what I've been up to
Sorry that I've been remiss. Here's a quick recap.
Semester done. Grades in. 2 A's and 2 A-'s. Very pleased, as I was expecting a B or B+ in Advanced Microeconomics. The professor of that class only covered math problems and glossed or completely skipped over the material I found interesting, like the psychology and game theory. The other A- was in Sociology and was because I blew off a paper to study for the comprehensive exams. Which brings us to:
The comps. SJSU's master's program in econ is capped by comprehensive exams instead of a master's thesis. You have three attempts to pass it, there are three sections, and you only need to retake sections that you didn't pass in previous attempts. This was my first attempt, and I was concentrating on passing Section 1. Well, I was quite glad to find that I passed both Section 1 and Section 3. I hadn't yet taken the class covered by Section 2, Advanced Macro, and will be taking it this spring, so things are lined up pretty well and I should still finish school in May.
I finally quit my job as a part-time software engineer. My heart just wasn't in it for so long, and I'm sure this was becoming obvious to everybody. I have plenty of savings, so money shouldn't be an issue as long as I budget a little better. Not sure what I'll do with the extra time. I'd mentioned to the econ chair that I'd be interested in tutoring, as I was kinda pitching in for free a lot last semester, but I just heard (as in five minutes ago) that the slots were full.
She had both bad news and good news. Although the tutoring slots were full, she'd asked the Koch Foundation a while back to help fund some students, including me. I'm getting a grant from the Koch Foundation! Holy crap. That's pretty dang timely.
Anyway, things continue to go swimmingly with Erin. My family and friends seem to like her. The concerns I'd had going into this thing have pretty much been allayed. So I'm feeling good about this. I'm not keen on even thinking about moving in together until after she's experienced living on her own (she lives with her parents right now), and she knows this, so I think it'll be a while before this gets really serious. But we love and respect each other and are happy together (and the sex is awesome!), so that's enough for now.
I've also been watching a lot more football as of late, and not just because my beloved New York football Giants are in the playoffs. I've actually watched every single playoff game, and this is not something I usually do (indeed, I almost completely stopped watching the sport altogether in recent years). And I've really enjoyed almost all of the games. I've really missed football. This is a topic I hope to explore in more detail later.
And the topic that's been plaguing me for the past week, the Ron Paul racist newsletter fiasco. I've been reading a lot about the whole thing, not so much because of Paul's campaign, but because it shocked me to learn about the paleo-libertarian wing of the movement (which split off from the Cato/Reason wing) that appears to actively pander to racists, neo-Confederates, anti-semites, homophobes, and other fringe elements. I and the Cato/Reason wing find these beliefs inherently unlibertarian, and as a Taiwanese-American who grew up on the East Coast being regularly called a "chink," this hits really close to home. In fact, it has me re-evaluating my career plans, because I'm not sure I could work for a libertarian movement that has (aside from Tom Palmer) remained so silent about the paleo wing's unsavory ties for so long. But Cato has always kept their distance from the Paul campaign (which mystified us interns at the time), which I suppose is something. Still, I'm reconsidering academia, as I may have ruled that out prematurely.
I have a lot more to say on this topic, but if you want to read more, I'll direct you to this reaction by David Boaz (the executive vice-president of Cato), this post by Steve Horwitz (an economics professor in the Austrian tradition who I saw lecture at FEE) and this excellent piece by Reason.
Semester done. Grades in. 2 A's and 2 A-'s. Very pleased, as I was expecting a B or B+ in Advanced Microeconomics. The professor of that class only covered math problems and glossed or completely skipped over the material I found interesting, like the psychology and game theory. The other A- was in Sociology and was because I blew off a paper to study for the comprehensive exams. Which brings us to:
The comps. SJSU's master's program in econ is capped by comprehensive exams instead of a master's thesis. You have three attempts to pass it, there are three sections, and you only need to retake sections that you didn't pass in previous attempts. This was my first attempt, and I was concentrating on passing Section 1. Well, I was quite glad to find that I passed both Section 1 and Section 3. I hadn't yet taken the class covered by Section 2, Advanced Macro, and will be taking it this spring, so things are lined up pretty well and I should still finish school in May.
I finally quit my job as a part-time software engineer. My heart just wasn't in it for so long, and I'm sure this was becoming obvious to everybody. I have plenty of savings, so money shouldn't be an issue as long as I budget a little better. Not sure what I'll do with the extra time. I'd mentioned to the econ chair that I'd be interested in tutoring, as I was kinda pitching in for free a lot last semester, but I just heard (as in five minutes ago) that the slots were full.
She had both bad news and good news. Although the tutoring slots were full, she'd asked the Koch Foundation a while back to help fund some students, including me. I'm getting a grant from the Koch Foundation! Holy crap. That's pretty dang timely.
Anyway, things continue to go swimmingly with Erin. My family and friends seem to like her. The concerns I'd had going into this thing have pretty much been allayed. So I'm feeling good about this. I'm not keen on even thinking about moving in together until after she's experienced living on her own (she lives with her parents right now), and she knows this, so I think it'll be a while before this gets really serious. But we love and respect each other and are happy together (and the sex is awesome!), so that's enough for now.
I've also been watching a lot more football as of late, and not just because my beloved New York football Giants are in the playoffs. I've actually watched every single playoff game, and this is not something I usually do (indeed, I almost completely stopped watching the sport altogether in recent years). And I've really enjoyed almost all of the games. I've really missed football. This is a topic I hope to explore in more detail later.
And the topic that's been plaguing me for the past week, the Ron Paul racist newsletter fiasco. I've been reading a lot about the whole thing, not so much because of Paul's campaign, but because it shocked me to learn about the paleo-libertarian wing of the movement (which split off from the Cato/Reason wing) that appears to actively pander to racists, neo-Confederates, anti-semites, homophobes, and other fringe elements. I and the Cato/Reason wing find these beliefs inherently unlibertarian, and as a Taiwanese-American who grew up on the East Coast being regularly called a "chink," this hits really close to home. In fact, it has me re-evaluating my career plans, because I'm not sure I could work for a libertarian movement that has (aside from Tom Palmer) remained so silent about the paleo wing's unsavory ties for so long. But Cato has always kept their distance from the Paul campaign (which mystified us interns at the time), which I suppose is something. Still, I'm reconsidering academia, as I may have ruled that out prematurely.
I have a lot more to say on this topic, but if you want to read more, I'll direct you to this reaction by David Boaz (the executive vice-president of Cato), this post by Steve Horwitz (an economics professor in the Austrian tradition who I saw lecture at FEE) and this excellent piece by Reason.