2manychefs

10:26 am - I'm back

ok i Admit I just wrote a long entry here, but reposted it to blogger... the widgets are too much fun...

http://2manychefs.blogspot.com

04:38 pm - Strictly Commercial

Well, it's official - I'm moving the blog to greener pastures.

The basic reason for the move is more freedom. The big advantage of LJ is the community, but blogspot offers complete control over your template. I'm putting in some goodies to play around with, like Google Analytics, and I'll try and make a few bucks off the banner ads. I will miss the LJ community and I expect that I'll still be stopping by to read and comment on the blogs of my LJ friends, who clearly hate freedom.

My goal is to provide some decent writing in an anti-establishment vein, and build it one reader at a time. I will try to post every day, and if I don't have time to write, then I have a stock of interesting quotes that I can put up. You can help me stick it to the Man by bookmarking, stopping by often and clicking on the banner ads. He hates that.

http://2manychefs.blogspot.com

11:32 am - I like this passage

This is BY FAR one of the more readable passages in the stuff I've been reading recently.

"There are some who would view the current mélange of resource and environmental
problems as being precisely the result of tyrannical and selfish decisions by recent generations.
Such a characterization would not be fair or accurate. While many renewable resources have been
mismanaged (such as marine fisheries and tropical rain forest), and various nonrenewable
resources may have been depleted too rapidly (oil reserves in the U.S.), the process, though nonoptimal,
has generated both physical and human capital in the form of buildings, a housing stock,
highways, public infrastructure, modern agriculture, and the advancement of science and
technology. These also benefit and have expanded the choices open to future generations.
Further, any single generation is usually closely "linked" to the two generations which preceded it
and the two generations which will follow. The current generation has historically made
sacrifices in their immediate well-being to provide for parents, children and grandchildren. While
intergenerational altruism may not be obvious in the functioning of financial markets, it is more
obvious in the way we have collectively tried to regulate the use of natural resources and the
quality of the environment. Our policies have not always been effective, but their motivation
seems to derive from a sincere concern for future generations.

Determining the "best" endowment of human and natural capital to leave future
generations is made difficult because we do not know what they will need or want. Some
recommend that if we err, we should err on the side of leaving more natural resources and
undisturbed natural environments. By saving them now we derive certain amenity benefits and
preserve the options to harvest or develop in the future."

-Jon M. Conrad, Resource Economics

12:10 am

Any ideas here? What is that thing?

03:13 pm

Aphorism of the Day

It's difficult to procrastinate on cleanliness when your cat urinates on the laundry pile.

02:19 pm

It rained all weekend - again - and I must admit that I got a little stir-crazy. I ran through my options - shopping? eh, no money. library? did that. Not much else to do on a soggy, miserable day in Ithaca. (my gym membership hasn't been arranged yet) So I'm a little ahead on my studies now, and I would be further if I could afford books. It seems to be a enduring feature of my life that I have to jump through continuous financial hoops. I got up slow this morning, idle Labor Day, and went for a run and some fresh air, which I desperately needed. Caffeine is no substitute for a slow, sunny day. I think that we all have basic expectations for ourselves, especially in a culture that values competition so highly; I would love to get straight A's, but realistically we have to take on what we can. I'm trying to get up every morning and ask myself: What can I do today to make my grad school run a success? And sometimes that means going for a run, fresh air, and a thoughtful blog entry. I want my approach to this grad school thing to be like Conan's approach to comedy: You do it one show at a time, and if that's not good enough, then oh well.. On rainy days, it's easy to lose that.

06:04 pm - The Kid's Got Game

Ryan Howard, the Phillies third baseman, his three home runs in today's early game.. That brings him to 52 for the season with about a month to play. He's been on a hot streak for the last few months, and today he just put an exclamation point on that: last week, he broke Mike Schmidt's team record set in the Series year of 1980. Now, he could be the first non-steroid player to pass the 61 home run plateau, set by Roger Maris in 1961 before these thick-headed (literally) freaks helped ruin the game. These are big, hallowed numbers for baseball fans, and after every homer he hit today, the crowd chanted "MVP, MVP!" If he keeps this up, I don't see how he couldn't be.

