's not that bad anyway; if I leave my door open, he scratches at my face.

I didn't get much of a weekend, in fact mostly sat in front of the TV watching sports getting work done for two days before the end of classes this week. I don't know if that's what it was or what, but I was feeling restless and couldn't get back to sleep. I thought about getting up and going for a jog, but I've been the last 2-3 days and my legs are sore, as I haven't gotten much exercise at all after a sprained my ankle 3 months ago.

So I decided to get up and break out the mountain bike for the first time this year. And around 6 in the morning I was headed up to the local state forest for an early morning romp around the bike/snowmobile trails. I really needed the peace and solitude, not to mention the physical activity. I had a great time last summer tooling around on the old bike, and I was really looking forward to the first ride of the year, even if it was a bit chilly.

On the way out of town, 5 minutes later, the drizzle turned into a pour, killing any chance of getting out on the bike. Defeated, I came into the office instead and started working on a presentation for tomorrow.

So close!

2008-04-26T11:11:00.004-04:00

Courtesy of teewye, who now sends out funny videos via email instead of posting them on this blog:

(teewye, I'm starting to question your commitment to this blog)

I don't know what to say about this one, but a quick web search proved that this song may be somewhat relevant, if indescribably awful.

The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. The band’s output consisted of instrumental music in the funk genre, characterised by the prominence of bongo drums and also conga drums.

Although the band released two albums, 1973’s Bongo Rock and 1974’s Return of the Incredible Bongo Band, the band is best known for its cover of “Apache”, a song originally made popular by The Shadows. This record languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering DJs Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band’s other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the “Apache” break remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass. The song received popular attention again in 2001 when it was featured in an ad for an Acura SUV. Recently, music critic Will Hermes did an article on Apache and the Incredible Bongo Band for the New York Times.

The song “Let There Be Drums,” which was made famous by Sandy Nelson and also performed by The Ventures, was used as the theme song for the long running television show “Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling” during the 1980’s.

Interview Preparation

2008-04-24T17:21:00.002-04:00

So I've been doing phone interviews with a consulting firm that is apparently very prestigious. Or at least that's what everybody tells me - my dealings with their HR department would indicate no such thing.

So not only did I get the late call blogged before, but that call had to end early, I strongly suspect because the HR woman wanted to leave at 4 pm. Felt a little ripped off in that I didn't get to ask many questions, but I guess in the long run the less time I have to talk to someone in the HR department the better, as long as I got through the interview fine.

For the second round interview, I got an email two weeks ago on a Friday afternoon that I wasn't able to respond to until the next day. I didn't hear anything for at least 3 days, at which point I wrote in saying "When can I expect to hear from you?" And got an excuse of "scheduling conflicts", but another appointment within a few hours. Riiiiight.

So I was getting all geared up for my interview this afternoon, and it got rescheduled! To next week! They wanted to do it during our spring fling, but moved it up a day, thank god. It probably would not have been good to blow off a job interview to drink beer and watch a concert, especially considering how difficult these people are to get on the phone!

Monday Funny

2008-04-21T17:42:00.003-04:00

The good people at YoungerThanMcCain.com put together a video celebrating the things that are younger than John McCain.

Cracked Magazine (remember them?) have a article up of the funniest home shopping screw-ups.

Spring has sprung

2008-04-20T16:40:00.002-04:00

And not a day too soon.

Spot 2manychefs

2008-04-17T15:42:00.003-04:00

Hint: I'm the one holding the shield.

Dickipedia

2008-04-14T13:30:00.004-04:00

Someone put up a parody of Wikipedia in which... well... they make a wiki of "dicks".

For example:

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona, the presumptive Republican Party nominee in the 2008 presidential election, an angry old man, and a dick.

And clicking random:

The 2006 Cincinnati Bengals were an American football team that played in the National Football League. Bengal players from that team were consistently in the news for felonious or otherwise dickish behavior.

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz (b. December 22, 1943) is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, former academic, diplomat, military strategist, policymaker, and a dick.

I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

UPDATE:

Robert Gabriel Mugabe KCB (born on February 21, 1924) is the President of Zimbabwe—a small country in southern Africa predominately known for its usefulness in the board game Scattergories™ when someone selects a “Places” card and then rolls a Z. He is a former freedom fighter, current political oppressor, and a dick.

I saw the weirdest thing today

2008-04-13T00:13:00.002-04:00

So I was walking along the street a few blocks from here, and the guy walking in front of me stopped at a car parked along the street and put a credit card under one of the windshield wipers, then kept walking.

I can't explain that.

What Do I Do?

2008-04-08T15:38:00.002-04:00

Here's the situation: I confirmed a phone interview at 3:30 this afternoon, it's now 3:41. It seems as if in the emails back and forth they once asked me to provide a phone number, but I somehow missed that. But it's on my resume, so they should call....

So right now I'm stewing, wondering when it's going to happen. Is it typical for companies to be late for phone interviews? I would love to call and ask someone, but I dare not use the phone for obvious reasons.

Ugh, this is excruciating. I'm pretty excited about this company and I spent a lot of time yesterday and today preparing.

