With classes half over, I am ready to be done. Last week was the most expensive stay-cation that I had no choice in taking. The furlough is technically 9 days per semester, but the president told us to take 4 of them last week. So, with a free week on my hands, I remodeled the guest bathroom. I ripped out everything except the tub, repainted, installed new floor tile, installed a new vanity, faucet, and light fixture, re-caulked the tub, and reset the old toilet. It should have only take two days, but I found a way to stretch it out to four.
Counting both the salary cut from the furlough and the remodel, the grand total cost of last week exceeded $7000. For that much money, I could have easily dropped the kids with a babysitter for the week and taken my lovely wife to Fiji, then Tahiti, and back.
Luckily, the school has found a way to supplement my income this year; I will teach an intersession class in January and a summer school class. At least I have a job, and a way to recoup the income losses from the furlough.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
California in all of its glory
I am teaching a graduate class on environmental regulation. Had I taught it in any other state, I would know almost everything that I need to know to teach it. I don't - I live in the craziest environmental regulatory state in the union. CEQA is California's response to NEPA. Since I cannot see the future, or where I'll be in two years, I decided to pay ~$200 and go to a class on CEQA. It lasted all day. The campus was nice. I got to eat cafeteria food. I learned a lot. I can sum it up in a few short sentences:
CEQA is a statute that requires a significant gathering of information on any land-use related action that anyone undertakes in California. This information changes and you should be prepared for a lawsuit no matter what decision you choose. If no one cares about your project, you don't have to worry about doing a good job or your environmental impact report, but it you are Wal-Mart it better be a good report because you are going to be sued. Oh, and by the way, if you get your project approved, you better finish it before anything changes or else all of that work is in vain.
The law sucks, it turns federalism on its head, and it doesn't do what it was intended to do. It was designed to require that public entities make informed decisions about the environmental impacts of land use. It is now a tool to both protect and litigate against public and private entities for any number of issues including non-environmental issues. The governor or legislature can make exemptions for whatever project that they want. Scientifically uninformed judges end up deciding what should go and what shouldn't. AND the best part is that a local entity can exempt itself from the state law if the voters in the jurisdiction opt out.
The more I live in California, the more it makes no sense. The State Supreme Court has upheld the proposition system as a legitimate way to amend the constitution* even if voter turnout is near 10%. That means that is can take either 10% of regular voters or 67% of state legislators to change the constitution. Anyone see a problem here? Almost everyone knows that direct democracy creates problems, not solves them!
It is late. I am looking for jobs out of this stupid state. I think that it should secede from the union so that no other states think it is a good idea to mimic California's actions. Then California will be able to take its place as the 7th largest economy in the world as an independent country...
or run itself into oblivion... whichever comes first.
*Although this example demonstrates an issue with which I agree, the example is sufficiently controversial that it has encouraged average citzens to question the logic of the proposition system.
CEQA is a statute that requires a significant gathering of information on any land-use related action that anyone undertakes in California. This information changes and you should be prepared for a lawsuit no matter what decision you choose. If no one cares about your project, you don't have to worry about doing a good job or your environmental impact report, but it you are Wal-Mart it better be a good report because you are going to be sued. Oh, and by the way, if you get your project approved, you better finish it before anything changes or else all of that work is in vain.
The law sucks, it turns federalism on its head, and it doesn't do what it was intended to do. It was designed to require that public entities make informed decisions about the environmental impacts of land use. It is now a tool to both protect and litigate against public and private entities for any number of issues including non-environmental issues. The governor or legislature can make exemptions for whatever project that they want. Scientifically uninformed judges end up deciding what should go and what shouldn't. AND the best part is that a local entity can exempt itself from the state law if the voters in the jurisdiction opt out.
The more I live in California, the more it makes no sense. The State Supreme Court has upheld the proposition system as a legitimate way to amend the constitution* even if voter turnout is near 10%. That means that is can take either 10% of regular voters or 67% of state legislators to change the constitution. Anyone see a problem here? Almost everyone knows that direct democracy creates problems, not solves them!
It is late. I am looking for jobs out of this stupid state. I think that it should secede from the union so that no other states think it is a good idea to mimic California's actions. Then California will be able to take its place as the 7th largest economy in the world as an independent country...
or run itself into oblivion... whichever comes first.
*Although this example demonstrates an issue with which I agree, the example is sufficiently controversial that it has encouraged average citzens to question the logic of the proposition system.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Plastic surgery
To lighten things up, a couple of pictures that need exposure to my throng of fans (all 5 of you, as a random stranger would say).
First, Mr. Pierce, or is it Mrs.?
Mr. Spacey, jr. "He always loved swiss cheese" - his mother
And finally, a tattoo that is most appropriate for my current situation. (I think that it is photoshop-ed, but that doesn't decrease the novelty, does it?)
First, Mr. Pierce, or is it Mrs.?
Mr. Spacey, jr. "He always loved swiss cheese" - his mother
And finally, a tattoo that is most appropriate for my current situation. (I think that it is photoshop-ed, but that doesn't decrease the novelty, does it?)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Change, I believe it
When Barack Obama promised change, I was skeptical that any president could make much dramatic change. I have a long-running disagreement with many of my colleagues about the importance of the Presidency. I don't think that any one President is as important as the institutions surrounding him (until there is a she, the President can be referred to as a 'he').
Now I am a believer. Change he did - and it has been dramatic. Unfortunately, I see that change for the sake of change may destroy our nation. How unfortunate.
[Disclaimer: I hate politics and do not subscribe to, approve of, or otherwise condone the behavior of any political party]
Now I am a believer. Change he did - and it has been dramatic. Unfortunately, I see that change for the sake of change may destroy our nation. How unfortunate.
[Disclaimer: I hate politics and do not subscribe to, approve of, or otherwise condone the behavior of any political party]
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tax free travel pt. 2
I took an overnight flight from LA to London then a short flight to Berlin. By the time I got into Berlin I was tired, but wanted to get accustomed to the schedule, so I walked all day without really stopping. I ate some dinner then hopped a late flight to Stockholm (Nykoping really) on RyanAir (more on that later). By the time I got to Sweden, it was after midnight local time and I was exhausted. I walked from the airport to the hotel, checked in, took this picture and collapsed.
A very cheap and spartan room, a bathroom down the hall, a free breakfast, warm covers, and a short walk from the airport. Good enough for two nights.
I took a bus into Stockholm. I had always thought that Sweden was rugged like the fjords of Norway. It isn't. It is mostly just like a forested version of the upper midwest: some rolling hills, little lakes, patches of forest, and lots of farmland. When I got into the depot, I asked for a map of the city and I departed on a walk. I went west and immediately encountered a 7/11. No slurpies, but lots of gummy candies. I kept walking through the neighborhoods and turned south to the water. I walked back along the water towards the City Hall, but stopped for this shot.
The City Hall is where they present the Nobel Prizes each year. It is a huge building right on the edge of the water front. They wanted me to stay and accept the peace prize for not being George Bush, but I politely declined.
I kept walking around the building and came upon this memorial to an old King. I don't know which one, but it was to a king nonetheless. It was nearing noon, and there was a clock overhead, so I stayed and watched the full-size figures come out and do their dance/parade thing that they do at noon (sorry no picture).
I walked to the Royal Palace and watched the army practice their maneuvers. They were rather sloppy compared the US soldiers, but it was fun to see their effort.
This is one of the old town squares in old Stockholm. The old design looks similar to other old cities, but it has its own charm. This square also holds the Nobel Prize Museum where you can look at the biographies of previous winners. I didn't - it cost too much.
Just like many other European cities, Stockholm is infested with cranes. To the left of the crane in the Town Hall (Nobel Prize banquets here), to the right is part of old town.
Stockholm was just nice. I can't find other adjectives to describe it better. I think that with more than 8 hours in town, I could probably do better, but I didn't get that. This is one more picture of old town Stockholm.
After a nice long walk, a wonderful salad, and a return trip to the station, I boarded a bus back to the hotel. I tried to get to sleep early, but was afraid that I would miss the airplane, so I only got about 4 hours of sleep. Breakfast at the hotel was simple. There was some juice, yogurt, muesli, bread, preserves, cold cuts, and cheese. The first day I tried the yogurt, but it must have been full-fat and made of buttermilk. It was horrible. I learned my lesson quickly and focused on making a sandwich and a slice of bread with preserves. Surprisingly, it lasted me most of the day.
The flight back to Germany left at 6:05am. They only fly in and out of this particular airport twice a day, so there is some pressure to be on time. My roundtrip RyanAir tickets to Stockholm cost me 10euro. For $15, you can't even buy a dinner meal in Stockholm. So, you should probably ask, "why was it so cheap?" Good question. Everyone lines up to get on board the flight not in a line, but in a mass. The stewards announce that the gate is open and everyone lurches forward through the doors. They open both front and rear exits of the plane, and people rush to climb the stairs from the tarmac. There are no assigned seats, no in-flight emergency instruction cards (they are printed on the back of the headrests), no drinks, no snacks, and no comfort. Throughout the flight, they try to sell you things like drinks ($3), snacks ($4), lottery tickets, and preferred passage on their other ventures. The above your head storage bins are plastered with advertisements. They have publicly stated that they are considering a charge for using the restroom in flight. It is cheap, but it gets the job done.
