In the middle of Exam Week hell right now.

It's a lot worse this semester than last. It could be because my classes this semester are more backloaded this year (piling all the graded work at the end), but also probably partially because I have been less diligent in getting work done over the course of this semester than last.

Right now, I'm sitting with my group, putting finishing touches onto a 17 page stats project that I've dedicated the last 5 days of my life to do. It's really cool, relevant and original, so it's been fun. I just need to be done with it, so I can get on with my other classwork.

Actually, hell-week is a bit misleading - it all started two weeks ago when I worked for 24 hours straight to turn in my China Economics paper. Since then, I've been going full steam, especially this past week. It will be a wonderful feeling of relief when I finish my last thing.

Today is Daiv Hollman's birthday:

If you know him, email him a happy birthday.

Last night he came over because Amy was real good and baked him a birthday cake, which we decorated together. Then we had an intensive game of scrabble.

I usually don't read newspaper pundits, i.e. columnists, preferring instead to get facts from credible sources and interpreting and forming opinions for myself, but I've started reading them. This is mainly because I've been told that much of america (or maybe more accurately, most of america's educated) form their opinions based on certain respected columnists.

Here's one that I read recently from Thomas Friedman, which I thought was particularly entertaining, yet insightful:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/opinion/30FRIE.html