So, a very sweet girl convinced me that I needed to go on vacation after i graduated. So i did. :) we are currently in San Diego and will be spending her birthday at the world famous San Diego Zoo. I am excited. Yesterday was Sea World and sadly tomorrow I head home. :( The weather has been glorious and the relaxing atmosphere has been so nice. I remembered why it is a good idea to go on vacation. I will have pictured forthcoming. :)
So I decided today that I should add music to my blog. I figure I'd put up some of the music that I spend my day listening to. Most of it is mid to late 90's alernative with a healthy dose of grunge rock, and a few other spices thrown in so y'all know just how eclectic my music taste is. If you were to steal my Ipod (please don't I'd be mad) you would be treated to a random assortment similar to, but much larger in scope than this list. T-72 hours to finals completion... I need a Red Bull.
So I am an economist by education which means that I like to look at supply and demand curves, and analyze how shocks to the economy effect everyday life. So apparently the local temperature is a supply shock to the cotton growers all over the world. Without fail it would seem that with increased temperatures the price of cotton increases.
Now you might think that over a national market like we have in the US that supply shocks might me minimized because when it is warm in Utah its still darn cold in Wyoming or Montana, or North Dakota. But time after time I have seen the effects of this market shortage for cotton. the temperature rises and without fail the price goes up. I mean, for what other reason could it be that as the temperature increases so does the distance between women's hem lines and the ground, or the vertical distance from a woman's chin to her neckline? clearly there is a correlation between the temperature and cotton prices. And now as an honest to goodness graduated economist I will have to look into the matter.
That's it, my log awaited class ring. I am pretty proud of it. Its taken long enough to get. A week from today is commencement. Just gotta hit the books and do well on those finals.
So yesterday I walked out of a class at BYU for the last time. Sure I have to take 3 exams, all of which hold the promise of being particularly evil, but I never again will have to set foot in a classroom. (unless I get my MBA at some point, but this is beyond the point) So today I find my self in this strange limbo land. My final exams are Monday and Tuesday of next week. Its strange I know I probably SHOULD start to study, but I am not sure my brain will let me. Granted these exams will be crazy hard, but I start to reach diminishing marginal returns and I find it difficult to study any more past a certain point. I am most worried about my econometrics exam, followed by my price theory exam. My financial econ exam will be a beast but I am for some reason just not as worried about it. So thus I float...
In other news, on the upcoming post-grad roady we are planning on going to a Dodger game in LA after spending the day at the beach. I am excited to see one of the games great venues. Chavez Ravine (Dodger Stadium) is a historic and storied park. It falls in behind Wrigley and Fenway and that rats nest that the Yankee$ call home. (How could it not be a rats nest if its full of Yankee fans) but it is still one of the great old parks and I am excited to go. I plan to eat myself a Dodger dog, and leave a rediculous pile of peanut shells in my wake. MAN I LOVE BASEBALL!
So today my academic career comes to a close. Its not bitter. Its not bittersweet. Its just freakin sweet!!! I finished my last paper last night. It ended up being 16 pages of analysis on basball statistics for the past 30 years. And the best part was that I was in bed by 11 o'clock. So aparently it took my ENTIRE tour through academia to learn how to not procrastinate a paper to the point where it takes an all nighter to finish it. Maybe I really did learn something :)
After today I have 3 exams to take and I am officially finished. Those exams are not going to be cakewalks by any stretch of the imagination but I am confident that I will triumph. So very VERY soon I will no longer have to stress on a Sunday evening that I have homework to turn in the next day. Boy thats going to be sweet. So now with all of my new found free time i can read books that I WANT to read. Or if i am feeling like it I can take a walk in the park with a really cute friend on a sunny day. Or kill people and break things in the virtual reality that comes to me via the Playstation 3. Or beat my roommate mercilessly at Smash Brothers on the Wii. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!!!!!!
Could life be any better?? I submit that it cannot!
So In my next to last class of Financial Economics, Dr. Jensen left us with some financial advice that I plan to follow. He said "Pay 10% to the Lord, 10% to yourself, amd spend the rest" to which one of my classmates said "or 80% to your wife" This is from a man who has spent his life studying the economy and is looking at a well taken care of retirement. So as far as advice givers go he has the qualifications.
I am taking a vacation after graduation. A little road trip to San Diego. Never been to San Diego. We are stopping along the way in Las Vegas and probably a Dodger game too. I am excited, no school no work... just me and a freind and lots of play time. I am really looking forward to it. It was brought to my attention that my last vacation that didn't involve Seattle or a Mariners game was nearly 3 years ago, whilst married (mostly happily) in the Caribean. So it is a vacation FAR overdue.
So there are 2 days left of classes for me. Yup 2 classes. Then finals... boy its gonna be wierd to not worry about school any more.