06:04 pm

I love looking at my handwriting, which I consider to be a form of unique, personalized expression. That said, it sucks. I know this because I've spent a fair amount of time sitting here today, trying to decipher what I wrote earlier this week in class. Most professors have taught their classes a few times before, and have voluminous notes already typed out. By printing these, I can write in the margins and otherwise inform myself of important things that I'm going to forget.

It's no easier because I bought a few colored highlighters and, in addition to handwritten notes, I'm trying to impose an ordered system of colors. Yellow means "important", pink is "look at this later", and so on. At the end of the week, I'm left with dozens of graphs and equations in three colors supplemented by cramped notes. This does not mention the inevitable coffee stains. And to add a further cryptographic level to the menagerie, this is economics that I'm studying.

12:05 pm - Sound Off

The NY state Democratic primaries are coming up on September 13. I was wondering what people would suggest. Hillary or Tasini?

My basic question is: obviously, Hillary is going to win, but is Tasini worth a protest vote? Sound off....

12:15 pm - How many popular markets are left in Baghdad?

It seems like every single day there is a new story about another public place in Baghdad that has been hit by another bomb causing another human catastrophe. I wonder, after 3+ years, how many of these markets are left? And why does anyone still go to them? Are Iraqis enterprising enough to start a home-delivery service for groceries? And when will we finally pull out? And can numbers like "18" really reflect the tragedy of these daily incidents?

I can't believe that Rummy is still trying to debate the merits of this war. The debate is over. He deserved to be eviscerated by Keith Olbermann last night. Will Bunch said on Attytood that "every American should watch this," I'm just doing my liberal best to make sure that happens!

10:20 am

I keep wondering when my connections to Malawi will cease to be useful. It's been a curious condition of my life after Peace Corps that I continue to bump into that tiny backwater on the other side of the world. I would have never guessed that this would be the case, but many events since - such as an entire year of employment - can be ascribed to nothing more than happy circumstance. I guess that once you know where to look, all sorts of strange coincidences can abound.

I met a Malawian lady on campus here! Yes, she's in my GIS class, works for the government in Malawi, and is studying via fellowship for the next 10 months. I saw her name on a board, found her, and introduced myself in Chichewa. I can only imagine that she was surprised. In a further revelation, her husband once gave me a hitch somewhere in Malawi. I don't remember him - there were so many rides - but he remembered me, because he remembered asking about "Norton Anti-Virus." (There's little mistaking that... there was no volunteer named "Symantec") Small world, no?

10:34 am - The Update

A few things have been happening. First of all, I got a new kitten. This is fun, except for the fact that he is the most efficient alarm clock that I've ever had. Circa 6:30 am, when the dog gets let loose, he gets dumped in my room and seems to have a fascination with my face from which he cannot be dissuaded. Heaven forbid I should rub my eyes or move under the blanket; these are provocation for claws. I figured out this morning that I could lock him in the closet if I need to get more sleep, but I should probably get up early anyway. He's gray & six months old. My roommates love him, and I'll post pictures when I get a chance. His name - right now - is Jessie, but that may change. Ideas are welcome. I'm thinking Howie? Or Flip? I think I can do better than those....

The job with the Exp. Econ lab may not work out. The job was originally designed for an undergrad, and I think that what I have to offer and what they want might be two different things. For example, I don't want to be anywhere on a set schedule right now - I've got too many things to do, like learn. The big advantage of the job seems to be access to the Exp. Econ side of things, and I must say that I'm not terribly interested in behavior, etc. I don't know how long it will last - I'll be talking to my boss today.