I got into Berlin in the morning (8am) and couldn't check into the hotel until around 3pm, so I walked the Wall. I am surprised that my body was compliant with such little sleep. Stockholm was a good day trip. A little more time there would have been nice, but to squeeze it in to a business trip (tax write off) was sufficient for a scouting exploration. I'm sure to be back.
A very cheap and spartan room, a bathroom down the hall, a free breakfast, warm covers, and a short walk from the airport. Good enough for two nights.
I took a bus into Stockholm. I had always thought that Sweden was rugged like the fjords of Norway. It isn't. It is mostly just like a forested version of the upper midwest: some rolling hills, little lakes, patches of forest, and lots of farmland. When I got into the depot, I asked for a map of the city and I departed on a walk. I went west and immediately encountered a 7/11. No slurpies, but lots of gummy candies. I kept walking through the neighborhoods and turned south to the water. I walked back along the water towards the City Hall, but stopped for this shot.
The City Hall is where they present the Nobel Prizes each year. It is a huge building right on the edge of the water front. They wanted me to stay and accept the peace prize for not being George Bush, but I politely declined.
I kept walking around the building and came upon this memorial to an old King. I don't know which one, but it was to a king nonetheless. It was nearing noon, and there was a clock overhead, so I stayed and watched the full-size figures come out and do their dance/parade thing that they do at noon (sorry no picture).
I walked to the Royal Palace and watched the army practice their maneuvers. They were rather sloppy compared the US soldiers, but it was fun to see their effort.
This is one of the old town squares in old Stockholm. The old design looks similar to other old cities, but it has its own charm. This square also holds the Nobel Prize Museum where you can look at the biographies of previous winners. I didn't - it cost too much.
Just like many other European cities, Stockholm is infested with cranes. To the left of the crane in the Town Hall (Nobel Prize banquets here), to the right is part of old town.
Stockholm was just nice. I can't find other adjectives to describe it better. I think that with more than 8 hours in town, I could probably do better, but I didn't get that. This is one more picture of old town Stockholm.
After a nice long walk, a wonderful salad, and a return trip to the station, I boarded a bus back to the hotel. I tried to get to sleep early, but was afraid that I would miss the airplane, so I only got about 4 hours of sleep. Breakfast at the hotel was simple. There was some juice, yogurt, muesli, bread, preserves, cold cuts, and cheese. The first day I tried the yogurt, but it must have been full-fat and made of buttermilk. It was horrible. I learned my lesson quickly and focused on making a sandwich and a slice of bread with preserves. Surprisingly, it lasted me most of the day.The flight back to Germany left at 6:05am. They only fly in and out of this particular airport twice a day, so there is some pressure to be on time. My roundtrip RyanAir tickets to Stockholm cost me 10euro. For $15, you can't even buy a dinner meal in Stockholm. So, you should probably ask, "why was it so cheap?" Good question. Everyone lines up to get on board the flight not in a line, but in a mass. The stewards announce that the gate is open and everyone lurches forward through the doors. They open both front and rear exits of the plane, and people rush to climb the stairs from the tarmac. There are no assigned seats, no in-flight emergency instruction cards (they are printed on the back of the headrests), no drinks, no snacks, and no comfort. Throughout the flight, they try to sell you things like drinks ($3), snacks ($4), lottery tickets, and preferred passage on their other ventures. The above your head storage bins are plastered with advertisements. They have publicly stated that they are considering a charge for using the restroom in flight. It is cheap, but it gets the job done.
I got into Berlin in the morning (8am) and couldn't check into the hotel until around 3pm, so I walked the Wall. I am surprised that my body was compliant with such little sleep. Stockholm was a good day trip. A little more time there would have been nice, but to squeeze it in to a business trip (tax write off) was sufficient for a scouting exploration. I'm sure to be back.
Midterm update...
I understand why there was some hesitation about me teaching this many classes. I keep missing appointments and meetings. I am falling behind on grading. I can't keep up with the class readings. I am sleep walking through one of my classes. I have had to drop my research almost completely. I sleep much less. I am always tired. I am feeling mediocre about teaching. Granted, I never work on Mondays, but I put in at least 50 hours of work each week. The bulk of those hours are from 6:30 am until 10:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
With the midterms over, the furlough week past, the baby due soon, and Thanksgiving coming quickly, I feel like I have senioritis. All of the breaks have shifted my routine and now I just want done. I am thinking of sacrificing my teaching evaluations for some peace in my life. A couple of late graded assignments, some mediocre lectures, some bad examples... not a big deal, right?
Maybe I'll just bribe them with candy before the evaluations are given.
With the midterms over, the furlough week past, the baby due soon, and Thanksgiving coming quickly, I feel like I have senioritis. All of the breaks have shifted my routine and now I just want done. I am thinking of sacrificing my teaching evaluations for some peace in my life. A couple of late graded assignments, some mediocre lectures, some bad examples... not a big deal, right?
Maybe I'll just bribe them with candy before the evaluations are given.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tax free travel pt. 1
Catching up...
I spent the second week of September in Berlin with a brief visit to Stockholm. Although I do consider it a vacation, the main purpose was to present a paper at the European Consortium of Political Research. Rather than taking normal postcard-like pictures, I decided to include myself in all of them.
Here is the Berlin/Potsdam portion of the trip.
I arrived without much sleep and immediately set out for Alexanderplatz. This is the cold-war era TV tower that East Berlin erected so that west Berlin could see how cool they were.
This was a sweet little square with a vanquishing King statue (Frederick I think?). In any case, anytime you can take a picture of a horse butt with a cathedral in the background, you should.
I honestly don't remember what this is, but there is a funny story. I was walking around taking pictures of myself with these buildings and a couple of German guys were eating at a cafe. I started to take this picture and they laughed at me. I smiled really big, shrugged my shoulders, and took a couple more.
This is the longest intact portion of the old Berlin Wall. It is now a very large canvas for some well known artists. If you are in Berlin, a visit to the wall is a must, right?
I tried to walk a significant amount of the Wall's old course. Berlin has tried to remember where it went as well. Throughout the city, they have laid a cobblestone path (two cobbles wide) to mark the path. In the decades after the wall, many buildings have dissected the markers, so that the cobbles run straight into buildings now.
And of course, there is the Brandenburg gate. What I didn't know was that this was the historical gate to the City of Berlin. At the opposite end of a giant park is the Charlottenburg gate, the official gate to the city of Charlottenburg, where Fredrick the Great had his palace. Just to the right of this picture and through the gate is the American embassy (I always want to know where they are when I travel).
I had never been in the Reichstag building (German Parliament), so I took the tour of the dome. It is an amazing structure, completely covered in glass, with a set of mirrors that direct sunlight into the plenary chamber when they have their meetings. It is also a good spot for a visual tour of the city.
Back along the wall trail, I stopped to take the requisite car pictures. (I think that everyone needs to recognize the differences in automotive culture wherever anyone travels. Only in Europe would you find a Maserati Quattroporte (~$120k) parked bumper to bumper with the cheapest, multi-color, people's car, a VW Lupo (~$10k).
And then the requisite "I wish that they had this one in the USA" car, the BMW 118d. It looks kind of like a dog's face, but it gets great mileage (diesel), is a small, sporty luxury car, and it's a hatchback with lots of space.
A more insightful trip happened late one night on a walk. I ran across the major BMW dealer for Berlin (near the Charlottenberg Gate). I couldn't resist a picture, but then I became more intrigued and started looking at prices. The numbers were the same if not higher than the USA prices, but they were in euros. That day, each euro cost $1.39. There, cars simply aren't accessible to everyone like they are here.
The conference was held in Potsdam, the summer residence of Fredrick the Great. He built a ginormous summer palace there (Sanssouci Palace), complete with an Orangerie (place to preserve botanical species), 
art gallery, windmill
fake ruins to cover the reservoir that feeds the fountains,
oh, and when the summer palace gets too small, a much larger summer residence,
Back in Berlin, his normal palace was nothing to sneeze at.
A little German Versailles.
The gardens were beautiful. People from Berlin were jogging about the grounds, but I stopped to look at the flowers. Look closely, the flower has multiple levels, but believe me, it is one flower.
Each day of the conference, I would take the U-bahn (U7 from Wilmersdorfer Strasse) to Yorck Strasse and change to the S-Bahn (S1 to Griebnitsee). There is the best Donner/Kebab shop at the S-bahn station. One day while eating a Kebab, I saw these campaign posters. The bottom one is typical of most German election posters, the candidate's picture and party name (this one happens to be for the green party). The top one, was by far my favorite.
Who wouldn't vote for the pirate party?
I spent the second week of September in Berlin with a brief visit to Stockholm. Although I do consider it a vacation, the main purpose was to present a paper at the European Consortium of Political Research. Rather than taking normal postcard-like pictures, I decided to include myself in all of them.
Here is the Berlin/Potsdam portion of the trip.
I arrived without much sleep and immediately set out for Alexanderplatz. This is the cold-war era TV tower that East Berlin erected so that west Berlin could see how cool they were.
This was a sweet little square with a vanquishing King statue (Frederick I think?). In any case, anytime you can take a picture of a horse butt with a cathedral in the background, you should.
I honestly don't remember what this is, but there is a funny story. I was walking around taking pictures of myself with these buildings and a couple of German guys were eating at a cafe. I started to take this picture and they laughed at me. I smiled really big, shrugged my shoulders, and took a couple more.
This is the longest intact portion of the old Berlin Wall. It is now a very large canvas for some well known artists. If you are in Berlin, a visit to the wall is a must, right?
