Prattle and Polemic (but not in that order)
It seems the time has come once again for me to poke my friends with a sharp (though virtual) stick and demand life updates. Come on people. Email me, find me on AIM or just update your damn blog. You know, that one that's been languishing on the internet, neglected for the past week(s) or even month(s)? Incidentally, the AIM thing will be easier, since I now have internet at home again and am freed from the tyranny of limited library hours. Let's have a big round of applause for Mo and Will, the generous next-door neighbors! I know you think your life is boring, and maybe it is, but I want to hear about it anyway. I've been prattling about homework and internet ads and I don't seem to have quite driven off my readership yet. If you honestly have nothing to say, make something up. How will I know the difference? I just need stuff to read that's not about realism, trade theory or power relations. Surely you can handle this.
Also, while I'm being demanding, anyone who sees fit to send me a couple of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies will be my bestest friend forever.
More school-related prattle follows.
So, new semester, new classes. This morning I was at school at 8:30am for macro, where I was presented with a diagram of the circular flow model and informed that Y=C+I+G+NX. No shit. I hate, hatehatehate, being "taught" things that I already know. I know it's early in the semester and that some degree of review is necessary, even at the grad school level, but you'd think people would pretty much have a handle on the components of GDP by now. Other things I hate about macro: Dr. Ecchia moves around the room while he's teaching, so I can't just fix my eyes in his general direction and think about other things. He also tends to delay the customary mid-class coffee break until about 3/4 of the way through, while constantly using coffee as an example of various economic principles. It's maddening. I'm still not quite a coffee addict, but if you want me to do things with numbers at 9am it's absolutely essential.
International trade theory, in contrast, could actually be good. Dr. Pearson is great. He brought in a bunch of apples and oranges and had two volunteers bargain with them as a review of the pure exchange model. I haven't enjoyed an econ class this much since high school. The downside? His class is capped and overenrolled, which means I'm probably going to have to bid on it to get in. Either that or suffer through Iapadre's dull and confused trade theory class, on a Friday afternoon no less.
Theories of international relations is going to suck. I just don't really care about Hobbes and Kant and Morgenthau and so on. The material is dull and the reading is heavy. Dr. Cesa seems like a decent prof, good at laying things out logically so they're easy to understand, but unlikely to inspire any enthusiasm for political theory. But it's a required class, so I just have to suck it up and deal.
My one and only non-required class this semester is international bargaining and negotiation with Dr. Zartman. I love this guy. He opened the class with an analysis of the first recorded negotiation - God and Abraham negotiating the fate of Sodom. You can't get any cooler than that, and Zartman is that wonderful professor who both knows what he's talking about and is able to impart it to a class in an effective and entertaining way. So this one's going to be good, despite the 30-page case study due at the end of the year.
Also, while I'm being demanding, anyone who sees fit to send me a couple of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies will be my bestest friend forever.
More school-related prattle follows.
So, new semester, new classes. This morning I was at school at 8:30am for macro, where I was presented with a diagram of the circular flow model and informed that Y=C+I+G+NX. No shit. I hate, hatehatehate, being "taught" things that I already know. I know it's early in the semester and that some degree of review is necessary, even at the grad school level, but you'd think people would pretty much have a handle on the components of GDP by now. Other things I hate about macro: Dr. Ecchia moves around the room while he's teaching, so I can't just fix my eyes in his general direction and think about other things. He also tends to delay the customary mid-class coffee break until about 3/4 of the way through, while constantly using coffee as an example of various economic principles. It's maddening. I'm still not quite a coffee addict, but if you want me to do things with numbers at 9am it's absolutely essential.
International trade theory, in contrast, could actually be good. Dr. Pearson is great. He brought in a bunch of apples and oranges and had two volunteers bargain with them as a review of the pure exchange model. I haven't enjoyed an econ class this much since high school. The downside? His class is capped and overenrolled, which means I'm probably going to have to bid on it to get in. Either that or suffer through Iapadre's dull and confused trade theory class, on a Friday afternoon no less.
Theories of international relations is going to suck. I just don't really care about Hobbes and Kant and Morgenthau and so on. The material is dull and the reading is heavy. Dr. Cesa seems like a decent prof, good at laying things out logically so they're easy to understand, but unlikely to inspire any enthusiasm for political theory. But it's a required class, so I just have to suck it up and deal.
My one and only non-required class this semester is international bargaining and negotiation with Dr. Zartman. I love this guy. He opened the class with an analysis of the first recorded negotiation - God and Abraham negotiating the fate of Sodom. You can't get any cooler than that, and Zartman is that wonderful professor who both knows what he's talking about and is able to impart it to a class in an effective and entertaining way. So this one's going to be good, despite the 30-page case study due at the end of the year.