Whoo there it is!

I'm So Hungry

2008-03-30T23:30:00.002-04:00

It's rare that a book will change the way I think about something so completely, but after reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma I'm wondering if I'll ever eat much meat again. If you haven't read it, Pollan is a veteran food journalist who writes about the steps necessary for a few meals - starting with the factory farm/fertilizer approach from an Iowa cornfield, moving into a discussion about a grass-pasture farm in Virgina, and finishing with a meal that he hunts or forages for himself in central California, from shooting a wild pig to capturing wild yeast from the air.

Fascinating book.

I knew about all the drawbacks of large livestock operations, the cruelty and wanton use of antibiotics, but I never knew that there was a viable alternative to this commodity meat. (I like meat, and I don't want to stop eating it.) He really presents local markets and farms that produce animals that are grass-fed as the only reasonable option.

So I've started exploring the world of local meat. Funny enough, one of the restaurants around here has a distinct marketing strategy. "Olivia's - Local Meat", the signs always say - a thought that I found off-putting a week ago, but now very compelling.

It's also led to some interesting conversations in the past week with people from all stripes. Some can't believe that I would be disinterested in eating meat, some are vegans already taking it a few steps further than I'm willing to go, some are sympathetic. Best part is, the guy that sites behind me in the office was a vegetarian for 13 years but went off that diet when he started working for a natural/local beef company.

Still up in the air is the status of eggs - they're one of the worst production industries imaginable (no egg producer would even allow Pollan access to their plants), but I need protein. So I'm eating eggs for now, but constantly reevaluating my options. I don't mind spending a little extra on food if it's the right thing to do.

Propaganda and the Surge

2008-03-28T10:28:00.003-04:00

I can't comment on the veracity of this account, but two bloggers have a post about the current violence in Iraq. I thought it was important enough to link to here.

We can all step back and marvel for a second at how inadequate the traditional media is on this score. Propaganda and lies.

It makes me wonder - is it just easier to demonize Moqtada Al-Sadr because he's a Muslim that disagrees with the U.S. official policy? We lionized Lech Walesa and loathed Ho Chi Minh, depending on which superpower they were railing against.

We need to get out of there. McCain needs to go down in flames.

Montreal Travel Recommendations

2008-03-24T13:56:00.003-04:00

1) It's fucking cold.

2) We had a lot of fun last week, nailed down a nice, inexpensive apartment through vacationrentals.com, with four people worked out to about $20 a night each. No annoying housekeeping, use of kitchen, any city on the planet. If you're trying to get away somewhere for a week, it's highly recommended.

3) U.S. Customs will steal your grapes.

4) Saw a Canadiens/Blues game on Tuesday night, and I've got to say that the experience was far and away the best hockey game I've ever seen. The bilingual chanting, the obnoxious fans, the sheer energy in the stadium was pretty incredible.

5) The Pointe-à-Callière Museum is also worthwhile - it takes you underneath a city block to a live archaeological site that has been used in various ways over the centuries. Grave site next to the foundation for a statue next to an old barracks or cobblestone road. Very cool.

6) Caught an indie concert at La Sala Rossa on Wednesday night. The headlining act Xiu Xiu was terrible, but opening act Thao Nyguen was a lot of fun. Read this review for a good description of Xiu Xiu. Basically, a lot of discordant noise and unintelligible screaming from a very intense and somewhat unsettling singer. It makes for worthwhile art, but not a fun thing to sit around and listen to. Thao was very good, poppy and fun. It became the unofficial theme music of our trip, and if you get a chance, check out her new CD.

7) The Biodome complex is worth a visit. They've got four ecosystems built into the old bicycling stadium from the 1976 Summer Olympics, a great place to spend a cold and snowy day.

8) The city itself is fascinating and very safe. We spent a lot of time wandering neighborhoods, browsing in shops when we got too cold. There are some really colorful places to visit, like the (Gay) Village - a place that doesn't make any bones about its outspoken sexuality. Or Chinatown, the Latin Quarter, Mile-End, or Old Montreal.

9) It's just exotic and fun to have to try and translate a foreign language to get around. There's a little pleasure in deciphering a common word, seeing it somewhere else, and understanding the city ever so slightly better. I took one semester of French in college, so I can recognize some words and do a few greetings, otherwise I'm useless. But it would have been impossible to have as much fun in any other city close by.

And now to plan the next adventure....

Alabama, then Montreal

2008-03-11T16:32:00.006-04:00

As a perk for working so hard, my advisor has asked me to attend a conference at the Perdido Beach Resort in Gulf Shores, Alabama, this Thursday. I'm going to help present the research we're doign but I don't have to present anything myself. I'm pretty excited - this is the first conference I've been to, and more importantly it will be warm, so I'm hoping we'll get some free time to economics-ing to go beaching.

I'll get back to Ithaca late Saturday night, then head off Sunday morning for a week of Spring Break in Montreal. There will be 4 of us going, and I'm the mastermind that put it all together. True, I probably should have chosen someplace warm instead of going in the other direction. But Montreal is probably the coolest place within driving distance and there's not much point in paying for 4 plane tickets when you can spend that money doing cool things besides. And the one time I was there I was really impressed by the European feel so I'm definitely looking forward to going back.