Classes are chugging along - I've been doing some course shopping. Yesterday, I went to the Intl. Env. Urban Planning class - a discussion class full of idealists. I'm pretty liberal, but also practical, so I could see myself getting into some arguments in that class... which could be fun. The big advantage of that one would be to get a decent handle on modern economic thought. Also sat in on an Energy Economics class in the Chemical Engineering department that could be potentially interesting, if I want an engineering perspective on my work. But I was completely unimpressed with the professor's grasp of social science, the most egregious example was that he started a discussion of early human technology with the Neanderthals. (Hint: we're not evolved from Neanderthals!)

So yeah, just another few days passing rather ordinarily, working on this whole thing and trying to make something of myself....

01:25 pm - Music

I'm starting to get over the excitement produced by finally getting my own laptop. I've gone through like four computers, between home and work, in the last year or so, and haven't bothered to personalize each one.

The most important thing is that I finally have a repository for all my music. I've got like 400 CDs in old folders that I've been collecting for the last 10 years or so, and although I've been uploading them like crazy, I still haven't had time to get them all in. (And truthfully, I don't know that I want to - I've purged most of the stinkers but there are still some very questionable discs in there. Oasis? What was I thinking?)

Still, I'm "only" at 9 GB and counting. This is the age of iTunes and I'm sure many of you have much, much more than that. A lady told me the other day that she had 28 GB of music, which was a problem for her. I think the challenge is not so much to fill your hard drive with music, but to fill your hard drive with good music. I'm trying to resist the temptation to fill iTunes with 80s cheese, and failing.

Time was, it was a bit of a big deal to get a new CD - I loaded Pearl Jam's "Yield" for precisely that reason. I don't have any special inclination towards the album, but haven't listened to it in a while. And it will always remind me of the time, my sophomore year, I went into Oakland with my roommates at midnight to get the disc on the night it dropped. Pearl Jam was still new and cool in those days, and there was quite a line of us young people, and the expectation that we about to be a part of something young and exciting. We stood in line and bought four copies. Would that ever happen these days?

01:41 pm - Arsenic & Undergraduates

Classes start tomorrow - finally - and it seems as if I'll have something more interesting to do soon. A lot has been happening nonetheless, and it's been difficult to keep up with all the details necessary for setting up a new apartment. I still stand by my earlier assertion, though - Ithaca is gorges.

I'm still playing with the idea of 2manychefs.net - these blogging sites are fun, but I think it would be a hoot to see how well Google Analytics works, or see if I could pump up site views on a blog, and make some cash on it. I had a few beers last night and looked into it, but the $150 for the year threw me off.

I'm getting more and more involved in work on campus - it seems like it will be an interesting job, in an experimental economics laboratory. I assumed that "Experimental" economics meant using cutting edge methods, but it involves doing experiments on behavior with economics in mind. In this case, specifically environmental or health economics (the two are strangely related).

One example of an experiment that the lab did last year was to dip a cockroach into a glass of water, and then see how much people would have to be paid to drink it. I might be gross, but there is no risk involved, so it really all comes down to your perception of the whole thing. Is cockroach water unacceptable? If so, how unacceptable?

A real world application of this risk perception is the shifting values for property close to Superfund sites. Property values will plummet by $30,000 the day after the classification is announced, even if there is little risk to the community, all because of the way people perceive risk. No one wants to live near a Superfund site, even if it is a fairly innocuous one.

This year, one of the experiments will be to put different (minute) levels of arsenic into some milk, and seeing how much it will cost to make undergraduates drink it. People all over the world drink minute levels arsenic every day without getting poisoned, so again, there is no risk, but about the perception of that risk. The general idea is to see how people respond to an arbitrary threshold set by the EPA. Such as: if the EPA sets a value of 10 micrograms a day, would people be much more likely to accept 9 micrograms than 11 micrograms, even though they are virtually identical? (But who cares about that? We're giving arsenic to undergrads! Hahaha! I thought that maybe, instead of milk, we could've used Natty Light, but I didn't say anything.)

I might end up taking that Energy Markets class because it would fast-track me for a thesis in these sorts of topics, with a potential focus in how energy markets are being deregulated. In any case, this is good "exposure"....