So today is a gorgeous spring day. Its sunny, and getting warmer, makes me wanna go do drastic things like run. Now you may laugh because I say running is drastic but for me it is. Last week I went for a nice 2 mile run and nearly had to have a lung transplant at the end. But there is a reason its called spring FEVER. Fevers only come with an ILLNESS. So clearly I am not in my right mind when I go running... but even amongst all the hacking and feeling as though a lung is about to relocate itself from the pulmonary cavity onto the sidewalk, it feel remarkably good.
Today I had realization. I have 3 days left of school. 3! Thats like... in my entire academic career 3 DAYS! So needless to say I am excited. Now I just need to survive those three days and thier respective final exams and I will be golden. :)
Today I also had another realization. With my homework for the week complete, my monster papers pretty well in check, and working an opening shift at work, I find myself with very little to do this evening. The girl I would choose to spend my evening with is otherwise occupied tonight so it may be a night for killing terrorits on Rainbow Six Vegas 2. But the realization came when I thought about how my evenings will go after graduation. I realized this is just a prelude to how my evenings will go. "No more teachers, no more books..." I get to relax and spend my evenings how i want to... GOSH! I'm just not sure how to spend my new found free time. Maybe with the extra time Princess Charming will find me... :)
So Last night I went country dancing with a girl that I like. It wasn't my first experience with country dancing. Last summer my buddy John and I would go each week in an effort to meet girls. It was mostly a futile effort as the girls were there to dance and we were there to meet them, but didnt dance particularly well. I still dont dance particularly well, but I go and try to break out of my comfort zone and try to learn a new trick. But last night was different... I wish I could tell you that instantly I could country swing a girl until she was dizzy, but I cant.
No last night I was amazed at the mass of humanity that goes country dancing. Aparently country dancing isnt just for cowboys. A few people in particular stood out to me. There was the kid who was obviously cooler than every one in the room because the sun shone on him day and night even indoors. At least that must be what he thought in order to wear HUGE California Highway Patrol(CHiPs) style sunglasses, inside for the whole night. Then there was a huge contingent of California wann-be guys with t-shirts 3 sizes to small emblazoned with "Hollister" or polo shirts with the collars popped up. The girls who go country dancing are divided into two groups. Those that are there to have fun and are beautiful but dont treat it as a fashion show, and the fishionistas who are there to show off thier Prada belt buckles, Coach handbags, and designer jeans that cost more than my car payment. Needless to say you can tell which type of girl I was there with. The beautiful non designer jeans wearing type.
In all the people watching, I wondered when country became cool. When did country dancing change from a check you Stetson at the door, Honkey Tonk to the social mainstream? its a perplexing question but until I figure it out I will countinue to practice...
So I found this picture and whole heartly agree. It was good for a great laugh.
School has consumed me at the outset of this week. A couple of exams and a nasty paper to write will do that. I just have to say that I cannot wait for this all to be over. worrying about one less major responsibility will be so nice. Never again will school rob me of a good powder day. Never again will I have to try and explain to my boss why I have just too much homework to come to work. NEVER AGAIN!!! :)
Maybe if I WAS a ninja I'd be a little more adept at the juggling act. Unitil I improve my nunchuck skills I will have to stick to Smash Brothers on the Wii.
As I was sitting today trying to consume a massive amount of information about such enthralling subjects as Heteroskedasticity, Autocorrelation, and statistical hypothesis testing, the following though occurred to me: In a month I am never going to have to do this (cramming for an exam) again. That got me thinking do I have senioritis or am I trunky.
As a missionary we get trunky. Meaning we are sitting on our bags (trunks) packed and ready to go home. This is not hard to do as you live out of 2 suitcases for most of the 2 years (or 18 months for my female friends) you spend away from home. This is because in essence you are done being a missionary and living the lifestyle of one. The rules, the lack of sleep, the extreme yet awesome spiritual exhaustion. All these factors can make you trunky. Trunkiness is a general need to move to the next facet of life.
Senioritis is desperately wanting to not have to deal with the travails of student life. Exams, quizzes, papers you never plan to publish or have read again, and generally what I refer to as academic bulimia. that's the gorging on facts, figures and data to only regurgitate and brain dump after the need to know it for an exam has passed.
I decidedly have some of both. I am ready to move on in my life. I am sick of the exams (especially sick of those) and I am ready to not be a student any longer. It is time to move on to the next phase. Granted I have been to the next phase so I hope that this time the yo-yo ride moves in a different direction. but lets be honest I am the epitome of a SUPER-Senior. I'll be 29 in a couple months. Seriously "lots of people go to school for 7 years..." too bad I am not getting an MD behind my name, but a well deserved BS. but that's a gripe for another day.
So bottom line I am suffering from trunky-senioritis in a very acute form... thankfully it has a timed life that is due to expire in about a month.
So this morning as I put on my socks to go to work I realized that the were 10 years old. 10 YEARS!!!! My mom bought them for me as I was preparing to leave for a mission. They are still very comfortable and proof positive that you get what you pay for. As I recall they were some rediculous proce like $10/pair, yet obviosuly worth every penny. I had 10 pairs of the same socks for my entire mission. Thorlo Business socks. check em out.
