November

I've done my normal November retreat again this year. And by retreat, I don't mean vacation in the mountains, I mean cut myself off from the outside world. This year, my professors have decided to change things up and make all sorts of things due before Thanksgiving break, not after. This isn't great for me, since I always plan on using my escape from Thanksgiving as a time when I can get all sorts of work done.

So this year, I'll once again have the house to myself (and the dogs) but I'm not going to have hardly any work to do (compared to what I'll be doing in the preceding weeks). But that's okay, I'll have Nano to keep me company.

I recently bought a new game called Munchkin (recently = October) and got to finally play it (it requires 3 people to play, not two like I originally thought). The wait was well worth it. The game is basically a spoof on D&D games, with humorous monsters, potions, and items used to get your character to be the first to level 10. I played with three teenage girls, and they enjoyed it enough to agree to play again sometime (we had to cut the game short because people had to go home), so I count that as a success, and think I'll be able to get all my friends to play, even those that aren't inclined to D&D and the like. Consider yourselves forewarned.

Trust

As much as I sometimes think that dogs lead great lives of sleeping, eating, and playing almost all the time, I realize that I wouldn't be happy with the amount of trust that you have to put in other people as a dog, or as any type of pet. Dogs rely on people for their food, although they can apparently learn to fend for themselves on the streets (but still, they're probably most eating people-food still), to be let outside (would you willing lock yourself in a building where you were completely unable to open up the doors or windows?), and just in general (how many people do you know who consistently come when called?).

So yeah, I think it would be fun to sleep half the day and go run through the brush after squirrels and rabbits the other half, but I really think I'd have issues with not being able to do anything for myself.

Found my thesis

Because I've recently been told that making assumptions is a bad thing (and one of the reasons that economics is inferior to the 'real' sciences) I think I shall do my thesis based on the earning power of people based on the astrological sign. Because we can't assume anything.

From an article I had to read:
"Because an individual's date of birth is probably unrelated to their ability and motivation (ruling out astrological effects), date of birth should provide a valid instrument for earnings."

Geocities

Dear Geocities,

I'm sad to hear that you're leaving, and you won't be coming back. I remember fondly when we first met. I knew nothing about html, and you were always patient with me as I made mistake after mistake. I remember the first time we made frames, and how excited you were when I finally figured out table syntax.

Unfortunately, there will be no more young website creators who can use your sandbox to discover their inner designer. Perhaps that's a good thing, seeing the horribleness that has been created. But none of that was your fault. After all, abilities and those that teach them aren't inherently evil, only those who use them.

You had a long and eventful life, and fare thee well.

Your friend,
Becca

Sucker

I just can't help myself - I signed up to do Nano this year. Now, because I'm not completely insane, I realize that I probably won't be able to finish 50k words, but I'm going to make an effort at 25k. Of course, this means that Rachel and I have to figure out new categories for our best out of three this year, but that should be doable. I think I'm going to double-y cheat this year by also continuing my novel from last year. I should have at least another 25k words in there. This, however, means that I have to figure out what to do next with my plot. Both 50k words and the end of the month coincided with me hitting wall in my plot, and I was happy to stop there and not need to solve the problem.

But I have a week to figure this all out, right?

Econ Definitions

Stochasticity - portraying a stochastic tendency. Example: You thoughts display stochasticity that is alarming.

Heteroskedastastic - Amazingly heteroskedastic data. Example: Those results are heteroskedastastic! Opposite: Homoskedastastic - Fantastically homoskedastic data.

(For readers not in the know, homoskedasticity is characterized by regression residuals whose variance does not depend on any exogenous variables. In other words, the conditional variance of the residual given X is constant).

One of these words is made up, but that doesn't make the other one any less fun to use and say.

Math pick-up translations

Pick-up line: You complete me.
Math translation: You span my vector space.

I need to see this

My Name is Bruce: B Movie Legend Bruce Campbell is mistaken for his character Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and forced to fight a real monster in a small town in Oregon (from imdb).

I don't need to know anything else about this movie.