09:54 pm - My courses this semester

Introduction to Econometrics (w/ Applied Econometrics)
- Combining economics and statistics? I was born to take this class...

Resource Economics
- Constructs dynamic models of renewable, nonrenewable, and environmental resources to examine market allocation and optimal resource management. Got that?

Geographic Information Systems
- Because I am a badass mofo.

For my last class, I'm considering either:
Energy Markets

or

Environmental Aspects of International Urban Planning

12:10 pm

Apparently a lot of other people had similar ideas to my Adirondack escape, which I first noticed when none of four stores that I tried had any cheap tents left in stock. I settled on a $9 hammock, figuring that the only two things i would need would be two trees and a whole lot of faith that it wasn't going to rain. I was lucky on the first count - trees and rednecks being the only two things in abundance - but not so lucky on the second. I got up there, couldn't find a campsite or a room, and decided to turn around and come home, feeling somewhat defeated. I don't mind flying by the seat of my pants, but next time I might try and have some little idea of what I'm doing.

Still, it was a terrific drive, and worthwhile for the scenery and the endless vignettes between here and there, like the teenaged couple flirting behind the counter of a Utica KFC. Upstate NY is dairy country, and country highways reveal endless corn fields and cattle pens, and every little town seems to have a rustic old inn where you can still stop in for a meal.

I was a little disappointed by the commercial nature of the park itself. I wasn't expecting water parks or movie theaters. I'm sure that there are more out-of-the-way places to go that just take time to find, and I had very little time yesterday. Overall, I'd probably just prefer to camp around here and avoid the crowds - if it weren't raining, that is.

12:46 pm - Road trip!

I normally never drink coffee after a certain hour, but I was at a dinner party last night and agreed to a cup with dessert. This kept me up until 3 am, including a few hours there where I was too tired to function but too awake to go to bed. I ended up going for a drive around 1 am, to nowhere in particular. It was actually a good experience, to see the convenience store buzzing at 2am - I haven't been up that late since I've been back from Africa, and I'd forgotten a bit what it was like, even though last year I was up every night until 1-2 am.

But in my fading night-time energy, I was inspired: why don't I drive to Canada? I've lived for years in countries all over the world, but I have never gone to see our fair northern neighbors. I had my passport in the car, and a full tank of gas, but wisdom prevailed and I decided to get some sleep before I tried anything.

We have nothing more official planned than a few orientation events, so a few of the guys around here took off and went to DC or NYC for this break between math camp and normal school. I figure that I could sit around for a few days being bored, or I could go for a drive. Fuck it - I've got wheels and gas money, I'm going camping for a few days. Now I just have to go down and buy some road smokes and a $20 tent from EMS. In less than an hour I'll be listening to FM rock and breezing through the upstate scenery on my way north.

I'm thinking Adirondacks....

01:31 pm - Classic

From the Onion. This one made me laugh out loud...

U.S. Dedicates $64 Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts
August 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC—The Bush Administration unveiled a new $64 billion spending package Monday for a joint CIA–Pentagon program aimed at neutralizing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's global humanitarian network.

"The fight against Gates will not be easy, will not be quick, and will not be without enormous cost," said Director Of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte of the new program...

01:06 pm - Ithaca is Gorges

09:06 am - Shout Out to Wegman's

My roommates and I were last night sitting at an Irish bar, trying to come up with an interesting activity that was both fun and free because unable to afford continued drinking. Being veterans of the area, they introduced me to a Rochester institution: Wegman's supermarket. I don't have any idea how it compares to something like Whole Foods - never been in one of those. But I stepped in Wegman's and I was blown away by the variety. Get this: they have an Olive Bar, a single place where you can pick and choose any sort of olives that you desire. I've never seen such a thing. Why would you need a bar just for olives? It blows my mind. It is a great find: good food is one of the few things that I'll spend money on, along with CDs, books, and parking violations.