Potentially on tap:
- Skiing
- Snowshoeing
- Montreal Canadiens ice hockey
- Fine dining
- Curling lessons (!)
- Museum exploring
- Making awkward attempts to speak French
- Gawking at the Quebecois people
- Maybe some strippers or something

Best of all, we rented a 3-bedroom apartment for roughly $140 a person for the week - about $20 a night to stay, with full kitchen and all that. Can't wait. Five days in Montreal doesn't seem like enough time!

Political blogging

2008-03-11T15:59:00.002-04:00

I was genuinely shocked by yesterday's events regarding Gov. Spitzer, but in general, I want to stay away from the politics unless I have some sort of personal experience that needs retelling. I read political blogs a lot, and there are some really smart people out there who are far better at interpreting existing information than me.

The temptation is there - some of these politicians say some stupid things. It's one of the few things (along with the entertainment industry) that changes on a day-to-day basis that we can all (hypothetically) relate to. And people do care - like the person searching from the frickin' U.S. Congress Sergeant at Arms Office yesterday, or when the NYTimes Blog Blast quoted me [ironically enough, about a gubernatorial debate of Eliot Spitzer's here on campus.]

But in a medium where it really matters what people are talking about, or how they talk about it, an endless amount of information is out there for speculation. And although I care deeply about the direction the nation is heading, it seems like people that only talk about politics are missing the larger picture, and I don't want this blog to be political commentary or anything like that. It's a real challenge to find something new and interesting to remark upon every routine day of your life, let alone communicate that experience in a form that other people can relate to, but to me that's far more interesting than bandying about the same second-hand information. And besides, as the old saying goes "in politics, a week is a lifetime," and information that seems pertinent one day can be obsolete the next - think NAFTAgate with the Obama/Clinton/Canada flap.

I just yesterday took a deep breath and said, "Ok, Obama's going to win this thing whether or not you pay attention." And that helps me not get so wrapped up in the tiny political details.

That's my governor

2008-03-10T14:30:00.007-04:00

Wow. Goodbye, credibility.

Although he should resist calls to resign until Sen. David Vitter does.

Something about these powerful guys and their libidos... the article also mentions that he was on a TV talk show at 7 am the next morning and testified in Congress later that day. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

UPDATE:
Someone at the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms office did a blogsearch on "David Vitter" and just read this post. So someone else out there is thinking about him, too.

UPDATE 2: This is interesting - if Spitzer resigns, our Lt. Gov., David Paterson, is both African-American and legally blind.

Recession

2008-03-07T13:51:00.001-05:00

Bad time to be looking for a job.

Time to put up

2008-03-06T15:17:00.004-05:00

I've been a supporter of Obama for a while now, but the only tangible thing I've ever really done for the campaign is to sign up as a supporter on Facebook about a year ago. Never donated any money or time, although I have tried to convince a few friends of his merits. Maybe if I were in a more competitive state, but Hillary Clinton is our senator after all, and Tompkins County (home of Ithaca) was the only county in the whole state to go for Barack.

Well, now we're getting down into it - the fight becomes Pennsylvania, and that's my backyard! I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to people up here, trying to convince them to vote for Obama, because I'm relatively new to central NY, but Pennsy? Are you kidding me?

I'm just sayin' - if I want Barack to be the next president (and I do) I might have to start knocking on some doors and making some phone calls.

Sheesh. Pesky thesis.

Obama '08

Under 5

2008-03-04T10:22:00.002-05:00

I listen to a lot of music. In fact, my preferred way to work is to put on the ol' headphones, tune out the world and while away the day thinking about math. Problem is, I've gotten in kind of rut lately. Not a rut in terms of finding or listening to new music, but rather a rut in terms of how iTunes was picking the songs.

I have a library of about 4,000 songs, and if I put it on random for the whole thing I get a lot of music that I want in, but perhaps I'm not currently listening to. So I've been using a smart playlist that automatically includes every song uploaded after a certain date - "current". But "current" is getting a little old in the tooth, a year and a half after I created it, and it seems like I'm playing the same songs/artists over and over when what I really want to do is try out the new stuff I bought.

So my solution was to come up with a smart playlist that includes all songs that I have not yet listened to 5 times. There can be two reasons for this - it's either an old favorite that I can rediscover, or something completely new. Either way, it's what I'm looking for.

The best part is, I can force myself to listen to artists I don't really know or those self-indulgent 10 minute tracks because I know that I will only have to hear them a maximum of 5 times before they drop out of the list, which makes me a lot more patient.

Now listening: Creedence Clearwater Revival's 11-minute version of "I Heard It Through The Gravevine"

Rock of Love 2 Starring Bret Michaels: Best TV Show Ever?