I tried to walk a significant amount of the Wall's old course. Berlin has tried to remember where it went as well. Throughout the city, they have laid a cobblestone path (two cobbles wide) to mark the path. In the decades after the wall, many buildings have dissected the markers, so that the cobbles run straight into buildings now.
And of course, there is the Brandenburg gate. What I didn't know was that this was the historical gate to the City of Berlin. At the opposite end of a giant park is the Charlottenburg gate, the official gate to the city of Charlottenburg, where Fredrick the Great had his palace. Just to the right of this picture and through the gate is the American embassy (I always want to know where they are when I travel).
I had never been in the Reichstag building (German Parliament), so I took the tour of the dome. It is an amazing structure, completely covered in glass, with a set of mirrors that direct sunlight into the plenary chamber when they have their meetings. It is also a good spot for a visual tour of the city.
Back along the wall trail, I stopped to take the requisite car pictures. (I think that everyone needs to recognize the differences in automotive culture wherever anyone travels. Only in Europe would you find a Maserati Quattroporte (~$120k) parked bumper to bumper with the cheapest, multi-color, people's car, a VW Lupo (~$10k).
And then the requisite "I wish that they had this one in the USA" car, the BMW 118d. It looks kind of like a dog's face, but it gets great mileage (diesel), is a small, sporty luxury car, and it's a hatchback with lots of space.
A more insightful trip happened late one night on a walk. I ran across the major BMW dealer for Berlin (near the Charlottenberg Gate). I couldn't resist a picture, but then I became more intrigued and started looking at prices. The numbers were the same if not higher than the USA prices, but they were in euros. That day, each euro cost $1.39. There, cars simply aren't accessible to everyone like they are here.
The conference was held in Potsdam, the summer residence of Fredrick the Great. He built a ginormous summer palace there (Sanssouci Palace), complete with an Orangerie (place to preserve botanical species), 
art gallery, windmill
fake ruins to cover the reservoir that feeds the fountains,
oh, and when the summer palace gets too small, a much larger summer residence,
Back in Berlin, his normal palace was nothing to sneeze at.
A little German Versailles.
The gardens were beautiful. People from Berlin were jogging about the grounds, but I stopped to look at the flowers. Look closely, the flower has multiple levels, but believe me, it is one flower.
Each day of the conference, I would take the U-bahn (U7 from Wilmersdorfer Strasse) to Yorck Strasse and change to the S-Bahn (S1 to Griebnitsee). There is the best Donner/Kebab shop at the S-bahn station. One day while eating a Kebab, I saw these campaign posters. The bottom one is typical of most German election posters, the candidate's picture and party name (this one happens to be for the green party). The top one, was by far my favorite.
Who wouldn't vote for the pirate party?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Personal Worst
I will catch up on blogging when I can breathe. This post deserves the extra effort.
I spent 2hr05min in transit to work today. 33 miles in 2hr05min.
We had rain today for the first time in a long time. From the traffic on the freeway, you would have thought that it had snowed. They Might Be Giants has a song called "When it rains, it snows." Now I believe them.
I spent 2hr05min in transit to work today. 33 miles in 2hr05min.
We had rain today for the first time in a long time. From the traffic on the freeway, you would have thought that it had snowed. They Might Be Giants has a song called "When it rains, it snows." Now I believe them.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Bargaining for a relaxed semester pt. 2 or cont. (whichever you prefer)
This being the last official day of E.'s childhood (for he starts school tomorrow), we took the family to Disneyland. It was not as full as the normal summer crowd, but it was still hot and still full. It will be better in October or November. We rode lots of rides and stood in some lines. E was brave and rode Indiana Jones for the first time.
On our way home, I get a call from the Chair of the Division (PAJ).
Chair: "The Bowtie Prof, the Dean's office has agreed to the double overload, but there are some details. Are you near a computer?"
Me: "No, but I am on the freeway right near the school. Do I need to come in?"
Chair: "Yes. Right now."
So we turn around and head to the school. The short version is that I write a letter (email) that says I understand how my work is distributed this year. It is... four different classes and advising for environmental studies this semester. Next semester, I have to do advising for environmental studies. No classes next spring. The kicker is that this semester's classes are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I work about 13 hours each day and then don't have to go back to campus any other day. Now, because I have other work to do, I will go on Wednesdays and Fridays to grade and prep, but I don't have to. In fact part of the agreement with the Dean's office is that they cannot ask me to do service at all this year.
Maybe all of the bad feelings were necessary, according to the rules of Karma, so that I could have such a sweet deal. Either way, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The semester will be rough, but the payoff will be great.
On our way home, I get a call from the Chair of the Division (PAJ).
Chair: "The Bowtie Prof, the Dean's office has agreed to the double overload, but there are some details. Are you near a computer?"
Me: "No, but I am on the freeway right near the school. Do I need to come in?"
Chair: "Yes. Right now."
So we turn around and head to the school. The short version is that I write a letter (email) that says I understand how my work is distributed this year. It is... four different classes and advising for environmental studies this semester. Next semester, I have to do advising for environmental studies. No classes next spring. The kicker is that this semester's classes are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I work about 13 hours each day and then don't have to go back to campus any other day. Now, because I have other work to do, I will go on Wednesdays and Fridays to grade and prep, but I don't have to. In fact part of the agreement with the Dean's office is that they cannot ask me to do service at all this year.
Maybe all of the bad feelings were necessary, according to the rules of Karma, so that I could have such a sweet deal. Either way, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The semester will be rough, but the payoff will be great.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Bargaining for a relaxed semester
Today, I was visited by the chair.
Chair: "Justin, I am just wondering, but it is just a wonder, if you would be able to switch one of your classes to 523 (a class that I taught last semester and summer)."
JT: "When is it scheduled"
Chair: "Tuesdays at 7-10pm"
JT: "Sorry, I have a class at that time."
Chair: "How important is that class"
JT: "It's in Environmental Studies and has 32 grad students enrolled with a waitlist"
Chair: "[expletive]!"
JT: "If you switch it to another night, I might be able to do it. But, I don't want to drop my 320 class because it is all set up and ready to go. I would have to take it as an overload."
Chair: "We can't pay you for it."
JT: "How about a course reduction in the spring?"
Chair: "Done"
Remember, school starts on Monday.
Later in the day, another class needs taught and they can't fill it. I write an email that says I have that one ready to go. I thought of it as a joke. He calls the Dean's office. About 5 hours later they decline to allow me to do it. I could have done it with a few slight changes to an old syllabus. I would have been busy, but not overwhelmed. If it would have gone through, I would be teaching 4 classes and have graduate advising responsibilities this fall. In the spring, I would have only had graduate advising responsibilities and no classes. It would have been a mini sabbatical. Here's the kicker... a 4 class load is the standard load for the college, and advising normally isn't a course load reduction (mine is a total fluke). In my wildest thoughts today, I envisioned life in the spring as a fully-funded dissertation-writing grad student; show up to your office, write papers, send them off for review, think, read, crunch numbers, write more papers, go home, repeat.
In the end, I have bargained a great schedule. I only have to be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They will each be 13 hour days, but people do that all of the time outside of the academe. While I have to teach 3 classes, only one is a new prep. The advising fits between my classes. I will likely still go in to write each Wednesday, but I will only write, not prep class or do advising. Mondays will be free for Disneyland and Fridays can be free if I need them to be.
The best part is next spring. I will teach one class and do advising. That's it! I will be a research professor! Lots of time to write and publish. At home, we will have a new baby, and I will have time to be there and not be grading.
Chair: "Justin, I am just wondering, but it is just a wonder, if you would be able to switch one of your classes to 523 (a class that I taught last semester and summer)."
JT: "When is it scheduled"
Chair: "Tuesdays at 7-10pm"
JT: "Sorry, I have a class at that time."
Chair: "How important is that class"
JT: "It's in Environmental Studies and has 32 grad students enrolled with a waitlist"
Chair: "[expletive]!"
JT: "If you switch it to another night, I might be able to do it. But, I don't want to drop my 320 class because it is all set up and ready to go. I would have to take it as an overload."
Chair: "We can't pay you for it."
JT: "How about a course reduction in the spring?"
Chair: "Done"
Remember, school starts on Monday.
Later in the day, another class needs taught and they can't fill it. I write an email that says I have that one ready to go. I thought of it as a joke. He calls the Dean's office. About 5 hours later they decline to allow me to do it. I could have done it with a few slight changes to an old syllabus. I would have been busy, but not overwhelmed. If it would have gone through, I would be teaching 4 classes and have graduate advising responsibilities this fall. In the spring, I would have only had graduate advising responsibilities and no classes. It would have been a mini sabbatical. Here's the kicker... a 4 class load is the standard load for the college, and advising normally isn't a course load reduction (mine is a total fluke). In my wildest thoughts today, I envisioned life in the spring as a fully-funded dissertation-writing grad student; show up to your office, write papers, send them off for review, think, read, crunch numbers, write more papers, go home, repeat.
In the end, I have bargained a great schedule. I only have to be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They will each be 13 hour days, but people do that all of the time outside of the academe. While I have to teach 3 classes, only one is a new prep. The advising fits between my classes. I will likely still go in to write each Wednesday, but I will only write, not prep class or do advising. Mondays will be free for Disneyland and Fridays can be free if I need them to be.
