My week: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jmermin and Grand Prix: Kansas City |
[26 Oct 2008|01:30am] |
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I just drove my mother to the Greensboro train station at 3:00 a.m., so this evening seems as good a time as any to update my Livejournal, particularly as I've had an eventful week.
On Friday (yesterday), I had to present my current dissertation research to the other Ph.D. students and a couple of my professors. I think that went fairly well, and I ran out of time before I ran out of issues to talk about and receive feedback on, which was good.
However, the main activity of my week was flying out to Kansas City last weekend. jmermin picked me up at the airport on Friday, and on Saturday we played in the Kansas City Grand Prix for the card game Magic: the Gathering.
( Read about Grand Prix and PTQ Details )
On Monday, jmermin had to work, so we went to the University of Kansas campus. While he did paperwork type things, I worked on my upcoming presentation and toured the school's natural history museum, a suggestion of eve_prime. The museum had a strong emphasis on the prehistoric and current wildlife of Kansas, and was actually quite interesting. There was also a focus on defending evolution, I wonder why that could be ;). Anyway, I definitely recommend the museum to anyone visiting the campus.
On Tuesday, sadly, jmermin had to drive me back to the Kansas City airport, and I flew home. arttype1, who had already taken me to the Greensboro airport on Friday, generously picked me up again as well. Thanks!
Next up: Grand Prix: Atlanta, three weeks from now? Can I afford (the time or money) to travel again?
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| Accomplishments |
[09 Oct 2008|08:33pm] |
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Well, today I went to the courthouse and figured out how to change my voter registration to Greensboro. That's handy, as I don't really feel like driving back to Chapel Hill to vote. When that day comes, McCain is seeming less and less like he knows what he's doing, so I'll probably be voting for Obama.
In other news, Ken has informed me that my Literature Review revisions pass! The paper is done! It's kind of strange not to have that hanging over my head, I'm not sure I entirely believe it yet. This means I'll be "graduating" with a Masters degree in December, only 2 years behind most of the people I entered the program with. Of course, since I'm in the Ph.D. program, it doesn't really mean anything other than that I can focus on my dissertation (which is one reason I haven't felt rushed about the lit review). Still, yay!
Here is a link to my lit review, by the way. It may be a bit dry, so here's a summary:
I examine the literature on the demand for recreational goods (electronics, reading material, movies, vacations, etc) and leisure time (as opposed to time spent working) to determine the policy implications of taxing recreational goods. Overall, I find that taxing recreation is progressive (costs rich people proportionately more than poor people) and is likely to motivate people to work more, both of which are desirable from a policy maker's perspective. However, demand for recreation is also fairly elastic, which means that a little bit of tax causes people to cut back a lot on quantity, making it a relatively poor source of revenue. So it really depends upon what the policy objective is.
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| Pictures from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
[23 May 2008|12:16pm] |
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mood |
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pleased |
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Well, thanks in part to being very busy with school, I haven't managed (yet) to write up the story of my trip to Malaysia. However, eve_prime has very generously organized some of the pictures I took into an album, which can be found through this link. I think some of them came out pretty well, so enjoy!
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| Politics |
[31 Mar 2008|10:52am] |
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From time to time, my friends ask me why I don't spend more time worrying about politics, or get agitated that I don't seem to care. (Which isn't true, by the way; I do care about a lot of issues.) However, I just took this political quiz, which is intended to show overlap between my views and those of the candidates, and which I think illustrates why I'm just not very motivated by this year's election.
73% Chris Dodd
72% Hillary Clinton
72% Rudy Giuliani
70% Barack Obama
70% Bill Richardson
68% John Edwards
61% John McCain
60% Joe Biden
54% Mitt Romney
51% Mike Gravel
51% Dennis Kucinich
49% Mike Huckabee
48% Tom Tancredo
43% Fred Thompson
36% Ron Paul
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
As you can see, although Democrats seem to have a bit of an edge, it's by no means absolute. Now that Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are gone (whew!), the marginal difference to me for Clinton vs. Obama vs. McCain is sufficiently small that it's hard to even know which one I'd prefer in office. On the one hand, it's too bad that I don't get a candidate with whom I agree 80% or 90%, but at least I won't get one who's in the teens.
And no, I don't know who more than about half of those names are.
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| Countdown |
[06 Feb 2008|05:02pm] |
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mood |
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excited |
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Fewer than 90 hours until I leave for Malaysia!
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| Merry Christmas! |
[25 Dec 2007|05:56am] |
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Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays!
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| PTQ Sealed Card Pool |
[10 Dec 2007|06:02pm] |
Well, it's another Magic-related post (as opposed to a paper-related post; sorry that's all I seem to write about these days).
Despite the benefit of hindsight and additional experience, I'm still not sure how to build the sealed pool I opened at the PTQ. It's interesting, because the creature base in all five colors is quite strong. Anyway, I'd appreciate feedback, from those of you who play Magic.
( Card Listing )
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| Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour Qualifier |
[04 Nov 2007|02:55am] |
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mood |
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jubilant |
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Well, in typical fashion, I procrastinated my paper today by playing in the Lorwyn limited format PTQ in High Point, competing against 100 other people. Somewhat disappointingly, today marked my first time playing in a limited PTQ without winning a bunch of booster packs. However, with my 6-1 Swiss record, I did win this nice pin:
So, how did I make the top 8 and yet not win any packs? By placing first, and instead winning the invite and plane ticket to the Magic Pro Tour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! That's right, next February (once I get my passport!) I'm going to fly across the globe to play Magic in Malaysia, possibly winning up to $40,000! Yay! This is really exciting, and a bit scary.