2008-03-01T12:07:00.005-05:00

I've been getting into Rock of Love 2, starring Bret Michaels, even though I never thought I would. It's awesome. There are so many weird dynamics at play. A quick rundown:

The setup is putting 12-15 women, including two Playboy models and a porn star, in a mansion and having them compete to become Bret Michaels' lady. The women are great: let's just say that if they weren't trampy, they were eliminated early. But that's a good thing, because I suspect that because if they weren't trampy they wouldn't have anything in common with Bret Michaels anyway. The effortless way he switches in between kissing women is a little disgusting, to say the least, and he's already spent the night with two of the girls, and we're on Episode 6.

From where I sit, they're competing for a leathery leftover from an 80s hair band that spends the majority of his year on tour anyway. Adding in the countless women who have undoubtedly thrown themselves at him over the years, it doesn't add up to a stable relationship for me. Is this competition that anyone should really want to win?

Add in the TV dimension - are these girls really here for Bret, or to get some face time on TV and further their careers? While it's the girls under the microscope in this aspect, it's so painfully obvious that Bret is playing all of them and his decisions for "love" also seem to be the ones that make for the best TV. And how!

I'm sure you're all wondering, is 2manychefs trying to live vicariously through Bret Michaels because all of those women are superbly hot? Well, no, because the entire fun is watching the cattiness and in-fighting. There have been several occasions where one of the women flipped out and Bret had to sit down, talk about feelings, and put out the fire. Classic. Even if they're Playboy models, having ten women in the same house competing for your attention is almost not worth it. Almost.

I'm a fan! And I can't wait for next week's episode!

Ugh

2008-02-28T15:40:00.005-05:00

So I've been spending the last several months intermittently putting together a large data set for all the metro stations in the U.S. That includes all subways stations as well as all commuter rail stations. To get me started, the professor simply emailed me a link to a Wikipedia page listing the rapid transit systems in the world and told me to come up with Latitude/Longitude coordinates for each one. The rest, as it were, was up to me.

You'd think that this data would be easily available - there has to be some information on subway stops, doesn't there? Well, I couldn't find any on the internet, and no one that I talked to knew anything about it. So I resorted to a strategy of picking off the transit systems one-by-one. There are metro systems, from the extensive system around NYC to a small system in Seattle for which only four stations met our qualifications. Along the way, I've gotten data from the transit authorities themselves, from independent websites (gearthhacks.com is one memorable one), and entered the info by hand based on satellite photos from Google Earth. This last one is as excruciating as it sounds, as GEarth displays coordinates in degrees/minutes/seconds, meaning that it has to be modified in a spreadsheet before entry.

So I've been struggling with this for a while, and every time I thought I was almost done, a new rail line would pop up or a new source of data would be discovered, leading to more and more tedious data entry. Finally, a concerted push the last week or two has led to me getting closer to my goal than ever before.

Then, randomly, yesterday, a fellow grad student heard about the project and handed off some CDs of data from the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD) which, as it turns out, had all of the information I needed.

And to make matters worse, there are discrepancies in the data, some mine, some theirs, which I'm sure I'm going to be asked about. More looking at the satellite photographs, more cleaning up slight differences in digits.

And I've already been given two other tasks to do by the same professor.

And this doesn't really count for anything, unlike my thesis and finding a job.

Fuck.

This picture is a mashup of metro stations, rail lines, and gray city areas. The areas where my data are incomplete are in blue, with my stations in red. (Skipping some streetcar systems and anything after 2001, of course.) Looks pretty good, no?

Kendrick gets punk'd

2008-02-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

Pitchers and catchers report... and Brett Myers pulls off a doozy...

Exciting Band Websites

2008-02-17T18:05:00.003-05:00

I was looking at a website for a local bar/club, trying to figure out what their concert lineup was for this weekend. And for Friday night, they listed a band called DILF - never heard of it. The link to their Myspace page didn't work, so I did a quick look on The Google.

And it didn't occur to me right away what DILF might stand for, but it's a play on the old classic "Mother I'd Like to ... (you get the idea..) Only the "D" would be the male version. Who thinks of these things? The first link explained the abbreviation in short description, so I was like, "Well, that's off-color, but I still want to see what this band is all about." And clicked on the first link.

Yeah, that wasn't a website for a band. (Look yourself, if you're not at work...) It's a website, I assume, for middle-aged gay men. With potbellies. Who like to wear leather. Or at least that's what the four pop-up windows looked like before I hurriedly closed them in the public computer cluster.

And you can find the band Myspace page if you're so inclined and are a careful clicker. But I have to wonder: does this party/college rock band know what they're associated with? Too bizarre....

Ankle updates

2008-02-14T15:38:00.002-05:00

No, not more complaining about my ankle. But rather to tell you all about a current challenge.

I know that if I don't report measurable progress to my mother every time we talk, that I'm in trouble. This is because if everything's not going exactly right, she will worry and my dad will have my head because he has to deal with it.

Some recent updates:
- I'm off my crutches!
- The swelling is waaaay down
- I'm walking around the apartment without the walking boot
- You can actually see that I have an ankle today instead of a big lump

Problem is, it's a lot of pressure to come up with new updates every day or so when progress hasn't been so measurable. What to say next? I've got to think it over...

And yeah, I'm getting a little cranky because I can hardly leave my desk :(

Looking for work again....

