The best thing I ran across while doing research today:
The sustainability of Toilets in Hanoi

booya!

Spent 8 hours grinding through data on Vietnam...

Now I'm working on my other paper.

Soon...will...be...over...

2am now, working on my research paper, due next monday.

Pretty much the story of this week... Grinding away at the end of the semester.

I've been grumbling about news surrounding the war, American foreign policy. Stuff about Syria, oh, and SARS. I actually wrote a rant earlier tonight, but I don't like to rant unless I can present myself in a clear objective way, and I'm not quite skilled enough with words to do that without getting really long winded, and I didn't have the time to get long winded tonight. Suffice it to say, pretty discontent with how the world is turning out. History is not given, and nothing is inevitable. I'm just frustrated that I'm not in a position to change things.

On happier notes, Amy and I hung out tonight at Cosi's, and had what turned out to be a very plesant time. I had a soy latte (I'm not trying to be all hippie and stuff, but I'm starting to get lactose intolerant :( and had my fill of milk already today), and we munched on some toasted flatbread and different dips. Last night we got to hang out with Steve, who I hadn't seen since Jon Min was in town a week and a half ago. I'm really happy for Steve - his job seems to be really taking off, and he's in a position now where I'd be happy to see myself in two or three years after I graduate - and he's younger than me by two years! The quartet that we're planning to start together has had a couple of false starts, but hopefully next week is the week.

Tuesday I did some magic in the kitchen and produced some excellent beef and brocolli and peppers. I really like cooking, especially when it actually turns out well. Then amy and I went out to visit Ann, our smart business-school-bound friend who pops in and out of DC like Mary Poppins in London, except at a higher frequency.

I forget if I posted about this past weekend, but the weather was absolutely beautiful, and instead of doing the work that I should have been doing, Amy and I hung out outside the whole time enjoying the city in spring.

Hey!

My sister's band - The Sharp Things' first album just got reviewed by NPR:
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1232037

Check out their website and buy an album:
http://www.thesharpthings.com

So, it's 3am. I've been working on this damn applied econometrics problem set half the day. I just wasted a hour because the author of this textbook is careless. Let me explain: In this book, one of the questions is, "State and test the identification assumption". For me, the term "identification assumption" is ambiguous. So I look in the glossary. not there. I look in the index. Not there. So I look on the web. It's everywhere. Apparently, the term "identification assumption" is one of the most common and generic terms in the world of empirical economics. Consequently, it's virtually impossible to use google to find out what the hell Mr. Wooldridge (author of the textbook) means when he asks me to "State and test the identification assumption". Finally, after racking my brain for an hour, I've figured it out. It was just a poorly worded question.

However, in my hour waste of time, I did come to several conclusions:

There are a whole lot of really boring and potentially useless econ papers written out there. I guess this is generally known - there is an excess supply of writing coming out of academia - this is a symptom of the over-stressing of writing and publishing as an indicator of the quality of a person in academia. I once heard the statistic that there is so much (original) material written and published, that the volume produced in a single day would exceed the amount that you would be able to read in a lifetime. Crazy huh? And to think that this dribble I'm writing contributes to it.

I've told myself over this past year that I might want to pursue a PHD in economics. I haven't gained any clarity over that question, but I do know that I am much farther away from being at an academically advanced level of economics than I previously thought.

I'd been told before to avoid law school unless I really want to become a lawyer, or I'm really interested in the subject matter. My experience in this class, Applied Econometrics, has brought clarity to that statement. I took this class not because I particularly wanted to, or because I was particularly interested in the subject matter, but only because it was the only other class I needed to obtain a "Advanced Quantitative Theory and Methods" specialization on my diploma when I graduate. In other words, I didn't really care. And it's made me completely slack and not do the reading/work when I should have, and it's made it extremely painful to waste an hour of my life looking up the term "identification assumption". I can only imagine how painful it is to go through 3 years of law school if you're not really interested in it, and you're only doing it because you want a law degree...

Blech. Shit. better get back to this problem set.
Adios.

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