about time if you ask me ...

... you will now be charged for using a handheld device while driving
i really think that it was about time.

ta.

miscellaneous political commentary

i really regret needing to spend so much time on school, such that i really have not had much of a chance to follow either canadian or american politics. with regards to the latter however, i wanted to share this video. whatever anyone says or thinks about john mccain, i find his story around minute 7 very interesting.

"let me hit you with some knowledge"

it is friday at last.

this certainly felt like the longest week. and it is only the beginning of a very long weekend. and not that kind of long weekend, sadly. i have a microeconomic theory midterm on monday, and trust me: not fun. depressing to say the least. depressing seems to be a good word to describe the mood, i say this because i was just reading the financial post, and just finished listening to the ottawa-anaheim game. you can easily infer the connections there.

anyways, even though this was a pretty good week, with visitors, dodgeball, coldplay etc. i will conclude it by quoting dickens, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... "

now for some happy reading i will direct you to http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

and in preparation for tomorrow, i will say GO SENS GO. first game of the season against the leafs, usually i had a party planned for that evening months before ... but this year i will spend it in the halls of a dusty library, studying. i wanted to quote the textbook for a second, because you'll see how frustrating studying microeconomics is, "from this point on, we shall simply assume that x(p,y) is differentiable whenever we need it to be" ehh .... okay?

the grace - neverending white lights (because while i played this song the sens scored twice in an attempted comeback)

Viva la Vida

certainly between mid-terms and assignments worry, stress and frustration takes a hold of life, so what better than to forget it all with 13,000 other people, and an amazing band? so, here are some pictures from last night's show at scotiabank place. and just being at scotiabank place pumps me up pretty good. when's the next game?



after six hours the video i had meant to post, still has not finished uploading ... i put some up on facebook though!

"just because i am losing, doesn't mean i am lost, doesn't mean i'll stop ..."

http://www.oxfam.ca/

what are we thinking?

i did not kill it. it killed me.

the econometrics mid-term that is. now, what's next? more midterms and exams.

at least it is a game night ...

21:48 UPDATE: 6-3 Sens over the desert cats (picture from TSN.ca):

feels like summer ...

....

for one, because it actually feels like summer (unless you were so unfortunate to be in regina with thanksgiving)

for two, because there is such a long time between senators hockey games. thank you not nhl for this schedule.


jack savoretti - dreamers


back to my studies. today's topic: logrolling.

PRO-CRASTI-NATION

i am officially glued with my eyes to the elections tracker on cbc.ca. how the cbc can report members elected with less than half of the polls in is beyond me ... but i'll gladly follow. to the demise of my great plan to finish my taxation assignment.



like i said many times before, there is an interesting relationship between the number of posts i crank out in a week, and the number of assignments/tests i have due. maybe i should write a regression to specify it exactly.

brian mcfadden - real to me

happy belated thanksgiving

it is election night, but all i am going to post about is hockey moments from the weekend:

owen sound attack versus barrie colts (4-2). i think my oma would have loved to see this game for reasons below:




and ottawa senators versus detroit red wings (2-3)

note here:
1. minute 2.15 ish.
2. note not the end of the game
3. and may i just say how handsome picard is?

jet - are you gonna be my girl (not because i particularly like this song, but every time the owen sound attack players hit the ice they play this song ... for reasons i am not sure of)

gone south

that is where my plan for a productive day/evening has gone ...

in the meantime, my housies are watching north and south and it is so tempting move a room over and watch, because as you may know it is one of my favourite films. just as it is tempting to listen to the first hockey game since the games in Europe last weekend ... and ... well there are plenty of things i can think that i'd rather be doing than this taxation assignment. but we have all heard there are two things we can be certain of: death and taxes. so i am afraid that that subject won't be going anywhere ....

great lake swimmers - your rocky spine

game theory

after about the longest day yesterday .... which did at some point feature a kickass dodgeball game, which our team decisively won, and ended with marking at 1 in the morning ... there is tons of stuff for me to catch up on today. like a taxation assignment, and a public choice problem set. for the latter we refer to joseph conrad's typhoon (which does have online copy here).
in case you'd like to read the story, without me spoiling some of the story you should stop reading now.

so, basically what happens, or so i've heard, because i have not read it myself, Captain MacWhirr is on boat with a number of Chinese workers who are returning home from months of work overseas. they have all given him their earnings for safekeeping, the amounts of which he has carefully entered on a ledger. now, guessing from the title, they get hit by a typhoon. miraculously the workers and captain survive, the money is safe, but the ledger which stated who owned what, is missing. the Captain being an honest man wants to return the money to its rightful owner. but how?