2008-02-11T23:45:00.000-05:00

...which is so hard over the internet. Sometimes it's just better to show up in person instead of rely on the tubes and pipes. I've been sending out the occasional resume or two for a couple months now - no bites. I have the feeling that I could get something started if I were to just move somewhere and start talking to people, but where to move? There are a lot of choices.

My father told me that when he was looking for a job recently he made himself the goal of looking through 1,000 vacancy announcements and sending out 100 resumes before he thought he might find something suitable. Lordy, this will be fun.

Also sinking in is the realization that companies never hire you in a position that will challenge you right off the bat (unless you lie obscenely on your resume), but that's something to work towards once they get to know your capabilities. Well, I've got some fun ahead.... Blah.....

Coping with ankle problems

2008-02-10T21:07:00.000-05:00

The news isn't all bad - today is the first day that I've been able to get around without crutches. But being laid up has left me with more free time than usual, since there's no way for me to get to the gym and burn energy. Combine that with an encounter this weekend with an Xbox 360, and I have a dilemma on my hands:

Should I buy myself an Xbox 360?

Pros:
It would make me less annoyed about my ankle.
Unbelievable graphics.
Rock Band.

Cons:
$400
I probably wouldn't play it that much in a few weeks.
That pesky thesis.

I've run it by a few friends around here, and I usually hear the same thing: "Get a Wii!"

Meh. This will probably run its course by next week, when I might be able to shed this walking boot...

I Sprained My Ankle

2008-02-06T15:10:00.001-05:00

I hope this picture captures how truly puffy and nasty my right ankle is. How big is it? It was worth three delegates on Super Tuesday. (They went to Kucinich.)

I was playing basketball on Friday night and came down on someone's foot when fighting for a rebound. It hurt a lot when it happened and I'm just now getting to the point where I don't need crutches, just a walking boot.

Yeah, the last few days have been a wash, what with all the doctor's appointments, Vicodin, etc. I've got handicapped parking right outside my office for the next three weeks - a godsend, but one that somehow cost me $106 with parking services. Driving is still kind of iffy, because I have to stretch across and work the pedals with my left foot, but my roommate has been great in helping me out.

I know that I shouldn't say this, but I've been pretty lucky with sports injuries so far - years of rugby, football, wrestling, basketball, and any other contact sport you can imagine and no injury outside some scrapes and bruises. Nothing torn or broken this time, that's the important thing, and I should be back on my feet in a week or two.

The Blog Entry In Which I Sound Really Smart

2008-01-30T10:20:00.001-05:00

I've been doing some research outside of my immediate areas of specialty, which has been interesting. Specifically, I'm trying to find some fun disease models for plants that we can throw into our weather program.

Along the way, I found this database of disease models for plants. Problem is, they're all so delicate, with parameters like "add 10 to the disease score if the temperature is over 60F for more than 6 hours." My program is more like a blunt instument more suited to monthly trends than hourly ones. And the other problem is that none of the citations are available online or in our library for me to pick through, so I'm flying a little blind.

And so I ask, does anyone out there know anything about phytopathology? Because I sure frickin don't. And the Cornell library sure frickin doesn't.

No? Damn.

Update: Nevermind... A few minutes after I wrote this, I found a journal named "Plant Disease" published by the American Phytological Association. So today I get to page through about ten years of journal articles to see if there's anything I can use...

A Blog Entry Not For The Faint Of Heart

2008-01-29T13:17:00.002-05:00

The two scariest words in the English language: "Wintry mix"

Neko Case

2008-01-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

Up here in Ithaca, we don't have major artists coming through every week. Instead, we have to rely on whomsoever decides to hitch up for a night or two. It's understandable in a way - Ithaca is definitely off the beaten track, "centrally isolated," as the joke goes.

So I was pretty excited when one of my favorite artists, Neko Case, came into town for a concert on Saturday night at the august State Theatre. (In fact, you could make a case for her being my favorite artist.)

Other than the guy with the enormous head that sat in front of me, the concert was very enjoyable. She hits some spectacular notes and makes it look effortless. The tour is said to be to test out some new material for an upcoming album, and let me tell you, seeing an up-and-coming artist in a fairly intimate setting is probably the best way to do it.

(Actually, it may have been a little too intimate - the yahoos were out screaming nonsense - "Marry me Neko!" and the one guy who wouldn't shut up requesting "Hold On, Hold On")

I don't know why she's not more of a superstar yet. Could be her aversion to major labels or the spooky, dark edge to some of her music. Whatever, great show.

Next Year

2008-01-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

I'd like to talk for a minute, if I could, on the prevailing attitudes around here in regards to higher education. I mean, higher than the M.S. I should be getting in May.

I've been thinking a lot about whether or not to go into the Ph.D. program next year. In some ways, it's very attractive; the department is cozy and supportive, professors awesome, and my fellow grad students are great friends. I don't really want to leave - spending a further three or four years in academic research would be enlightening and empowering, especially as it keeps the forces of reality at bay. The pressure is somewhat present, as people will take you more seriously if you're a Ph.D. student and it seems the logical next step.

