Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena!!!!!

Spring break!!!! Whooooo!! Jello Shooters!!!I've been at an academic retreat here in Portsmouth New Hampshire for the past 3 days, and it was just what the doctor ordered after a long semester of science and research. Yep, by the time spring break rolls around I feel burnt out from the constant science bombardment in my day to day life, and there's nothing better than getting out of the city to recharge the ol' batteries by forced and prolonged exposure to boring people talking about science.

I exaggerate. It isn't that bad.

There were some nice social events. For example, we had a dance last night. We had consumed some tequila and that stuff just makes me want to boogie! I was out on the floor just gyrating and pointing at chicks while doing this kind of crazy-legs rubber man dance. It was pretty bad ass. Then it happened:

The DJ played the "Hypnotize"/"Macarena"/"Hot in Here" trifecta.

Anyone who knows me knows that at that point I completely lost control. During the finale when Nelly sings "It's getting hot in here! So take off all your clothes!" I ripped my shirt off. Unfortunately that was about 40 seconds before hotel security shut us down because it was 12am. So the lights come on, 10 seconds later the DJ just shuts off the music in mid-stream, and I am standing in the middle of the dance floor in tan pants and loafers flossing my butt with my dress shirt. Not pretty and veeerrrrry awkward.

Hey I'm coming home to Canada this week! Get ready!

Making a new commitment to this crappy blog

Yeah sure, her fonts are sagging and she's heavier than when we first started out. She can be cross and demanding, and she takes up minutes of my precious time. But let's face it, I'm no prize either. I'm not very creative or funny, and I often sacrifice good grammar and proper sentence structure for a conversational style. It's clear that I tend toward quantity rather than quality when it comes to writing. Furthermore, I use words like 'furthermore', 'anyway', and 'also' way too much when I begin sentences. Also, I need an editor. Anyway, I'm ugly.

And skinny.

poop.

See? I need an editor.

I admit it. I'm lucky to have her. So I want to publicly renew my commitment to my crappy blog. Baby, I love you. Let's work this out.

Oh snap.

"Hi."
"Oh. You're back."
"Yeah...I just wanted to stop by to see how you're doing."
"I'm fine, but I don't have the time or inclination to talk to you. Why don't you go back to your little floozy and leave me alone?"
"Please don't talk like that sugar snap, you know she doesn't mean anything to me."
"Well you could've fooled me with the way you've been cavorting around town with her, and all the while you left me here neglected and lonely."
"She was exciting for a little while sure, but you and I have something deeper. With her I always felt like I had to be a clown. Everything had to have a punch line and she was always judging me. But with you I can be serious and open. I can share everything with you and just be myself...I, I just really want to work this out."
"What makes you think I do? Don't touch me."
"Darling...."
"STAY AWAY!!! I can smell that slut Facebook all over you! Get out of here."

Random Stuff

I haven't posted anything in a long time. Why? Because facebook is eating up all my spare time. I love it so much....many of you may have already been stalked without knowing it.

I am currently taking a course in microeconomics that is really interesting and I thought I would post a link to a really cool paper we looked at for a problem set. You can find the paper here.

Basically the author looks at assassinations and tries to determine statistically whether a successful assassination attempt has any measurable effect on the political institutions of a country (relative to cases where an assassination attempt failed). Interestingly, in autocratic regimes a successful assassination seems to be associated with an increase in the chance that the country will move toward democracy. In democratic regimes, there was no really strong effect.

Very interesting stuff, but is it really economics? It seems to me that a lot of economics these days involves squatting in other people's fields and using statistics to analyze their data. Didn't we used to call these people statisticians and not economists?

Anyway, I really need to get to bed. We had an exam on Monday and it had been so long since I'd written one that I got completely stressed and didn't sleep the whole night. I'm still messed up.

I encourage all readers to join facebook and add me as a friend. You can also join the MIT micropoker club (it's open to everyone) and witness how I completely dominate the discussion board. Many can exceed my posts in quality, but no one can post as relentlessly and in the sheer quantity that I do.