9.24.2012

Day 490

Today felt... familiar.  Like many other Mondays.  It wasn't bad, nor was it especially good.  Parts of it were pretty great, but in general it just went about like one might expect a day to go.

Before going to class I entered grades into blackboard and started looking at the next chapter.  Then I went to go meet some class mates to work on an assignment for my Regression class.  We got a little bit done before I had to go.  One of my students was unable to make it to the test on Thursday, so I proctored that today.  While my student was taking the test I read a few articles on economics.  The first one was on the economics of stealing bicycles.  It was really interesting.  The author figured that if people are stealing bikes, there must be some incentive (logical deduction).  But since bikes aren't a very liquid asset (something that can be easily turned into cash), there must be some other reason.  The realization was that it's an easy petty theft with essentially no risk.  Police officers aren't going to stop looking into a murder or bank robbery to look for a stolen bike.  And quite frankly, I don't want them to.  Murderers are a more pressing detriment to society than bike thieves are.  However, since there is no risk and some amount of reward (known as an arbitrage opportunity), bike thieves go for it.  Another article (same author) talked about how iPhones are the most profitable phone to purchase because of the resale value.  That was an interesting aspect I'd never considered.  It's not enough of a reason for me to buy an iPhone, but it was a unique perspective.  And then I read an article about a guy who makes $750 a week reselling things on Craigslist.

Then I had class.  It wasn't quite as exciting as arbitraging bicycles, but that's ok.  In between classes we went to the Atrium and looked over the homework problems before turning them in.  We collaborated a bit to make sure that everything made sense.  I think I understood it... for the most part.  After I turned in the assignment I realized that there was something from Friday's class that Mr. Owens had added to the homework that I'd forgotten to do.  So I'll do that for next week.

When I got home I talked with Kimmy for a little bit before she went to work. But she had to work at 5.  After she left I put my things away and made some dinner.  I was feeling lazy, so I tried something new (and super healthy). I call it: Mexican Spaghetti.
It's basically just spaghetti with cheese, sour cream, and salsa on top.  It was so good.

After dinner I did some lesson planning.  This next chapter is on statistics, so I'm going to do my best to keep things relevant.  We'll see how it goes.  I don't want to make them do long tedious calculations, but the course curriculum mandates certain things.  And so to an extend I will have to make them all do some long tedious calculations.  Yarg.

Then Kimmy came home.  There was a stray cat outside, so Kimmy brought him in while she called the number on his tag.  She just wanted to make sure that he was, in fact, supposed to be outside, which it was.

I think that's about it for now.  Good night, all!

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