However, I'm not doing it. At least not yet. It doesn't seem necessary.

If I wanted to be a college professor, it would be the right move, but I'm not so sure about that. The demands of a career in academia are staggering; some professors and their spouses live on opposite sides of the country. Your life fits around your career, and I'm not sure I want that. My advisor told me that getting tenure is just about a ten year struggle, from the first year of a Ph.D. program to six years of assistant professorship. And the first year of the Ph.D. program is no joke - to pass the qualifying exam is beyond onerous. I just can't get used to the idea that immersing myself in mathematics at the expense of everything else in life is somehow necessary.

The kicker: much of my loans are unsubsidized, meaning that I pay interest on them as long as I'm in school. If I let that happen, I could be accumulating $10,000 a year in interest alone. No, it just doesn't make financial sense - and I am an economist, after all.

My First Publication

2008-01-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

Forthcoming: Co-author credit on "An Internet Based Tool for Weather Risk Management" to be published in a future issue of the Agricultural & Resource Economics Review.

Adventurous

2008-01-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

The recent winter break has reawakened a sense of adventurous spirit; I guess a week skiing at high altitudes in Utah can do that for a person. Or maybe it was my complete avoidance of work for the last month or so. I don't know what it is, but I'm raring to go out and try to do some new things again, and it's early enough in the semester that there are people around that aren't freaking out about finals or whatever.

Why, just yesterday, I took a jaunt to do some exploring northwest of here. The idea was to drive through some of these ancient brick towns (Groton, Cortland, Homer) and maybe find a nice place to get lunch. Turns out that central NY doesn't have much to offer in mid-January besides some blowing snow and temperatures in the teens. We drove for an hour or so, finding nowhere to eat except fast-food joints and places that had been closed for the winter. (Oh, and a BBQ place that was putting on some kind of benefit concert for a guy who was getting a heart transplant. But that was just weird.)

In all, it was a useful jaunt for the time we had - just a few hours. Mostly, I'm biding my time until I can get to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a few hours east of here.

Diagnosis: further exploration required.

Classic Onion

2008-01-06T16:03:00.000-05:00

My favorite line :

"Now, if you ain't noticed, we got a lot more parkin' lot space down at the racetrack and the Farm & Fleet store than y'all do out in front of your bookstores and muffin shops."

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33878

Reality check

2007-12-14T13:40:00.000-05:00

I got excited when I got an email today from my department detailing the MS-level employment opportunities at the Economic Research Service of the Dept. of Agriculture. For agricultural economists, this isn't a bad place to be, and it seems like much of the research done in the field starts with data collected by the ERS.

And well, after plunking down $80-100K to go to school here, I would've liked to see some return on that investment, but ... it seems like I might make just a little bit more than I did with my IT degree, straight outta undergrad... sigh....

(Although obviously it's important to do what you want ... )

The coup that almost was

2007-12-13T12:21:00.001-05:00

I was browsing a Huffington Post article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today about irrational hating of Hillary & the Roosevelts, and came across mention of a military coup concocted by millionaire industrialists to overthrow the American government in 1933.

"The intense hatred of the Roosevelts was a dominant feature in the American political landscape during the decade of the 1930s and prompted efforts to impeach him and even a plot to depose him by a military coup planned by high ranking officers of Wall Street's richest corporations, including Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel, JP Morgan, and DuPont. The "vast right wing conspiracy" had its own Richard Mellon Scaife. Robert Clark, one of Wall Street's richest bankers and stock brokers pledged half of his $60 million fortune to help finance the coup. His deputy, former Commander Gerald Macguire of the American Legion, a Wall Street bond broker, equated Roosevelt's reforms to Communism and explained the purpose of the coup to a co-conspirator, "We need a fascist government in this country to save the nation from the Communists who want to tear it down and wreck everything we have built in America." The 1933 coup attempt was only averted by the courage of General Smedley Butler, the popular World War I warrior who had been tapped by Wall Street to lead the plot and who instead exposed and denounced it."

Why have I never heard about this? A military coup in America? 75 years ago? Why doesn't everybody know about this?

Doesn't this make the very basic Republican talking point - that leaving Iraq would be like appeasing Hitler - extremely suspect? Given that some of the richest businessmen in America were actively working to promote fascism?

So I guess that when someone parrots that line about appeasement (like McCain at the Republican YouTube debate) trot this out. Republicans are the pro-business party, and pro-business interests in 1933 weren't just appeasing, but actively conspiring.

Man, I want to write a book.

Overheard

2007-12-09T11:41:00.000-05:00

I was on a crowded bus earlier this week and overheard a woman say the following in a loud indignant voice, in response to a sketchy, over-friendly guy ask her what she does:

"Oh, I don't talk about what I do. I've got Mafia in my family and I've been stalked since I was 4 years old."

He persisted, and got:

"I can't talk about it. There's probably someone on this bus that is out to get me."

Yeah, that's the weirdest thing I've heard in a while.

Good news for New Jersey squirrel eaters

2007-11-20T10:50:00.000-05:00

Uh, I think this one speaks for itself...