The best part is next spring. I will teach one class and do advising. That's it! I will be a research professor! Lots of time to write and publish. At home, we will have a new baby, and I will have time to be there and not be grading.
My plans to take over the world... or just the department.
Today we had a four hour long department faculty meeting. None of us got mad at each other and everyone now recognizes that we should all have chest pains about the University. I offered to head an adhoc committee to develop a long term division strategy to reduce our course load and meet future class demands.
BACKSTORY (feel free to skip)
The backstory to this is that when I started at CSUF, I was asked what I wanted to teach and when I wanted to teach it. They just asked everyone without systematic regard to student needs. If a person wanted to teach 4 sections of the same class, they could generally do that. Thus, some classes that are very important, haven't been offered in a while because no one wanted to teach them. More interestingly, we have always been able to hire part time faculty to glean the wasteland of our semester schedule. There were no gaps in the schedule, but there was also no method to the madness. Those times are all long gone.
RESUME STORY
We can either react to the whims of the Dean's office, or propose a way to get our division through the crisis and into the future. The latter is the only one in which logic plays a role, so I offered to guide* the logical process. My committe will try to demonstrate that we can balance the needs of the department and the college with an increased class size in a few classes and a reduction of teaching workload from 4 classes per semester to 3. As an added bonus, I hope to provide a student needs assessment that will result in a general schedule of classes to offer at regular times. If a professor wants a different schedule, they will always know what is coming up. If they want to teach the same 3 or 4 classes throughout their tenure at CSUF, they could do that. if they wanted to switch it up occasionally, they cold do that as well. At least there would be a framework to follow where there is none now.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. I just have to listen to the committee members, crunch some numbers, get it to say what I want, and then sell it to the committee, the chair, and the college. They all want to hear it, so my pitch will only be difficult in that I have to have my numbers all right and the logic to be impartial.
[Evil laugh]
*see Plott and Levine 1977, Levine and Plott 1977, or Riker's 1986 "The Art of Political Manipulation."
BACKSTORY (feel free to skip)
The backstory to this is that when I started at CSUF, I was asked what I wanted to teach and when I wanted to teach it. They just asked everyone without systematic regard to student needs. If a person wanted to teach 4 sections of the same class, they could generally do that. Thus, some classes that are very important, haven't been offered in a while because no one wanted to teach them. More interestingly, we have always been able to hire part time faculty to glean the wasteland of our semester schedule. There were no gaps in the schedule, but there was also no method to the madness. Those times are all long gone.
RESUME STORY
We can either react to the whims of the Dean's office, or propose a way to get our division through the crisis and into the future. The latter is the only one in which logic plays a role, so I offered to guide* the logical process. My committe will try to demonstrate that we can balance the needs of the department and the college with an increased class size in a few classes and a reduction of teaching workload from 4 classes per semester to 3. As an added bonus, I hope to provide a student needs assessment that will result in a general schedule of classes to offer at regular times. If a professor wants a different schedule, they will always know what is coming up. If they want to teach the same 3 or 4 classes throughout their tenure at CSUF, they could do that. if they wanted to switch it up occasionally, they cold do that as well. At least there would be a framework to follow where there is none now.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't. I just have to listen to the committee members, crunch some numbers, get it to say what I want, and then sell it to the committee, the chair, and the college. They all want to hear it, so my pitch will only be difficult in that I have to have my numbers all right and the logic to be impartial.
[Evil laugh]
*see Plott and Levine 1977, Levine and Plott 1977, or Riker's 1986 "The Art of Political Manipulation."
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Legos and a clarification, then a treatise on the likelihood of me not dying from a heart attack
My family saved most of my toys from when I was a kid. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out a box of old G.I. Joe figures and Legos. For a few days I only let the kids play with the G.I. Joes, then I spilled the Legos and played for a couple of hours with the kids and my old toys. Now, the kids are free to play with them as long as they put them away at the end of the day.
Last night I offered to put the Legos away for the kids. They went to bed and I played for about an hour and a half. It was fun to relax and just build. The immediate gratification of having something tangible to show for your work was a nice change.
So, a couple of people have called about my chest pains. I appreciate their love and concern. I had significant chest pains the month before our wedding, a couple of months before the consulting stint ended, and occasionally when my stress levels get high. I doubt that it is a heart problem, but rather a psychological one. I have felt much better since I stopped worrying about the future.
Someone said "you should go to a doctor... you don't want to be THAT statistic." Since I know a lot about statistics, I thought that I would try to figure out my likelihood of a heart attack....
SHORT VERSION
At my age, I have a very low risk. One that I am willing to bet a lot of money on. Even my life.
LONG VERSION
More importantly, I am willing to risk my life.
But a nice gambling win would make it even better.
*we could be forced to assume an approximate normal distribution, but the central limit theorem would argue otherwise
Last night I offered to put the Legos away for the kids. They went to bed and I played for about an hour and a half. It was fun to relax and just build. The immediate gratification of having something tangible to show for your work was a nice change.
So, a couple of people have called about my chest pains. I appreciate their love and concern. I had significant chest pains the month before our wedding, a couple of months before the consulting stint ended, and occasionally when my stress levels get high. I doubt that it is a heart problem, but rather a psychological one. I have felt much better since I stopped worrying about the future.
Someone said "you should go to a doctor... you don't want to be THAT statistic." Since I know a lot about statistics, I thought that I would try to figure out my likelihood of a heart attack....
SHORT VERSION
At my age, I have a very low risk. One that I am willing to bet a lot of money on. Even my life.
LONG VERSION
- The most basic way to summarize heart attack risk would be to look at the annual incidence rate... 1 in 217 or 0.46%. The problem is that this rate includes all of the population in the rate calculation.
- A more precise way to determine a basic probability would be to use the mean and standard deviation and generate a t-score and associated probability.* While the mean age of first heart attack, 65.8, is broadly known, the standard deviation is not readily available on the interwebs. I am forced to assume the standard deviation based on other clues from internet information. Most sites argue that heart attack risk starts to become significant at around 45. If we assume that significant means greater than 5%, then 95% of the data of age at first heart attack is greater than 45, or alternatively, 90% of the data fall between 45 and 86.6 (65.8+/- the difference between 45 and 65.8). This gives us a t of 1.645 for age 45. When we do the algebra, we estimate the standard deviation be be approximately 12.6. We then use these to determine the probability of a 32 year old person (or younger) having a heart attack given that the mean age at first heart attack is 65.8 with a standard deviation of 12.6. The result is a t-score of 2.68 with the associated probability of approximately .0037 or 0.37%.
- Using those same estimates, the likelihood of me having a heart attack before I turn 40, has a t score of 2.04 with the associated probability of .0207 or 2.07%.
- Unfortunately, the above rates are for all individuals at all risk levels, which is a bad assumption. Using a very crude method of including risk factors, I found out that my 10 year heart attack risk is less than 1% (but probably much less than that).
More importantly, I am willing to risk my life.
But a nice gambling win would make it even better.
*we could be forced to assume an approximate normal distribution, but the central limit theorem would argue otherwise
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Go away grumpy Gus...
Yesterday was pretty rough between university budget and personal housing issues. My wonderful wife recognized my stress yesterday and took me out to dinner without the kids. (She either felt the stress, or maybe it was my complaining of chest pain that prompted her.) We talked quietly and thought about the future. It was nice.
I have decided that I can't do anything about what is going on, so I need to let it all go. All of the calculating, all of the strategizing, all of the overly analytical stuff that I do really well... I have to let it go.
I made cookies for my department to apologize for my bad attitude. I bought flowers for the PAJ office ladies and the Dean's office ladies. Life is much more difficult for those administrators than it is for me.*
My chest pain has subsided (mostly). I am working. Life is good.
*our Dean retired early due to health reasons. The interim Dean has tried very hard to make life bearable for the faculty during the budget ordeal, but the politics of the situation may have gotten the best of her. After one of her memos leaked to the press, the Vice President over Academic Affairs posted the position announcement to replace the Dean. A little slap in the face from above for her help to those of us below.
I have decided that I can't do anything about what is going on, so I need to let it all go. All of the calculating, all of the strategizing, all of the overly analytical stuff that I do really well... I have to let it go.
I made cookies for my department to apologize for my bad attitude. I bought flowers for the PAJ office ladies and the Dean's office ladies. Life is much more difficult for those administrators than it is for me.*
My chest pain has subsided (mostly). I am working. Life is good.
*our Dean retired early due to health reasons. The interim Dean has tried very hard to make life bearable for the faculty during the budget ordeal, but the politics of the situation may have gotten the best of her. After one of her memos leaked to the press, the Vice President over Academic Affairs posted the position announcement to replace the Dean. A little slap in the face from above for her help to those of us below.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Media attention may screw me.
So, the news picked up the enrollment story and campus was full of reporters on Friday. KTLA ran a story, KPCC ran a story; the media applied pressure and the school will try save face by reopening the classes. Reopening the classes and opening enrollment only prolongs the budget problem. If we reopen all of the classes that we cancelled (or had scheduled to cancel) it adds another $150k to our costs this semester. From where will that money come? I have an idea.
It seems to me that the class cutting would have saved the budget. It would have been painful, but tolerable as a solution. Now, we will suffer deeper cuts in the spring. Students have traded a win this fall, for a loss next spring. Instead of a media frenzy surrounding classes being cut, the classes simply won't be offered.
Deeper cuts next fall?