Probably the MVPs for my deck in the seven Swiss rounds were Changeling Titan, Thorntooth Witch, and my pair of Warren Pilferers. I thought my draft deck was pretty bad, but since it went 3-0 to win the top 8, now I'm not so sure. On the other hand, perhaps it was just the incredible power of Final Revels.
Thanks to all of my opponents, who were friendly and fun to talk to as well as play against!
EDIT (11-19-07): Anyone who would like to see my draft deck can do so on this page here.
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| Finished! |
[21 Jul 2007|02:39pm] |
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mood |
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 sleepy |
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With Harry Potter, that is. Although I'm not sure I agree with the ending, I definitely enjoyed the book. I think it's arguably the best one (admittedly, I haven't read any of the others in years, so I'm going on memory here).
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| Another Semester Survived! |
[10 May 2007|05:28pm] |
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mood |
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excited |
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No more classes, papers, or final exams! Just got my last take-home exam turned in. Yay!
Sorry for my apparent disappearance, I've just been really busy this semester. But that's all over with!
For now.
I actually still have my lit review to finish, research to do, and a class that starts in 2 1/2 weeks. But still. :)
I hope everyone else has had a good semester or five months working or whatever. I have at least read LJ's from time to time.
Yay!
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| Project Complete |
[09 Dec 2006|03:08pm] |
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mood |
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relieved |
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As has probably been apparent from my posting frequency, I've been really busy with school recently. In particular, I've been working on two large papers, as well as PowerPoint presentations to explain them. However, as I got the second paper turned in yesterday, I'm finally free! Just one final exam to go. And then my literature review to rewrite over break. In other news, however, my birthday is on Thursday. :)
But anyway, in case anyone is interested, here are the two papers I've been doing:
The first paper was for Game Theory. A common idea in economics is that people receive decreasing benefit from additional consumption. The first hamburger you eat in a day is better than the second. This can cause people to act in a manner that avoids risk: if we each have a hamburger, and I suggest we flip a coin, and the winner gets both hamburgers, you'll turn me down. However, attempting to describe all risk-averse behavior in terms of decreasing utility is flawed; my paper demonstrates this.
My second paper was an empirical project I've been working on all semester. I used data from the EPA in an attempt to determine whether or not air pollution is distributed unjustly across the country. I got some mixed results, but generally counties with higher income were subject to lower levels of pollution, while counties with higher percentages of Hispanic residents were subject to higher levels of pollution. Feel free to take a look, or at least skim the abstract.
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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
[23 Nov 2006|03:24pm] |
Although I've been dealing simultaneously with a fever and several major papers this week, I'm taking a break from all of that to go to Chapel Hill. I'm going to have Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. Then tomorrow, when I'll be well again (I do seem to be on the mend, fingers crossed), I'll see friends who are in town, hopefully including keyboard_monkey, jmermin, and Jonathan, who have all inconsiderately moved far away.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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| X-Men Meme |
[10 Aug 2006|07:43pm] |
Taken from the_eleven.
 | You scored as Beast. Beast is an intelligent, politcal spokesman for the X-Men. He has a Ph.D in Genetics and is well versed in literature. He may look like a blue fuzzy monster, but deep down he's very benevolent and logical. Powers: Enhanced strength and agility
( Read more... ) |
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| Oregon |
[21 Jul 2006|12:37am] |
I'm flying out to Eugene, Oregon in the morning, where I'll be visiting eve_prime and her family. I've been told the weather forecast is in the 90's, but that's pretty much par for the course in NC, anyway. I'll be in Eugene for about a week; I expect we'll go swimming, hiking, play some games, and watch a whole bunch of movies. eve_prime will probably write about it in her journal.
Incidentally, the Two-Headed Giant ratings for Magic are finally updated. Unfortunately, it turns out that the tournament a few weeks ago was only a 16K event, not a 32K as the judge had told me. Thus, each match only had 1/2 as large an effect upon ratings, but I still gained 50 points! My current rating is now 1739, and I am ranked 2nd in the world!
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| Back from Baltimore/Ithaca/Long Island/DC |
[18 Jul 2006|02:13pm] |
I'm back from my trip with jmermin. It was a lot of fun, and I think I learned a bunch about Game Theory (although I'm still not certain whether or not I want to try to focus on it for my education). I took many pictures over the course of the week, including this movie of keyboard_monkey at the Baltimore Orioles stadium this past Saturday.
For those who are curious, John Nash is indeed still alive, but not a very good speaker, at least not when he just reads from the slides he's projecting onto the screen.
More details may follow, at least if I have time before leaving to visit eve_prime in Oregon on Friday. (When am I going to finish writing my Literature Review? Hmm...)
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| Game Theory Trip |
[06 Jul 2006|01:37pm] |
I'm about to head to Chapel Hill, because in the morning jmermin and I drive up to Baltimore. We'll stay with Jonathan and Kristen (and two-month-old Caroline) for the weekend, attend the Coldsnap Magic Prerelease, and perhaps an Orioles baseball game.
On Monday, it's up to Ithaca. Jeff's friend Steve is giving his dissertation defense at Cornell on Tuesday. I understand he's been working on his math degree for a long time, his previous topic having been scooped by a group of professors.
On Wednesday morning, we leave Ithaca and drive to Stony Brook, on Long Island. We're going to the 17th International Conference on Game Theory! It looks exciting; there are many talks, including one by John Nash. (People keep asking me, "Isn't he dead? Or retired, or something?" I don't know, but he's giving a talk. We'll see.) Hopefully three days of conference will allow me to finally decide whether or not Game Theory is something I want to focus my education on (and the rest of my life?).
Then on Friday night we return to the DC area, and stay with Jeff's friend John. We drive back to Chapel Hill on Saturday.
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