Yi-Yao

2007-11-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, the NBA had an historic matchup on November 9th as Yi Jianlian's Milwaukee Bucks went to Houston to face off with the Rockets and Yao Ming. China has a bad case of basketball fever, and this was something of a watershed event in Chinese basketball, the meeting of two players in the NBA. 200 million people were projected to be watching in China alone. To put that number in perspective, that's 2/3 the population of the U.S., and our massive sporting events - like the Super Bowl - only draw about 85 million viewers.

So it was a significant event in the global expansion of the NBA. But listen to this:

The few months after finishing Peace Corps service is often an excellent opportunity to travel - generally, you've got little or nothing to come home to, and a fat $6000 sitting in your pocket from the readjustment allowance. I went to Asia for a few months (as some might remember) and ended up visiting my father in Shanghai for about a month.

And at that point, after 2+ years of fending for myself in Africa and a few months on the road (including eating some undercooked shellfish in Vietnam), I was completely exhausted and homesick. I was in China, but all I really wanted to do was sit on my parent's couch, watch some basketball, do nothing and experience nothing for a long time - there was too much going on, and I needed time to think about it all.

Imagine my delight when Chinese television broadcast, of all things, a Sixers game! China was undergoing a love affair with basketball, especially in Yao Ming's home town. Allen Iverson struck a chord as the short player that sticks it to all the taller ones - formenting dreams for Chinese youth - so it wasn't uncommon to find Sixers games on Chinese TV.

The first half was unremarkable, as first halves usually are. I stayed on the channel for a little while, but the halftime break seemed abnormally long. This wasn't a big issue - on the African satellite channels they would regularly cut out 5-10 minutes of action to make it fit into the time slots, so I was used to the vagaries of American sports on foreign TV. Only, the odd thing was that the halftime break never ended. It wasn't until my father got home that he informed me about the obvious:

They only televise the first half of the game.

Which astounds me. Didn't anyone care who won? Isn't the best action usually toward the end of the game, when each team is scrambling? If you're only going to televise one half, it should be the second half, I would think.

And so that makes me wonder - even if 200 million people watched the game, how many of them understood what was going on? How many watched the 2nd half? Because they might not have known that there was one... And although the NBA is crowing about the historic nature of the matchup and the phenomenal global audience they attracted, sometimes I think twice....

Vicarious Thrills

2007-11-15T00:39:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a paper with a few professors in my department. We're studying commuting decisions that people make, like where they choose to live and work, etc. The general idea is to look at public expenditures on infrastructure and transit: is our money better spent improving the fuel efficiency of our existing fleet of cars? Or would building public transport systems be a better way to save energy costs? (The answer seems obvious, but it may not be - in economics we study preferences, and some people may just enjoy driving!)

My task, in the few weeks that I've been working, is to create a dataset with Latitude/Longitude coordinates of every single subway or commuter rail station in place as of 1990 and 2000 (to correlate with census data). Given unreliable/incomplete data sources, this has led me to spend a lot of time investigating on the internet or doing something that I like to do anyway - play around in Google Earth.

And I've done a fair amount of travelling in my day, have a passing familiarity with most places in the country, and tracking down metro stations to such a fine level is something of a vicarious thrill, if only for the tidbits of information that surface. Who knew what Commerce, CA was named for? And that it's mostly Latino now? Right now, I'm zooming across Orange County, California, sunny places with familiar names and wondering what it's like to be there.

And the 1990/200 question is not trivial, either. Rail systems in some cities - Northeast, Chicago - are very well entrenched, but the growing metropolises out west are just getting tuned into the possibilities. (Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque, among others, have all started rail service in the last few years.) Before I start getting the stations in my spreadsheet, I have to Wikipedia the line and see when each station opened. (Luckily there are a lot of railroad buffs out there!)

Too often living in a small, quiet town produces a sense of myopia - sometimes I forget there's a whole world out there....

BREAKING: A blog with a point

2007-11-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

Holy smack! Have you been reading about the water shortage in the south? You should be....

http://www.atlantawatershortage.com

(image stolen from The Economist 's article on the subject)

Americanization: Complete

2007-11-09T16:47:00.000-05:00

The long slow, process that began roughly three years ago after returning from Africa has hit a major milestone today. Whereas I would've once blanched at the notion of putting my hard earned (er, borrowed) pay into something like cable television, forces have conspired to make me do just that. Most Americans don't realize how irrelevant having cable is to having a happy life, and that most times you're better off not knowing what they broadcast at any given time. But with a single act, I have joined the legions of mindless drones that take their cues from the glowing box. I expect that soon I'll be able to make intelligent conversation about the new fall lineup of shows on the major networks, brush up on my "Family Guy" reruns, and listen to people bloviate on topics that I have no interest in, like the NFL.

But seriously, hitting up the sports bar was getting kind of expensive. And there's more time to kill with the weather heading south. So, I've traded my principles for easy access to Knicks games. Plus, the Nuggets/Warriors play at 8 on ESPN.... And A & E is showing "Red Dawn" right now... not too bad...

2007-11-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

Q: What do you call four Mexicans in quicksand?