It seems to me that the class cutting would have saved the budget. It would have been painful, but tolerable as a solution. Now, we will suffer deeper cuts in the spring. Students have traded a win this fall, for a loss next spring. Instead of a media frenzy surrounding classes being cut, the classes simply won't be offered.
Deeper cuts next fall?
Friday, August 14, 2009
The California Problem...
In case no one has been watching the news, the recession was deeper and more prolonged than we have experienced in the recent past. Because of all of the lagging indicators and the nature of my job, this year the recession had only a slight impact on our budget. In sum, we had a hiring freeze that happened after we hired someone in our division. (this is a really good thing for me, but I will explain that later.)
The recession's impact for the 2009-2010 academic year will be pretty severe. All of the staff in the CSU system have taken a furlough that amounts to a 10% pay cut. The faculty have done the same. We are required to have all of these furlough days approved by our department chair and Dean. We are required to sign a certificate that says we know what a furlough is and that we WILL NOT work on those days. Since most academics don't work every day of the week, this shouldn't be a problem, but it has caused many discussions in the hallways.
A couple of weeks ago, we fired all of the part time lecturers (adjunct professors) and some full time lecturers. That means that our faculty (in the division) went from around 70 to around 30. I had considered them my buffer, because according to the collective bargaining agreement, they had to go before I do. Oh, yeah, I forgot, all of the faculty are subject to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) which dictates the rules for hiring, retention, work load, promotion, and obviously... firing. So, I know who will get fired next if the budget gets worse. It is projected to get worse. So, first will go a full time lecturer, then the three part-time retired faculty, then the tenure track guy they hired last year, then me and my colleague who were hired together. I am a little edgy because I don't know how deep the cuts will go next year, but if the faculty start to fall, I know the order. This is only of partial assistance to me because the job market for professors has a one year hiring lag. I have to be on the job market right now in order to get a job one year from now. If I get a job offer, I would have to accept or decline the offer without knowing whether my job is secure where I am. There is no way around this information problem because of the budget problem that California always seems to face.
Back to this year's budget. We took the pay cut to manage part of the loss, but our campus has overshot our enrollment numbers for a couple of years. It was a growth strategy that the Chancellor had tolerated because we have problems with our funding formula. (Besides significantly subsidizing education for Californians, the campus subsidizes healthcare for students; thus over enrollment is not a matter of exceeding fixed costs, but significant costs for each additional student.) It is a long story that can be summed up by saying that the Chancellor won't tolerate it during bad budget years. We are expected to return to the approved enrollment numbers, nearly 5000 students less than we have now. The most recent strategy is to stop enrollment and cut classes. This wouldn't be a problem, except that some of the students hadn't enrolled yet, some of the classes cut were fully enrolled, some of the classes had already started, and the combined effect of these actions together kicks some students out of class without the ability to re-enroll in open sections. A number of people who thought that they were going to graduate this fall, won't be able to get into the classes that they need. They won't get into any classes because they chose the wrong section, which randomly got cut.
The interim solution to the problem is to offer courses during the summer and intersession (January). These are not funded by the state, so they don't count against our enrollment targets. Instead, they are directly funded by enrollment numbers and higher class costs to the students. Sound great, right? I am sure that there is more to come, but this post is long enough.
The recession's impact for the 2009-2010 academic year will be pretty severe. All of the staff in the CSU system have taken a furlough that amounts to a 10% pay cut. The faculty have done the same. We are required to have all of these furlough days approved by our department chair and Dean. We are required to sign a certificate that says we know what a furlough is and that we WILL NOT work on those days. Since most academics don't work every day of the week, this shouldn't be a problem, but it has caused many discussions in the hallways.
A couple of weeks ago, we fired all of the part time lecturers (adjunct professors) and some full time lecturers. That means that our faculty (in the division) went from around 70 to around 30. I had considered them my buffer, because according to the collective bargaining agreement, they had to go before I do. Oh, yeah, I forgot, all of the faculty are subject to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) which dictates the rules for hiring, retention, work load, promotion, and obviously... firing. So, I know who will get fired next if the budget gets worse. It is projected to get worse. So, first will go a full time lecturer, then the three part-time retired faculty, then the tenure track guy they hired last year, then me and my colleague who were hired together. I am a little edgy because I don't know how deep the cuts will go next year, but if the faculty start to fall, I know the order. This is only of partial assistance to me because the job market for professors has a one year hiring lag. I have to be on the job market right now in order to get a job one year from now. If I get a job offer, I would have to accept or decline the offer without knowing whether my job is secure where I am. There is no way around this information problem because of the budget problem that California always seems to face.
Back to this year's budget. We took the pay cut to manage part of the loss, but our campus has overshot our enrollment numbers for a couple of years. It was a growth strategy that the Chancellor had tolerated because we have problems with our funding formula. (Besides significantly subsidizing education for Californians, the campus subsidizes healthcare for students; thus over enrollment is not a matter of exceeding fixed costs, but significant costs for each additional student.) It is a long story that can be summed up by saying that the Chancellor won't tolerate it during bad budget years. We are expected to return to the approved enrollment numbers, nearly 5000 students less than we have now. The most recent strategy is to stop enrollment and cut classes. This wouldn't be a problem, except that some of the students hadn't enrolled yet, some of the classes cut were fully enrolled, some of the classes had already started, and the combined effect of these actions together kicks some students out of class without the ability to re-enroll in open sections. A number of people who thought that they were going to graduate this fall, won't be able to get into the classes that they need. They won't get into any classes because they chose the wrong section, which randomly got cut.
The interim solution to the problem is to offer courses during the summer and intersession (January). These are not funded by the state, so they don't count against our enrollment targets. Instead, they are directly funded by enrollment numbers and higher class costs to the students. Sound great, right? I am sure that there is more to come, but this post is long enough.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
3 June to 11 August
- At the first of June, I was starting my summer school session on Research Methods. 6 weeks was not long enough to cover the material, but the students were much more engaged than I had expected. Overall it was a good experience. I worked hard on projects, but they all seemed to fall to the wayside amid the torrent of summer class.
- We returned to Kansas to witness the marriage of good friends. A couple of days alone and near our old digs was refreshing.
- R had a business meeting in Las Vegas (a weekend away for planning and relaxation).
- I replaced a colleague's toilet (doesn't appear relevant, does it?).
- We had the left driveshaft seal on the Jeep fixed ($200).
- The last day of class, I boarded a west-bound train to Gallup New Mexico, where my lovely wife met me at the station. We had a nice long drive to my in-laws house. I had planned to remodel their bathrooms, but plans changed. It was a short trip, but just long enough for E to scratch the side of my father in-law's Karman Ghia with his bike.
- We drove from New Mexico to Flagstaff to enjoy the company of friends for the night. the next morning we at at "the Place" (better known as Mike and Rhonda's). Their breakfasts were better than I had remembered.
- We raced home from Flagstaff so that we could drop off the kids with a sitter and then continued on to Los Angeles for a Coldplay concert. Normally, I would have never gone to a stadium type concert of a band that I hardly know, but the tickets were a gift from the colleague whoes toilet I replaced. Karma magic
- R had her annual reunion with her college roomates in OC.
- That catches you up to July 23rd, when I started to work again in my office
- I have been trying to write a developmental narrative for RTP, a couple of papers, and get my feet under myself while learning my new position as Graduate Advisor for Environmental Studies. It comes with a course reduction, so it was worth it to me.
- Our department let go all of the part time faculty as part of the budget solution. Where there were 40+ people in line before me to get fired, this now leaves 5. It is unlikely, but not totally out of the question that we could go through these people before the budget is solved.
- I am back on the job market.
- And I got a 10% pay cut (i.e. a furlough). Luckily the summer money will help offset the income lost.
- We had the air conditioning system replaced in the Jeep ($850). It went out on my way home from work. I was in bumper to bumper traffic. It was 100+ degrees. It took nearly 2 hours to get home.
- We started the paperwork to buy a new house. We got preapproved from one lender. We inquired about a few properties. We got a desperate email from a faculty member trying to sell her house in the University subsidized housing. We went through the paperwork with the approved lender. We went through the paperwork for the city. To meet the lending and subsidized housing requirements, our monthly payment must be between two numbers whose difference is only $50. If it happens, it happens, if not, it doesn't. But it is a source of stress. Whoever thinks that $318,000 for a 1640 sq ft house is subsidized housing, has lived in California for too long.
- E and I went to a colleague's production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at their synagogue. It was really fun to watch E watch the show. As a special treat, I took him to see the Disneyland fireworks after the show. We stayed and rode Alice in Wonderland and the Teacups. He was tired. I was tired. But an occasional, exceptional experience makes all the difference to how a child feels about their relationship with their dad. That's at least what I tell myself.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Aversion
I totally love my job. Teaching is immediate gratification. Research is intellectually stimulating. Writing, on the other hand is neither. It allows you to keep your job, but on the tenure time line, you are really only evaluated on your research and writing after at least a couple of years into the job. So what do normal assistant professors do for those first couple of summers and the free time between classes during the semester? They relax. I cannot.
I want to be mobile in case California and the CSU system completely collapse into bankruptcy. Thus, I have to write. And by write, I mean a lot of writing. I have at least three paper projects on my list of things to complete this summer.
The first one is due this Friday.
I came in early today to start the writing process. I lost 2 hours immediately to inefficiency. By the time I started to get really focused, I had sort of an anxiety attack. I left the office and went to Target to buy some Twizzlers and cookies. When I came back, I was able to restart with other work that I have to get done this week. Today's writing project was displaced on my agenda by preparing for teaching.
