Feelin it

I played ultimate last night for the first time since the first week I was here. I could really feel the extra 7-10 pounds I've gained. The cuts are still good and the throws are there, but it was really rough trying to cut deep and then get back on D.

But it also felt really good to be moving again and pushing myself. And I didn't play too badly, either, though it wasn't the hottest competition. I'm playing again tonight and looking forward to it.

That's a lotta snow.

We've got about two feet of snow right now and we're in the middle of what looks like a bona fide blizzard.

I've been driving to work (I know, it's sad) because I am worried that all my bikes are to expensive to ride through salty slush. Last year at this time I had a crappy fixed gear, which I later inadvertently totalled. So this summer I think I will focus on building up a singlespeed with fenders, and maybe studded tires.

It's too bad because I really like riding in the snow. All that slipping and negotiation with the pavement keeps you focused and adds a certain feeling of accomplishment that doesn't come so much from crusing in normal conditions.

According to a professor of mine, though, this is "small stuff". I find that hard to believe, but let me just say this: I was skeptical of the so-called "lake effect" at first, but I've learned something--the lake effect is real, and real nasty.

Edgeworth boxes

Did you know that in a 2-good, 2-person exchange economy, you can have someone burn some of his stuff and be better off (at the expensive of the other guy, too!).

So, for example, say you have apples and I am the Bananaman. Specifically you have apples, and I have a tasty banana. And suppose we have homothetic preferences, which is just another way of saying that if we get X times more stuff then we are X times as happy. Not totally realistic, but not crazy either.

Now, it turns out that you can throw away an apple, then the price of apples is jacked up high enough that when you trade part of your other apple to me I will give you enough more banana that you will be better off that you would have if you hadn't thrown that apple away!

...

You know you are desperate for blogging material when you start telling people about exchange economies. But it is kind of neat, and who knows? maybe it will be useful to you someday.

5 Things

Alright, after a lot of dredging around, I (okay, mostly Sara) finally came up with Five Things you probably didn't know about me:

1. On the eve of my final ultimate tournament at Earlham College, I got sick. The nurses at the health center diagnosed it as a stomach flu and said I'd probably be okay in 48 hours. Despite copious and painful vomiting, I decided to make the trip down to Berea, KY, anyway on the assumption that I'd be better by game time.

That decision turned out to have saved my life. By the time we actually arrived in Berea I was unable to walk to the house we were staying in. I was taken to the local hostpital where I puked a little more and may have shat myself while waiting overnight for someone to come check me out. It turned out I in fact had appendicitis, and the appendix had ruptured to boot.

It took several weeks to recover, just as I was pulling together my senior thesis on option pricing, but it seems everything has worked out okay in the end.


2. I have an awful memory for events or timelines. I can't remember where I put my drink, ever. Most days it takes about two minutes to figure out how old I am. I have a really hard time remembering which event came before or after another. Many people have bad memories, but this goes beyond that. I lose pretty much everything I own on a regular basis, independent of its value to me.

The really weird thing is that I have an uncanny memory for dates, names, and facts--any sort of trivia-type information. So it's not just that I have bad memory overall, it's just a particular type of memory that escapes me. Which is sad, because in the end all we have are our memories, and I'd rather remember my own life than who discovered blahblah.


3. I have a lump in my breast. Not the cancerous kind, but a rib that sticks out where it meets the sternum. It makes my right pec look slightly bigger if you look hard enough, but that's pretty much the only effect. Still, kind of a weird abnormality.


4. I enjoy getting lost, as long as I have nowhere to be. In the summer after my freshman year at college I worked as a counselor/lifeguard (despite being a terrible swimmer, but that's another story), and one my favorite activities to lead was a "Get-Lost Hike". Basically we'd just take off through the brush and try to avoid any landmarks that might tell us where we are. One time we took it to extremes and ended up making our way back along county roads, about five hours later than we should have. Just as we were almost back, a cop car flew past us. It returned a few minutes later along with one of the other counselors in a van--they had called the police to go find us.

I guess I was supposed to get in trouble for that, but I didn't and I continued to lead those hikes without going quite so far. Really, though, you only find interesting stuff once you get off the beaten path.


5. Although most people know me as Adam, my first name is Charles. All the first-born males in my family, going back at least 4 generations, have been named Charles. We all have different middle names, and we use those in day-to-day interactions. Charles means "manly" and Adam means "man", so put together I am "Manly Man".


I think everybody on earth has been tagged by now, and I don't think too many folks read this jive anyway, so I'm not tagging anyone.