A: Quatro sink-o.

I ♥ Geography

2007-10-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

Recently discovered: NASA's Gallery. Check out this one of the California fires....

Permanent Records: Graceland

2007-10-23T11:07:00.000-04:00

I worship all things Onion, and for this post I'm borrowing a theme from the A.V. Club from which I've gotten at least one good music recommendation. I have a vast music CD library (~400 CDs) accumulated over roughly a 5-year span around the turn of the century. I lent it to a friend while overseas, and asked her what she thought of the first book: "You mean the one with all the really old music in there?" Granted, there's a Woody Guthrie "Storytellers" disc in there that I never listen to, but I always think about that broadside when choosing what to listen to these days, trying out new things and pushing the envelope. It's only rarely that I break out something from the ol' library, if only because it's been so long since that dusty stuff was relevant.

And of course Graceland has never flown very far under anyone's radar, but I haven't listened to it for a while. It's one of those soundtracks of our lives - it reminds me of childhood car trips in the family station wagon, listening to the cassette ad nauseum; my college roommate's older sister never went to a cinematographer's party but listened to it when she was applying for a Fulbright; and the in-joke that it was the one album that all Peace Corps volunteers brought with them to Malawi. From the days when the following line seemed to make more sense:

And he walked the rest of his days under African skies

The same girl from before also told me that there's nothing like rediscovering an old album, that it's like finding an old friend; I think she might have something there.

Classic....

2007-10-17T15:32:00.000-04:00

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Stay?

2007-10-14T23:42:00.000-04:00

I asked my advisor last week about options for next year; he offered me a job. I guess that he's been so impressed with my programming on the website that he knows he will have trouble replacing me. That's a compliment, but I also think it's fortunate circumstance; my dad thinks I picked a good field - social scientists often need to manipulate large databases but don't always have the chops to do to so. (Enter... me. Thanks, Carnegie Mellon!)

I'd make a nice wage and have some pretty sweet freedom to pursue what research angles I want - the downside that I can see would be is that working alone for a year could be taxing. But after a year I would probably have some pretty good professional contacts, more than a few publications, and a pretty sweet resume for whatever I wanted to accomplish next. (Ph.D.? Not unheard of....)

I never would've thought, even last week, that it would be possible to stay in Ithaca - there are just so few jobs in town outside the university. I've been saying for months that I'd like to stay, but now that the decision is upon me I'm not so sure. Probably requires more talking and exploring of options, but I've got a pretty good one already....

Death and Taxes

2007-10-13T15:26:00.000-04:00

Here's an interactive poster showing where our tax dollars go. The entire left side of the poster is for military use - anyone else have a problem with that?

Kudos to Radiohead

2007-10-02T20:34:00.000-04:00

Leave it to Radiohead to do the right thing: they're releasing their latest album, In Rainbows, exclusively on the internet starting Oct. 10. Fans can choose what to pay for the album, and it can be as much or as little as they want. The site is up now for preorders. BBC reports than fans are paying close to retail price for the new album. (Of course, if you're someone other than one of the most popular bands on the planet, you might get different results...)

It's my longstanding belief that the record industry has a ridiculous stance to the inevitability of music piracy, especially because they have been ripping us off with their prices for years.
I've been reading about ideas like this for a while - it's nice to see someone actually implement it.

Wired News:

"Surely, there's a lesson to other bands and labels floating around here somewhere: increase anticipation for your album, treat fans with respect, give them options and offer something truly attractive to the hardcore following, and the world will beat a path to your server..."

Campylobacter!

2007-10-02T20:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't posted much in a really long time. Some of you have noticed. But I have some good excuses - I was in India, first of all, and then I couldn't because I took part of India back with me in the form of a nasty bacterial infection called "Campylobacter." Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, but apparently the county health department has, because they want to have a chat with me.

Nothing serious, but I've had some stomach issues, but also been really sluggish, etc. I first got sick in India, but had a fever when I landed back here. It took me a month and some antibiotics to kick it. I can't say that anything I had to write would have been much fun to read!

Just one of those things that happens when you travel. Seriously, it was rather nice to have access to state-of-the-art medical facilities after dealing with the rudimentary PC medical offices for so long. Instead of just throwing a couple pills your way, they really try and get to the root of the problem, and the doctor has been really diligent in following up with me.

So I can't predict if normal blogging activities are going to resume or not, but I've been finding myself having more to say recently.... starting with the Radiohead thing....

Ibrahim Index of African Governance

2007-09-25T20:18:00.000-04:00

Here is a ranking from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation about governance in African Union members. The data is from 2005, and there is rankings information as well going back to 2000 and 2002. Glad to see that Malawi seems to be doing well, being at #12 of 48, but that is really bumped up by its Safety and Security score which is quite high. Overall not a lot of changes since the previous data years, which is disappointing. However, in 2000 and 2002, Bakili Muluzi was the dictator, err, president, and 2005 was the first year in office for Bingu wa Mutharika. It will be interesting to see the Ibrahim Index in the future and how Bingu has been able to bring about change, if any at all.

2007-08-30T10:13:00.001-04:00