I fear this aversion to writing. I fear that I will never be able to overcome this aversion. Mostly I fear not being able to teach because I failed to write.
I want to be mobile in case California and the CSU system completely collapse into bankruptcy. Thus, I have to write. And by write, I mean a lot of writing. I have at least three paper projects on my list of things to complete this summer.
The first one is due this Friday.
I came in early today to start the writing process. I lost 2 hours immediately to inefficiency. By the time I started to get really focused, I had sort of an anxiety attack. I left the office and went to Target to buy some Twizzlers and cookies. When I came back, I was able to restart with other work that I have to get done this week. Today's writing project was displaced on my agenda by preparing for teaching.
I fear this aversion to writing. I fear that I will never be able to overcome this aversion. Mostly I fear not being able to teach because I failed to write.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
New camera = bad pics
We bought a new point and shoot camera. It is tiny and the picture quality in low light is significantly worse than I expected. Nevertheless, the pictures are still worth a thousand words. No none has ever clarified if the thousand words being referred to are a static group of words shared by all viewers, or if the thousand words change based on personal interpretation. I think that every viewer has a unique set of a thousand words to associate with a picture. Some of your thousand words associated with this picture might include: awesome, buff, handsome, ethnic, cool, sexy, "caber toss anyone?", "is there anything under there?", "that sporran rocks", "I want him now" OR ALTERNATIVELY scary, disgusting, gross, skirt, fanny pack, man purse, and Scottish crap.
My thousand words include: breezy, macho, and "why didn't I do this before?"
My thousand words include: breezy, macho, and "why didn't I do this before?"
Monday, May 18, 2009
Living in SoCal
When I was on my CSUF job interview, I asked my sister "what was the best thing about living in southern California?" She responded something to the effect that she could get whatever she wanted in a day. She said that it might take all day, and it might cost more than she wanted to pay, but she could get it in a day. The other day I finally tested that statement.
Not being one of convention, I have wanted a kilt for a number of years. Kilts have the benefit of not clinging to the inside of my huge thighs on extremely hot summer days, yet they retain their manliness through historical legacy.
Commencement provides a great excuse to purchase a kilt because it can be seen a more formal than functional. As I pondered purchasing a kilt, I googled kilt makers and found that a leading kilt maker, Sportkilt, was located just outside of Long Beach. They do not have retail stores, but they have a very small retail room at their facility. Rather than ordering something online and waiting a couple of days for it to arrive, I decided to visit the factory. I took E. to the location (a hole in the wall door in a industrial park) and walked right into the offices. They were surprised to see someone in person (they do all of their sales online) but quickly ushered me to their retail room (9'x10') and told me that everything in the room was 50% off of the internet price because they had all been custom ordered and later returned. I tried on a few, tried to discourage E. from wanting one, and then settled on two. Although my tartan is McNab, it is a more obscure tartan than Royal Stewart and Armstrong, which I purchased.
I am a believer that you can get whatever you want in a day in SoCal. My wife wishes that it weren't so, but it is. I am now the proud owner of two kilts which I will wear with pride... everywhere.
Not being one of convention, I have wanted a kilt for a number of years. Kilts have the benefit of not clinging to the inside of my huge thighs on extremely hot summer days, yet they retain their manliness through historical legacy.
Commencement provides a great excuse to purchase a kilt because it can be seen a more formal than functional. As I pondered purchasing a kilt, I googled kilt makers and found that a leading kilt maker, Sportkilt, was located just outside of Long Beach. They do not have retail stores, but they have a very small retail room at their facility. Rather than ordering something online and waiting a couple of days for it to arrive, I decided to visit the factory. I took E. to the location (a hole in the wall door in a industrial park) and walked right into the offices. They were surprised to see someone in person (they do all of their sales online) but quickly ushered me to their retail room (9'x10') and told me that everything in the room was 50% off of the internet price because they had all been custom ordered and later returned. I tried on a few, tried to discourage E. from wanting one, and then settled on two. Although my tartan is McNab, it is a more obscure tartan than Royal Stewart and Armstrong, which I purchased.
I am a believer that you can get whatever you want in a day in SoCal. My wife wishes that it weren't so, but it is. I am now the proud owner of two kilts which I will wear with pride... everywhere.
Breathe
With an impending graduation ceremony, a visit from my family, a visit from the in-laws, a visit from another set of extended in-laws (what do you call your sister's in-laws?), a pile of papers to grade, a final exam to administer and grade, and grumblings about the stature of students from the faculty (i.e. how many can we afford to fail?), I am treading water. There are a number of hopeful seniors in my classes who will not be completing their degrees this semester. Without grading the final exam and papers, I am expecting a failure rate near 30 percent. Hopefully I am wrong.
Many of the faculty in the division (PAJ) have decided to stop rubber stamping students through our programs and maintain our standards. In previous years, there has been some pressure to hit a GPA standard for each class, but this semester's students have pushed us beyond our tolerable limits of grade inflation. My Dean recently said that "if you can't look yourself in the mirror and feel that you have maintained your standards, you need to [start failing more people]." I expect some backlash, but there are enough of us facing this situation that there is some safety in numbers. Now I need to breathe and grade, just breathe and grade.
Here comes the red pen.
Many of the faculty in the division (PAJ) have decided to stop rubber stamping students through our programs and maintain our standards. In previous years, there has been some pressure to hit a GPA standard for each class, but this semester's students have pushed us beyond our tolerable limits of grade inflation. My Dean recently said that "if you can't look yourself in the mirror and feel that you have maintained your standards, you need to [start failing more people]." I expect some backlash, but there are enough of us facing this situation that there is some safety in numbers. Now I need to breathe and grade, just breathe and grade.
Here comes the red pen.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Looking at the stimulus package [A title for B.M.]
I see so many stories that could be used for examples in class. The problem is that I forget them. Here is one example.
When we talk about legislative oversight of the bureaucracy, I try to point out that members of Congress have the responsibility to make sure that the laws they pass are executed according to legislative intent. But, lawmakers would rather make laws than oversee their implementation. It makes sense that an elected official needs to bring back to their district some proof of their work in Congress in order to beg for reelection votes. Oversight simply isn't as sexy as a new law. According to today's Washington Times article, that forces oversight of the stimulus bill onto all of the citizens, or no one. Guess which outcome is more likely?
When we talk about legislative oversight of the bureaucracy, I try to point out that members of Congress have the responsibility to make sure that the laws they pass are executed according to legislative intent. But, lawmakers would rather make laws than oversee their implementation. It makes sense that an elected official needs to bring back to their district some proof of their work in Congress in order to beg for reelection votes. Oversight simply isn't as sexy as a new law. According to today's Washington Times article, that forces oversight of the stimulus bill onto all of the citizens, or no one. Guess which outcome is more likely?
Monday, May 4, 2009
Concert list
I just saw this post and wanted to document my concerts (well known only)... Mostly for me, but you are invited to read...
The Dead Milkmen
The Blake Babies
NRBQ
The Twistoffs
Lenny Kravitz
Peter Gabriel
Fishbone
George Clinton & the P-funk Allstars
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (among other Lollapalooza side acts)
Cypress Hill
Green Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (5x I think)
Lucious Jackson
The Beastie Boys
Smashing Pumpkins
Blues Traveller
The Breeders
Phish
Dave Matthews Band
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Indigo Girls
James Taylor
I thought that there were more... I'll update later
The Dead Milkmen
The Blake Babies
NRBQ
The Twistoffs
Lenny Kravitz
Peter Gabriel
Fishbone
George Clinton & the P-funk Allstars
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (among other Lollapalooza side acts)
Cypress Hill
Green Day
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (5x I think)
Lucious Jackson
The Beastie Boys
Smashing Pumpkins
Blues Traveller
The Breeders
Phish
Dave Matthews Band
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Indigo Girls
James Taylor
I thought that there were more... I'll update later
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The forgetting continues...
Yesterday we went to Disneyland. I brought my office keys with me in case we needed to drop by for something. It was my attempt at being prepared. Little did I know that my preparedness yesterday would undermine my preparedness today. In my sleep-deprived state this morning, I forgot to get my office keys out of the other car. Here is a picture of this morning's work location...
Monday, April 27, 2009
Diversity includes the middle
With some demented intrigue I have been following the debates about gay marriage. I have posted before about why I think government should stop regulating marriage and leave it to churches to endorse marriage, so I'll leave additional commentary on that for another time.
Andrew Breitbart writes in his commentary "I fear the vicious and hypocritical path that the activist gay left is headed on will eventually be met with a backlash. If it already hasn't." For a self described "gay-friendly" person, this seems more than alarming.
I consider myself as a tolerant person, who wishes the same in return. I found a sigh of relief in his commentary. I have found that those who wish to embrace diversity have a rather narrow interpretation of what diversity includes. Diversity includes all positions along the spectrum from radically conservative ideas to radically liberal ideas. Diversity also includes traditionally held positions and values. If we exclude any of these positions, we cannot embrace diversity as it is. You may feel free to not include any of these groups, but in doing so, you cannot correctly claim diversity.
BONUS (from despair.com):
Andrew Breitbart writes in his commentary "I fear the vicious and hypocritical path that the activist gay left is headed on will eventually be met with a backlash. If it already hasn't." For a self described "gay-friendly" person, this seems more than alarming.
