• Pop quizzes, in both Making Decisions and Statistics. They don’t test how well I know the material, they test whether I can think on the spot and have a photographic memory. They don’t help me learn.

• Making Decisions presentation project. The assignment is very open ended: make a persuasive presentation for and against buying insurance, basing both the pros and cons on a common set of facts. I have spent a week already searching online for “insurance facts” and been completely overwhelmed by technical information and economics papers. The only things I can think of to talk about are moral hazard (con: insurance makes you more careless because you know you are covered; pro: knowing you are covered gives you peace of mind) and risk pool (pro: if you get sick, you pay less than you would have otherwise because your costs are being subsidized by everyone else’s payments; con: if you are generally healthy, you are paying more than you otherwise would). That doesn’t make a 12 minute presentation. Also, my group is 7 people, which makes everything take a billion times longer than it should.

• Civil Liberties final paper. I have never written a 20 page research paper. Even though I am starting now a month ahead of time, I am very nervous about finishing. I have a topic I’m not sure how I am going to write 20 pages or what I am going to argue exactly. All my work this semester is due at the end. What am I going to do? Needless to say I will be working hard over Thanksgiving.

Nov 27: Civil Liberties Presentation Paper due
Nov 30: Group presentations start for Making Decisions
Dec 11: Last Welfare Economics midterm
Dec 12: Making Decisions as-yet unassigned paper due
Dec 12: Civil Liberties final paper due

tags: class, nix

The tracking information for my last package was updated on Thursday at noon. What’s the point of having tracking if the package isn’t really tracked? Previous reported activity indicates that it took over 12 hours for the shipment to travel from Fresno to Sacramento, a 3 hour drive. How is it going to make it all the way to Providence at that rate? Also, why was this sent by FedEx ground in the first place? On the auction page “Standard Flat Rate Shipping” is listed, which is USPS. I bet it would have been faster.

I’m sick of not listening to any music.

tags: nix

Not living in a suite is a blow. My room feels like a deserted island even though Josh and Jessie’s rooms are right nearby. I guess this is good preparation for the rest of my life.

tags: nix

For the first time in college, I’ve been the person to purchase and apply duct tape to the bathroom lock so you don’t need to bring your key with you to go pee. Previously the door was being propped open with the waste bin, which meant that everyone coming down the hallway got a direct view of the first stall.

Classes start tomorrow and the only one I am sure of is statistics. After last semester I really don’t want to end up with mostly classes I don’t like. My room is bigger than I know what to do with, and using a communal bathroom is a little more annoying than I remembered. And I’m puffy-eyed-tired.

tags: brown, nix

Our house feels like a toxic environment right now. There is clutter, dust, cat fur, paper… everywhere. The basement smells awful. Whether it is damp carpet mold or cat pee or poo I don’t know. It’s impossible to tell because there is junk everywhere. Everything looks dirty and unpleasant. There are stains on the floor and the carpets. Even my room is a mess. It has been almost the entire summer. I just want to throw everything away. I hate having so much stuff. I feel bogged down just being here, but I have nowhere else to go. In the past I’ve made a project of organizing the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom drawers, clearing out the third bedroom, getting rid of bunch of dumpy mattresses that were just sitting in the living room. Even though I’ve done so much it doesn’t seem like I’ve made a dent in anything.

And, there is a never any food I want to eat.

tags: home, nix

Brittney: In France until June 17, then working for Apple in San Francisco
Katie: Moved to Western Massachusetts.
Maya: Graduated and globetrotting, home for the last three weeks of August.
Maddie: Living and working in Baltimore.
Eric: No longer going to GWU as far as I know, so no reason to be anywhere around DC.

Maurie will be home this Friday and for the rest of the summer though — THANK GOD. Otherwise I would go crazy. My aspirations for this summer include:

• Taking lots of walks and bike rides
• Rearranging my room, getting a new desk, getting rid of cruft.
• Spending copious amounts of time with Maurie and her family
• Study for and take LSATs
• My two classes at Maryland (Criminology and Micro Economics). This should take up a nice chunk of time (6 weeks).
• Trip to California with Mummy: Santa Barbara and San Francisco, to see the uncles, Brittney and hopefully Donald and Lauren.
• Trip to Providence and Western Massachusetts to see McComas, Sarah Faux and Katie.
• Trip to Chicago, maybe?

tags: friends, home, list, nix