1.13.2012

Day 235

Today was just... a day.  Nothing really special, just a day.  I've never really liked Fridays like that, but I'm realizing that often I don't have the option of choosing how my Fridays go.


I woke up at 6 like normal, but decided that it was just too early.  So I set my alarm for 6:30.  Normally when my alarm goes off, I hit the snooze twice (each for 5 minutes).  So this morning at 6:05 I thought I heard something.  It appears that my brain is just expecting to hear my alarm go off five minutes after my first alarm.  I don't like this game...


Anyhow.  I had a very nice, long shower.  My room was freezing when I woke up.  Like... after my alarm went off at 6 I slept with my face hidden under the covers.  None of the windows are very well sealed, so it makes the rooms really cold.  Woo hoo.  Andre went to go talk with the front desk about it, but I don't recall that it was successful.


Anyhow, we had class this morning.  I'm noticing that Dr. Foley really likes to references classes that we have taken in the past.  And by that I mean the phrase "you should recall from [class]" is a very common phrase.  My personal favorite was when he said "you should recall from 620..." That was the stats class I took in the fall.  I don't remember a thing from that class.  Actually that's false.  I remember quite a bit.  But probably not as much as he thinks we remember.  Getting on with my story.  Today we started what will be a very long discussion on the origin of interest rates.  In economics, there are theoretical (sort of) "supply and demand curves" that show where the perfect balance of supply and demand lie so that everyone is happy.  In general, more people want to buy something when the price is low, fewer people want to buy when the price is high.  The idea is to find that sweet spot where companies are making the maximum amount of money from selling enough product but not over charging (thus losing customers) or undercharging (thus losing money on production costs).  This is one of the contributing factors to interest rates.  When more people are lending money, interest rates go down.  The easiest way to have more money being lent is by printing it.  But this increases inflation, which then decreases interest rates.  So it's a pretty complicated process, as you can see.


In between classes it was Atrium time.  I even have that scheduled on my Google Calendar.  I treated myself to coffee, as it was Friday.  And pay day!  Paul (new student to the program) has been joining us so we've been trying to get him caught up on all things actuary related.  Things like applying for internships, studying for exams, different professors, how awesome Muncie is (it's not), and things of that nature.  Which reminds me that I need to start looking into places to live next year.  Noted.


I believe that Dr. Foley's opening line of Life Con 2 was just fantastic.  "Why would anyone want to live in Muncie?  When I retire I'll need two condos.  One up here for most of the year and one in Florida for when it's miserable out like today.  And neither one will be in Muncie."  He had another great line later on in class: "I have better things to do than arithmetic."  I believe that every mathematician feels this way.  Life Con went well today.  We just talked more about how various laws of probability work when dealing with two lives instead of just one.  Today's focus was on co-variance, which is a measure of how much two random variables change in accordance with one another.  For instance, we are often discussing the likelihood of death for a married couple.  We often have to consider the probability of the first one dying or the second.  But since we don't know who will die first (and each one has a unique probability of survival) things get tricky.  Fast.


After class Dustin and I were going to go work out, but he didn't bring a change of clothes with him.  And there was no way I was going back after I'd left campus, so we just decided to go tomorrow.  I took him back to his apartment, then went off to Wal-mart.  I began my wardrobe alteration today by purchasing more plain shirts.  I wanted more colors than just black and grey, but the only shirts in other colors had breast pockets.  So I also acquired a seam ripper.  When I got home I proceeded to delicately rip the pockets off and create plain shirts with no pocket.  After putting them through the washer and drier I was unable to tell that there had ever been a pocket.  When I was done started watching a DVD that I'm borrowing from Dustin.  It's a set of lectures that covers the same material as the FM study guide.  It was pretty helpful.  I watched the first half of the DVD on derivatives markets.  Then I took a nap.  When I woke up I randomly got inspired to work on my resume.  This turned into 3 hours of me completely reworking it.  I realized that my resume must be pretty boring.  Not for lack of content, but just because it looks like everyone else's resume.  This occurred to me a while ago (in the fall), but it just hit me that I needed to do something about this.  So instead of doing a normal chronological resume (where you simply list your education, experience, and things like that), I decided to make a "functional resume," where you take the qualities you're marketing and explain why different experiences that you've had make you the best fit for the position.  So I spent all afternoon working on that.  I think I completed it, but on Monday I'm going to take it into the career center to have them look at it.  Then I'll have Mr. Dean take a look to see what he says.  Personally I like it a lot better than my old resume.  I've even considered making an informational website where I can talk about my experiences even more.  But I'll see what the career center and Mr. Dean say.


I made chicken and rice for dinner.  As usual, I forgot just how long a thick piece of chicken takes to cook on the stove.  The answer (for those wondering) is about 30 minutes.  I use a lower power to ensure that the outside doesn't get burnt.  It ended up tasting really good, but it just took a while.


After dinner I talked with Andre for a while.  About school, about bogus education departments and standards, about everything.  It was good.  He isn't around much (ever) on the weekends.  So it was nice to just talk for a while.  Then I realized that my internet wasn't working.  After trying a few different things I just finished working on my resume.  Then my internet came back, so I played some games for a little bit.  And now I'm tired, so I'm going to go to bed!  Night!

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