...though that probably goes without saying, seeing as I've blogged multiple times in the last week. It seems that the only time I blog is when I'm avoiding other, more odious tasks, such as writing papers or learning the intermediate products of cellular respiration. I've reached the point in the term where I just get extremely bored of all of the crap I'm supposed to be studying. I just spent way longer than I'd like to admit trying to figure out/follow some higher-math stuff (Dedekind cuts & Cantor's diagonality argument - both are very rad) just for the sake of avoiding doing other work. I'd say this means I should think about taking more upper-div math classes, but I know in ...

Aw jeez - I clearly need to blog more in order to push all of that ridiculous election-era blather off the front page. Good times! I do so love that neocon tears image, though. *sniff* I'll always have that! I'm getting a bit burnt out on school this week, feeling awfully distractable and anxious to finish this term even though I generally really like my classes. I find myself getting ridiculously engaged in everything I touch that doesn't involve school: planning a Redwood backpacking trip, attempting to design a combination Kanizsa/Sierpinski triangle tattoo (any ideas? it would be so rad), trying vainly to fix my sewing machine, blogging when I have nothing to say, etc. I'm ready for spring break: a ...

... since I've blogged. My apologies to the world, I'm sure you all bitterly missed my unhinged ranting. I'm working on my bachelor's degree again, and so far it's going quite well. Not only have I actually decided on a major (environmental science/ecology), a minor (economics), and a place to transfer after I get my prereqs out of the way (OSU - going back home to Corvallis in the fall, with mixed-but-mostly-positive feelings), but I'm actually really enjoying the stuff I'm studying. I've been so busy, though; this term I'm taking 18 credits of science & math and next term it will be 19 credits. People keep calling me crazy, but I know a guy who's doing all that AND working ...

Does anyone have any cool ideas for a tattoo I could get on my forehead to constantly remind myself of the dangers of analysis paralysis? Seriously, I am the absolute worst. I was just reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled By Randomness and he talks a lot about the human drive to endlessly optimize, which forces us to use a lot of ground-rules & shortcuts (a.k.a heuristics) to make decisions. Sometimes these heuristics are good and useful and keep us from wasting large chunks of our lives worrying about which kind of toothpaste to buy, and other times we didn't think the shortcuts out very well in the first place and they lead us to make enormous mistakes (the "free markets" ...

I've been pretty quiet lately, but at least I have something to show for my efforts this time: seedlings!

Wow. 2008: what an epic year. I feel like I've been strung out on politics, personal and otherwise, since last January. After a longer-than-expected "drying out" period, I finally feel fit and able to interact with society at large again without constantly mentioning how a) Obama just has to win, b) how the neocons are destroying this country, and c) how we're all screwed anyway because of the economic crisis (which reminds me, you should be reading Calculated Risk - and yes, read the comments too, there's a great community there most of the time). And but so here I am, long after the campaign circus has closed down its tents, finding myself missing the noise and excitement even ...

My libation of choice:

Whee! Connecting the dots is fun. The rumor: John McCain had an affair with P.J. O'Rourke's wife Amy Lumet when she worked as some sort of aide for McCain. The whole thing is rather thinly sourced, of course (as you might be able to tell from the domain "unattributable.com"), but hey. I had fun trying to figure it out. And if it's true, I'm throwing a party, because this scandal is just too perfect to be believed.

In other news, I'm reading The Dark Side by Jane Mayer and let me tell you, it is just excruciating. I'm barely 50 pages in and it's already driven me to new heights of shame at what has been allowed to happen ...

I can't claim to know a ton about the financial industry, but I did work in title insurance for a couple years and have a pretty good idea about the state of the housing/mortgage market. I also have had the subsequent (and related!) advantage of hours and hours of unemployment in which to read article after article about the coming economic crisis. So, while I think I know a little more than your average Sarah Palin about this whole mess, I am by no means an expert, so take with as many grains of salt as you see fit... ... But I am NOT optimistic about the state of the US economy. Here's the short version of what is happening right ...