I consider myself as a tolerant person, who wishes the same in return. I found a sigh of relief in his commentary. I have found that those who wish to embrace diversity have a rather narrow interpretation of what diversity includes. Diversity includes all positions along the spectrum from radically conservative ideas to radically liberal ideas. Diversity also includes traditionally held positions and values. If we exclude any of these positions, we cannot embrace diversity as it is. You may feel free to not include any of these groups, but in doing so, you cannot correctly claim diversity.
BONUS (from despair.com):
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Scheduling
Today, I forgot an advising appointment. I wish that I could claim that it was an isolated event, but it isn't. Since I left consulting, I have not been able to remember the simplest things. I even have an iTouch that I use with Entourage (Mac version of Outlook). I think that I need a biomechanical device that records what I say and type, deciphers it into recognizable pieces, then schedules my life and work tasks for me.
*preproduction model schematic stolen from China*
Even with such a device I would probably disregard the prompts as malfunctions. But at least, I would have been prompted.
*preproduction model schematic stolen from China*Even with such a device I would probably disregard the prompts as malfunctions. But at least, I would have been prompted.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Easy controversy
I have been pondering how to improve the educational experiences of my students. Inevitably, I revert to planning a class that has more discussion and less lecture. I could start each class with a controversial topic from the readings and then guide discussion. The problems is how you evaluate such a class. Essay exams and writing assignments are a time consumptive proposition for me, and it would be difficult to write exams for general consumption. To exacerbate the problem, students don't even have to think critically and independently with all of the available information on the internet. Take for example ProCon.org which is a clearing house for quotes and information on controversial issues. Now even contentious issues have a Cliffs Notes online edition.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Great sites
Monday, April 13, 2009
Survey (part 2)
I have been having too much fun with surveymonkey.com. I am designing a bad survey to demonstrate the horrible things that you can ask. Feel free to participate if you wish. If you think that I am becoming a bigger geek than I was before, just wait for the regression results.
Click here to take a very bad survey
Click here to take a very bad survey
Rainbow Six
Pirates rock, but Navy Seals killing Somali pirates rocks even more. Congrats on a successful intervention! If I could only make that shot from that distance on rough seas, I would have beaten Rainbow Six long ago.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Work and pleasure
I am currently teaching a graduate class on research methods. While I should be grading one of their assignments, I have chosen instead to do some preparatory work for a future class on internet surveys. I decided to create a survey not on anything relevant, but rather, on a subject of my own interest. You will have to guess what question is important to me. If you would like to take the survey and help me pretest it, I would appreciate your help. It is an anonymous survey that has not gone through human subject approval, and the results will not be made public.Click Here to take the survey
Please make any suggestions on how to improve the survey as comments here.
Please make any suggestions on how to improve the survey as comments here.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Pirate quote
I have never been a big fan of Hilary Clinton... Bill maybe, but not Hilary. But I do love piracy (a long story for another post). Hilary finally said something worth quoting "we think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy." It would have only been better if she would have said "methinks the world must join together in the scourge of piracy" with a pirate accent.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Facebook migration post
Since not all of my readers (the millions of you) are my facebook friends, I decided to migrate this post to my blog. Initially I had intended to place it here, but I got lazy and posted it there. Blogging is much better than using facebook, but most sites have facebook links readily available.
The narcotraficantes are seemingly running roughshod over the Mexican police. Earlier in the year, there were reports that Mexico was on the verge of collapse and the USA might have to rescue the government in order to preserve peace. I thought that it might be opportunism on our part to be able to literally control 75% of North America. "If you read through the article, it says that these assault rifles come in part from Los Angeles and San Francisco... two cities where it is already illegal to purchase these weapons. You can't trace the legal sale of these guns back to California when it is illegal to sell them there. I can see them coming from Arizona and Texas where gun laws are lax, but you can't say that more laws are needed to control cross border flow of assault rifles if the guns are coming from states where it is illegal to purchase them." How do you track illegally purchased guns? If you can track them, why not stop them?
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wild words
Occasionally, I hear the English language butchered by people who should know better. Yesterday it was a wild old lady who introduced me to "stababilities." It has to do with stability and ability, but I am not sure how. She wasn't clear about that.
8 days a week
The last 8 days in review (more like 10 days, but a nod to the Beatles could never hurt).
I flew to Vancouver B.C. for the Western Political Science Association meetings. I met few people that I have wanted to meet for some time, and I learned a lot about myself. Mostly that I have great research projects and little writing prowess. I plan on fixing that.
I had a scheduled dentist appointment to fix a tooth with an onlay. A simple procedure to drill the decay out of your tooth and replace the lost material with a durable cnc-ed machined piece of porcelain. It hurt later that day, but I figured it was not big deal. I took some advil.
We have had some problems with our DVD player in the Volvo, so I took it to work on wednesday. I dropped it off at the shop and caught a ride to school. I taught my wednesday classes in a little pain. We had planned on going camping in O.C. so I stayed at work until I had to recover the car. At some point during the day I called me wife and told her I needed pain meds, badly. I rushed back to and from the dealership and then on to pick up camping supplies and meet my family. Camping was fun. I would have never guessed that we were in a heavily populated area of O.C. (O'Neil regional park).
During our camping trip I called the dentist about my pain. He said, "you probably need a root canal." GREAT! Friday I canceled classes and went in for a root canal. They couldn't get it all done, so I am scheduled to return for another round. Hurray!
Saturady, in an early morning effort to quiet our loud toilet, me wife accidentally broke the overflow tube. This left us to one bathroom for the weekend. Not a big thing, but I have to take advantage of any opportunity to put a picture of a toilet on my blog.
Saturday was full of the Riverside Air Show. My favorite was the A-10. We watched the afternoon portion from my front lawn.
Sunday was the normal routine. I got to take a nap, which is not normal. I decided to try superglue on the overflow tube. It worked. The toilet was back in business.
Today is monday. I am at the Volvo dealership getting the DVD player fixed.
It should only take 3 hours. I have a laptop and internet access. Why not blog?
I flew to Vancouver B.C. for the Western Political Science Association meetings. I met few people that I have wanted to meet for some time, and I learned a lot about myself. Mostly that I have great research projects and little writing prowess. I plan on fixing that.
I had a scheduled dentist appointment to fix a tooth with an onlay. A simple procedure to drill the decay out of your tooth and replace the lost material with a durable cnc-ed machined piece of porcelain. It hurt later that day, but I figured it was not big deal. I took some advil.
We have had some problems with our DVD player in the Volvo, so I took it to work on wednesday. I dropped it off at the shop and caught a ride to school. I taught my wednesday classes in a little pain. We had planned on going camping in O.C. so I stayed at work until I had to recover the car. At some point during the day I called me wife and told her I needed pain meds, badly. I rushed back to and from the dealership and then on to pick up camping supplies and meet my family. Camping was fun. I would have never guessed that we were in a heavily populated area of O.C. (O'Neil regional park).
During our camping trip I called the dentist about my pain. He said, "you probably need a root canal." GREAT! Friday I canceled classes and went in for a root canal. They couldn't get it all done, so I am scheduled to return for another round. Hurray!
Saturady, in an early morning effort to quiet our loud toilet, me wife accidentally broke the overflow tube. This left us to one bathroom for the weekend. Not a big thing, but I have to take advantage of any opportunity to put a picture of a toilet on my blog.
Saturday was full of the Riverside Air Show. My favorite was the A-10. We watched the afternoon portion from my front lawn.
Sunday was the normal routine. I got to take a nap, which is not normal. I decided to try superglue on the overflow tube. It worked. The toilet was back in business.
Today is monday. I am at the Volvo dealership getting the DVD player fixed.
It should only take 3 hours. I have a laptop and internet access. Why not blog?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Simple yet effective
This is a very nice, short explanation of the credit crisis. It is probably oversimplified, but very effective.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
Monday, February 23, 2009
[UPDATE] The Potpie Bandit
After a successful sting operation, the potpie bandit has been captured!! After months of effort, Dr. Chris Brown captured the thievery through a top-secret technology (a camera). That is why he is a Criminal Justice Professor, and not me. The culprit confessed to petty thievery of miscellaneous desk items and an insatiable appetite for pot pies. He was then relieved of his janitorial duties.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Hard wiring
If we as humans are innately advanced animals, then the story about male response to seeing scantily clad women is not a surprise. This is likely a corollary to recent stories about women having sexually related dreams about our new president. The issue of concern is not that we are hard wired to have sexual fantasies, but that society is trying to rid us of them. It is not socially acceptable to acknowledge them, and there must be something wrong with those who do. In the name of societal progress, we are exercising social Darwinism against those people who exhibit genetic traits that could save our species. I also believe this to be true of those of us who are able to store fat and nutrients in our bodies in case of an emergency. Society is promoting those genetically weaker subgroups who are thin and sickly over the more genetically robust subgroups. The real question is whether we as a society want to accept the implications of being advanced animals?
Friday, February 13, 2009
This is not why I am fat
The british tabloids always have the best stories. The Daily Telegraph posted a link to the site This is Why You're Fat, and I couldn't help but look. Needless to say, those foods are not the reason that I am fat. This is the reason that I am fat...
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Golden Halo Pesident
While looking at how the new president pulled a Gerald Ford by hitting his head on Marine one, I found this great picture of President Obama. Someone is going to get a big bonus for snapping this one.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
La famille proche
On our return trip from F-town last December, I saw the most beautiful truck I had ever seen. We were getting gas at the Flying J in Kingman, Az.