there is some nice game theory for you. i am going to find a solution. i have to.

ps. 1 more day till i go home!
ps2. they are done with roof renos, so no more tar smell!

neverending white lights - distance

hate to say it: but i told you so

i was just reading the toronto star before going to bed, and i am reading with interest ... economists are forewarning worse than a recession, and stock markets are plummeting.

i can't help but think back to my history seminar class, where the discussion about the US sub-prime mortgage market led to Canada. some adamantly claimed it would never affect Canada. being the only economics student in the room the professor turned to me (as he had a habit of doing, much to my .... frustration) for my opinion. surely i must have some opinion or insight? well, put on the spot and turning red as beet, i forewarned a recession. and surely it has come.

i guess in this case i hate to be right.

now, while i am on the topic ... i find it kind of funny that when elections come around, all of the sudden everyone is an expert on the economy. well, i hate to say it, but when economists hardly understand it, it is likely you don't either. or maybe i am just speaking for myself?

UPDATE

worst things beautiful - ours

debate or debate?

debate.

I am currently streaming both debates, the Canadian Leader's Debate via CBC, and the US Vice Presidents Debate via CNN.

Now, over the last few weeks it has been easy to wonder: which election has been the bigger joke? Well, judging from the debate: I probably switched over to the American debate full time when the Canadians started talking about which health clinics they go to. I did not do it quite intently, it was just a minor decision between which to mute, and frankly the Canadians were not really engaging in a good debate.

I find it rather easy for the opposition to attack conservative policies, by pulling out idealistic ideas that are found in political science, philosophy, and economics textbooks. I'd rather like to see some more concreteness on how any of these ideas actually can be achieved. Emphasis on actually. Dion said something to the effects of "we support tax cuts for everyone," no kidding. Too bad, we also want to commit to more jobs, more programs, extended health care, better infrastructure and so on, and that all those things need to be paid for, by oil companies? Maybe it is because I am studying economics I tend to overthink the policies presented, but I can only imagine what anyone without any training in economic or public policy must think. It sounds so easy for politicians to crank out some statistics, calculate possible or potential tax bases etc. but dear oh dear. That is not easy. So yeah, I am a bit skeptical.
At the end Steve P., the facilitator, suggested that the Canadian debate was much better than that of the Americans. I am going to have to disagree.
I can appreciate the civility between the two candidates in the American debate. I can appreciate their controlled emotion and their appeal to American peoples. I even got a little teary-eyed when mr. biden talked about losing his wife. And overall, the debate was more organized, the questions more straigtforward and easier to follow when there aren't people talking through each other, raising their voices, and pulling eyebrows the whole time.

Since I have a microeconomic theory assignment due on monday, I better get back to school work. I just had to note down my quick impressions. But I do have to say this, it is an interesting time to learn more about economics and politics. Especially with the sub-prime mortgage market crisis in the US, the billion dollar bail-out plan, and panic on Bay Street. Interesting stuff. And I change my opinion on these matters on a daily basis ... and as a history students also, I am already wondering what the history textbooks in 50 years will say.

for some good measure:
Rob Thomas - All that I am
Go SENS Go!

"ik begrijp veel, maar daar snap ik niks van" - bassie

i blame my brother for showing me this Dutch commercial, because then I spend a couple of hours looking at videos of my childhood heroes on the net.

bert en ernie:

bassie en adriaan:

mumble jumble

phewww ... this day is almost over.

since i woke up late for classes, had to run out the door, and parked in the wrong parking lot, i was convinced this was going to be the third day in a row of a string of bad luck. but then, when i got back to the car, the parking meter attendant officer dude, was just a couple of cars away from me, which being two hours late was pretty lucky for me. so the tides had turned ... ?

not really, as I just went to school, pretty sure wednesday night being dodgeball night ... but alas it is raptors basketball camp. so I checked the intermural schedule, and check! no game tonight. so I forked over some cash for a parking pass ... for nothing. so, after trying to get a peek of the toronto raptors, without any luck, I opted for a jog along the river instead. that was nice I guess.

the extra time I could use to apply for jobs though ... it is ultra convenient to have assignments, job applications and social events all planned for the same weekend :)

augustana - twenty years

3 more days until official hockey starts! can I say GO SENS GO?