I have said that when I am rich I will put on a brand new pair of socks every day. there is nothing quite like a new pair of socks. so soft and comfy. Every day should be a new pair of socks day. What will I do with them after I wear them?? donate them to charity of course!
I just got some very good news as I stress out over the coming end of the semester. I have it direct from my academic advisor that I need to only pass my Financial Econ class (something D- or better) and that a C- or better in my Price theory class and my econometrics class will ensure my graduation in 34 days. C's get degrees and in this case one D too. :)
Now generally I dont support mediocrity. Excellence in all I do is what I strive for, but come on folks. I was a freshman a decade ago. I recieved my mission call 10 years ago last week. I have been at the Lords University for far too long and its simply time for me to pay my dues to the Cougar Club and my Alumni association and move on with life. Now I just have to be minutely above the margin and I am home free!
So last night i had it brought to my attention that it is not such a bad thing that nice guys finish last. The reasoning was that the nice guys end up with the last girl. And where I can see this line of thinking, i see it as somewhat flawed. my main argument before was that girls prefer jerks, and I still think that this holds true, but where the idea has merit is that I really dont want the sorts of girls who choose jerks. So I will finish with the last and the best. I think in scripture it says something about "The first shall be last and the last shall be first" so maybe I just need to hurry up and find that last girl. :)
Its true. Guys can be jerks from time to time. I myself am not exempt. I mean lets be honest, its pretty much impossible to get to be the jaded divorced guy without having caused at least a few female shed tears. I've repented, moved on and hope those I've wronged can forgive me.
I have a friend who had a bad weekend. she ran into a buzzsaw of a jerk masquerading as a friend. This is the worst thing a guy can be. When good clean fun becomes down right uncomfortable for one party, or they fear for thier safety, the guy has moved to a new class of jerk that there are words for, but this is a family blog. I asked her if I could take him out, break his legs (I have sicilian friends) much to her credit she is not such a vengful person. I'm sure we could take care of him properly ( think torture scene from Casino Royale). But again much to this friends credit she declined. this brings me to a funny experience yesterday...
So I attend a singles ward, and where I am increasingly in the older crowd I still derive utility (geez i sound like an economist) from talking with the younger crowd. Call it the kid in me. But I found myself in a Dating and Courtship class. Boy was I a fish out of water. It occured to me that the sheer number of analogies regarding dating and relationships is staggering. Our ward is broken into 3 groups. The syrupy engaged couples (or engagged as my roommate Matt puts it), the young and desireables, and the jaded and looking/praying for a miracle crowd. In our ward there are a handfull of the sappy engagged, and a near even split between the young and beautiful and the miracle seekers. I myself am a tweener as I am young at heart but clearly somewhat jaded. I digress... the analogy party was absurd. we had one guy talking about how with love its like math (I know I know) that we dont multiply we use exponents... I nearly jumped out of my skin. My favorite by far was mine. "its not a matter of if we have baggage, its a matter of if all our baggage can get into the same vehicle" genius I know :)
The moral of the story is Guys are jerks and if you're a jerk you shouldnt use stupid analogies to explain why you aren't marreid yet. I know its deep...
This is a Glorious time of year. This weekend is Selection sunday, meaning the Field of 64 for the NCAA tournament will be chosen. Now my team, BYU, is likely to, as always, get absolutely screwed by the selection commitee. This is not new to BYU, but this year while assuming the shaft on a first round opponent we need to rise up and win. BYU has not had a win in the NCAA tourney since 1993. WAYYYY TOOO LONG! However the difference this year is that we have already seen better opponents and we know we can play. We took North Carolina (currently #1) to the brink of an upset, and we played Michigan State the same way. If there is the year for a run into the Sweet 16 this is it.
but apart from march madness there are two days even more important to me. Easter Sunday is next week, and is truly the most important day of the year. Because without Easter there wouldn't be a Chirstmas. Any of you who know me well know the Hell I have endured over the past few years, which makes easter all the more important.
But the Second most important day of this year happens on March 31st. That is Opening day at Safeco Field. The Mariners '08 home opener. They went out big this year and have possibly the best 1-2 starting pitching combination in baseball. As online source put it the "Ace-King" combination (Eric Bedard and Felix "The King" Hernandez) I kinda like that...
Now if I could only figure out how to time warp past finals (while acing them) and just get to graduation I will be a happy camper. but really I couldn't be doing much better from a sports point of view unless the M's were in the World Series and BYU football was on its way to a national championship. But lets remain in the realm of reality. :)
THOUGHT WE COULD USE A LITTLE LAUGH TO LIGHTEN UP THE DAY!
If you don't laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana . He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 FM in Ft. Wayne,Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won. Hi Sue, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut. So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, '! I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.' Now whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day? May you NEVER have a jellyfish bad day!!!!!