But it was not just any normal LandRover truck, it was a diesel and had been customized...
And it was pulling a trailer.
Being who I am, I had to talk to the owners. Their story is here. I am certain that I would not have a happy family if we were on the road more than a couple of weeks, let alone a couple of years.
But it was not just any normal LandRover truck, it was a diesel and had been customized...
And it was pulling a trailer.
Being who I am, I had to talk to the owners. Their story is here. I am certain that I would not have a happy family if we were on the road more than a couple of weeks, let alone a couple of years.
Death
I rarely think about death in more than an obscure sense, that it exists and people experience it. Although I have a mortality complex (which probably deserves its own post), I simply don't think about it much.
I saw a dead person today.
It was sort of your standard, fatal car crash. There was a traffic jam on VanBuren as I was headed towards the westbound 60. Then I saw the lights of the firetrucks and a seriously damaged truck in the median. As I got to the scene, the traffic once again stopped. Not of my choosing, I was as close as the traffic could get, around 15 feet away. I watched the firefighters cut away the roof of the vehicle and the EMTs prepare to cover the body with a white sheet. I was stopped for an eternity, maybe 60 seconds. It was long enough for me to reevaluate the value of life, and all of my close calls.
Obviously, people deal with death everyday (nurses, doctors, police, firefighters, and soliders). For my sheltered life, today made an impact on my perspective. Someone won't be coming home tonight.
I saw a dead person today.
It was sort of your standard, fatal car crash. There was a traffic jam on VanBuren as I was headed towards the westbound 60. Then I saw the lights of the firetrucks and a seriously damaged truck in the median. As I got to the scene, the traffic once again stopped. Not of my choosing, I was as close as the traffic could get, around 15 feet away. I watched the firefighters cut away the roof of the vehicle and the EMTs prepare to cover the body with a white sheet. I was stopped for an eternity, maybe 60 seconds. It was long enough for me to reevaluate the value of life, and all of my close calls.
Obviously, people deal with death everyday (nurses, doctors, police, firefighters, and soliders). For my sheltered life, today made an impact on my perspective. Someone won't be coming home tonight.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Divorce
A mentor of mine once said "if gays want to suffer as much as the heteros, we should welcome them into marriage!" Apparently, even gays want out.
What would have been a good strategy for their cause, would have been to move to a state where gay marriage is not legal, and then divorce there. Then a divorce ruling in that state would have created a legal problem for the state. If the judge ruled on the couple's divorce, it would have to imply that they have legally married status. If the court failed to rule, it would violate federal marriage reciprocity laws. Unfortunately, their marriage didn't last a move to another state.
What would have been a good strategy for their cause, would have been to move to a state where gay marriage is not legal, and then divorce there. Then a divorce ruling in that state would have created a legal problem for the state. If the judge ruled on the couple's divorce, it would have to imply that they have legally married status. If the court failed to rule, it would violate federal marriage reciprocity laws. Unfortunately, their marriage didn't last a move to another state.
Marriage
I love my wife and I am happily married, BUT, I think that the government should stop regulating marriage. Civil unions appear to carry with them the same bundle of legal rights as marriages, but many in the gay community argue that it still falls short of a marriage. A couple of years ago, a gay rights activist visited my graduate school and talked with us about it. He argued that marriage conveys a social and religious acceptance that civil unions do not. In short, he said that a state-sanctioned gay marriage would confer a sense of religious acceptance to the couple. WHAT? At that point, I decided to be against government sanctioned marriages. When getting a document from a courthouse and going through an unregulated ceremony conveys religious acceptance, we have exchanged religion for law and sanctioned the state as a religious institution. My solution is to only allow the state to grant civil unions, and only allow religious organizations to grant marriages. Thus, the state gets to give its bundle of legal contracts without discrimination, and religions get to sanction what they believe is a correct marriage before God. I used to laugh at the Italians and Mexicans who had a two-stage process for marriage. They go to the court to get the civil marriage done, and then they go to the church to get the religious marriage done. Now I think that they have it right.
Monday, February 2, 2009
The speed of the internet and the global economic crisis
I have a theory about the economic crisis. While there are a lot of targets for blame, I think that the internet is the most responsible. Sure there was Madoff, the sub-prime lending behavior, a housing bubble, etc., but why should we blame the internet? Well, it isn't really the internet that was the problem, it was the speed at which we gather, process, and act on information.
As the housing market began to to inflate, all of the realtors and appraisers (two of my least favorite professions) were able to justify exaggerated prices based on the most recent sales data. Unfortunately, the most recent sales data were slightly mild inflations of value from the most recent sales data. Which happened to be slightly inflated based on the most recent sales data. The trend was not to look too far into the past, say a month ago, because that was not the most recent data. It was old for the internet age... we could call it 'internet old' [That is, like, so last week!].
The same goes with lending behavior... banks have access to vast amounts of information about each of us through our credit scores. If our most recent activity looked promising, they may be more willing to risk giving us a loan. They've been getting better at not defaulting, right? The FICO score might be low, but the government obviously wants us to get people into housing because they loosened the rules on lending, right? The economy is doing well, we are helping people, and we can't miss taking a profit if other banks would lend to these people.
Here is where the internet killed us. People started to observe that there was a housing bubble and people started to default on their loans. It became news faster than we could imagine. Now for months, the news media have pounded it into us that we are either headed speedily towards a depression or possibly the end of human civilization. (They have every incentive to tell us the horrible news because if they don't do it first, they won't be the ones breaking the story and their ad revenue will drop. So what if they are wrong?) There was a virtual run on a number of banks that may have weathered the economic storm had everyone not heard about their possible problems and reacted to them. These possible problems became very large problems as people began to overreact.
This overreaction became instant Drudgereport updates which fueled panic. People began a run on the bank. Not a run on the bank in the 1920's style, but an immediate, online tidal wave of transactions and physical lines. In the 1920's banks and citizens maybe had a day to react, but online transfers make it so much easier to move money now. 24 hour banking is great, right? Then there were Drugereport updates about which bank was next. People began to speculate and interpret any information that was available to them. Unfortunately, there is a lot of information available with a simple click. Some of it good, some not so good.
People who control their own investment accounts began to panic buy and sell. The buys and sells spawned days of market fluctuation of the Dow of nearly 900 points. Up to date information at a rapid pace created uncertainty. This spawned news of uncertainty which lead to more uncertainty, and more panic. The market lost any sense of reason that it once had.
Now everyone is worried about a depression and high unemployment they we will all create from our worry and fear about a depression. While it is probably overly simplistic, it is my take.
Access to immediate information and control of personal portfolios has created a huge problem, everything moves too fast. And I blame it all on the internet.
P.S. and the realtors and appraisers
As the housing market began to to inflate, all of the realtors and appraisers (two of my least favorite professions) were able to justify exaggerated prices based on the most recent sales data. Unfortunately, the most recent sales data were slightly mild inflations of value from the most recent sales data. Which happened to be slightly inflated based on the most recent sales data. The trend was not to look too far into the past, say a month ago, because that was not the most recent data. It was old for the internet age... we could call it 'internet old' [That is, like, so last week!].
The same goes with lending behavior... banks have access to vast amounts of information about each of us through our credit scores. If our most recent activity looked promising, they may be more willing to risk giving us a loan. They've been getting better at not defaulting, right? The FICO score might be low, but the government obviously wants us to get people into housing because they loosened the rules on lending, right? The economy is doing well, we are helping people, and we can't miss taking a profit if other banks would lend to these people.
Here is where the internet killed us. People started to observe that there was a housing bubble and people started to default on their loans. It became news faster than we could imagine. Now for months, the news media have pounded it into us that we are either headed speedily towards a depression or possibly the end of human civilization. (They have every incentive to tell us the horrible news because if they don't do it first, they won't be the ones breaking the story and their ad revenue will drop. So what if they are wrong?) There was a virtual run on a number of banks that may have weathered the economic storm had everyone not heard about their possible problems and reacted to them. These possible problems became very large problems as people began to overreact.
This overreaction became instant Drudgereport updates which fueled panic. People began a run on the bank. Not a run on the bank in the 1920's style, but an immediate, online tidal wave of transactions and physical lines. In the 1920's banks and citizens maybe had a day to react, but online transfers make it so much easier to move money now. 24 hour banking is great, right? Then there were Drugereport updates about which bank was next. People began to speculate and interpret any information that was available to them. Unfortunately, there is a lot of information available with a simple click. Some of it good, some not so good.
People who control their own investment accounts began to panic buy and sell. The buys and sells spawned days of market fluctuation of the Dow of nearly 900 points. Up to date information at a rapid pace created uncertainty. This spawned news of uncertainty which lead to more uncertainty, and more panic. The market lost any sense of reason that it once had.
Now everyone is worried about a depression and high unemployment they we will all create from our worry and fear about a depression. While it is probably overly simplistic, it is my take.
Access to immediate information and control of personal portfolios has created a huge problem, everything moves too fast. And I blame it all on the internet.
P.S. and the realtors and appraisers
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Flat? Not Kansas!
While doing some research and looking at faculty websites for information, I stumbled on this link. It is telling that Kansas received an initial flatness value of 1 (perfectly flat) before hours of work to determine that its more correct flatness was 0.9997. Pancakes have nothing on Kansas' almost perfect flatness!
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