The "Surge"

Bush's speech the other night is getting a lot of attention. My thoughts:

1. I agree with everyone else that tens of thousands of troops isn't going to do the job. More like 100,000 or so. The plan as it stands now will not change anything.

2. If you could get enough troops, I think the idea of conducting a real counterinsurgency program could work. I don't think it would transform the country into a model democracy, but it would give some time to build up their own institutions so we can get out.

3. Talks should start with the UN, NATO, European governments, Russia, Turkey, the Arab League, and everyone else to try to get a multinational peacekeeping mission in there. Obviously all those entities are going to be wary, but each of them has an interest in a rebuilt Iraq. And that's the only way to get the kind of numbers and legitimacy we'd need to really make this thing work.

4. Apparently the troops being sent are also there as a threat to Iran. There is no way that we will have a war with Iran. I'd probably rule out airstrikes, too, even. There is no way either Iran or the US are crazy enough to get into that.

5. The war in Iraq will be over one way or another by mid-2009. More likely, it will come to the point where Congress gets enough public support to start cutting off the money pipe, and we will be mostly out by the end of 2007.

6. The next president will be Democratic, as long as Hillary doesn't get the nomination. I think this Congress is really dedicated to holding everything together for two years and they've got a great foil in an unpopular President. It's been my belief for quite some time that the Democrats actually gained by having Kerry lose. Now the nation has two more years to think hard about that decision.

7. There will never be more US casualties in Iraq than there were in Vietnam.

8. There will not be a draft. Not for Iraq, not for Iran, and almost certainly never again in my lifetime.

Those are my thoughts and predictions. What do you think?

Compex

I was reading Jared Roy's blog about how the Vicodin he takes makes his Compex sessions less painful.

Everytime I hear about these electronic muscle stimulators, they sound awesome. Has anyone tried this? I really like the idea of being able to read or do other work while working out. I have a project going on now to try to build some kind of arrangement that will allow me to read papers while on the trainer, even.

The problem with working out is that it is such an obvious "waste" of time. But when I cut stuff like that out, I don't do proportionally more work. I just stare at a wall or read blogs or something.

ND vs. West Virginia

Sara got tickets from her boss to go see the West Virginia game last night, and it was pretty awesome. The crowd is pretty tame, even going so far as to clap for the opposing team's starting lineup. But ND put on a show and pulled out a win against what will surely be a NCAA tournament team.

I took a bunch of photos, but can't seem to find the USB cord, so I'll post those later.

Xmas and New Year's Roundup

Whew! I'm finally back in South Bend after a week at my folks' place and a week spent skiing in Minnesota. I had a great time, but it's also good to be back and productive again.

I know plenty of people who don't make New Year's resolutions, but I have become a big believer in setting goals. Here are my goals for 2007, in the hopes that having more people know about my goals will make it easier to stay on track.

1. Pass Comprehensive Exams on the first try.
This one is huge. We take two exams in May (one micro, one macro) to see if we're good enough to do research. If you don't pass, then you have to study all summer and take them again in August. That would be awful. Passing the first time will help me achieve several other goals, too.

2. Pass all classes with B+ or better.
3. Get weight under 175 and body fat under 12% and keep it there.
I bought a body fat scale today, before reading Allan's post about how they suck. Today it read 186 and 19%, and I imagine both of those sound reasonable.

4. Achieve certain saving targets by the ends of April and August.
I know it's lame, but totally necessary.

5. Win one race.
Last year my goal was to get in the top ten in one race, and I did that at Avon. This year I want to win a race.

6. Upgrade to Category 4 on the road. (Probably after winning a race.)
7. Write a research paper.

Why doesn't beer or alcohol have nutrition facts, or at least the number of calories in each "serving"? Doesn't make any sense to me that they should be exempt from the rules that every other food/drink product has to follow. I think many people would drink less if they realized how much energy is stored in alcohol.

I drove through De Forest, Wisconsin the yesterday. I thought that was funny, especially since their water tower just says DEFOREST. I didn't have a camera handy, though.

Have you ever heard your ringtone on someone else's phone? I changed my ringtone when I got a new phone this past August, and Sara recently changed hers to my old one. It's a weird feeling to have that kind of association wired so deeply. I think she's going to change it soon, though.

Big Thanks to T3 for hooking me up with some spring classics footage. I've watched the vid he got me of the Tour of Flanders about three dozen times. That stuff still gets me psyched, especially when everyone walks their bikes up the Valkenburg.

I guess I've been tagged by two different people to post five things you don't know about me, so I'm working on that. This game is harder than I would have thought.