Geoff's Journal

I'm going on record by saying that I'm incredibly excited about the upcoming Twins season.  I love baseball and I love the Twins.  I think they’re going to be a solid club – especially if Crede can stay healthy.  Here’s the lineup I’d like to see (this is assuming all people are healthy – clearly Joe isn’t yet):

CF – Span (L)
2b – Casilla (S)
C – Mauer (L)
RF – Cuddyer (R)
1b – Morneau (L)
3b – Crede (R)
DH – Kubel (L)
LF – Young (R)
SS – Punto (S)

Bench: Buscher, Harris, Redmond, Hughes

SP:

1. Liriano (L)
2. Baker (R)
3. Slowey (R)
4. Blackburn (R)
5. Perkins (L)

RP:

Closer – Nathan (R)
8^th inning – Crain (R)
Others – Guerrier (R), Ayala (R), Breslow (L), Duensing (L)
Long relief – Humber (R)

A few notes.  Gomez isn’t on the team because he needs to improve his offensive game in a major way.  I buy into the argument that he was, at worst, one of the top defensive CFs in the game last season (and I think he deserved a Gold Glove), but he’s too much of a liability.  He’s welcome back when he hits .270 with a .330 OBP.  Ideally Kubel would be hitting behind Morneau (Crede isn’t that good of a hitter), however he still has serious issues against lefties.  Plus he’ll be good protection for Crede.  I think the bench has a nice balance of speed (Hughes…potentially Harris) and pop (Buscher and Harris).  I would be persuaded to eliminate Duensing from the bullpen in favor of another bat, but probably not until after these young starters establish they can pitch 6+ innings on a regular basis. 

With Mauer out I think they should use the following starting lineup:

CF – Span (L)
2b – Casilla (S)
DH – Kubel (L)
RF – Cuddyer (R)
1b – Morneau (L)
3b – Crede (R)
LF – Young (R)
C – Butera (R)
SS – Punto (S)

Bench: Buscher, Harris, Redmond, Hughes

I’m not a huge fan of starting Redmond for the majority of the games, so I prefer to leave him in the bench.  I like Kubel hitting third because it keeps the bulk of the lineup intact. 

Those are my two cents.  I think it should be a fun season – some entertaining games will occur in the Dome’s final season. 

 

 

 

 

It's been almost 5 months since my last entry.  Let me say, it's not for lack of frequenting the site - I often come to check what others have to say. It's just that whenever I think about posting I have very little to say.  I suppose there are many reasons for this.  I perceive my recent life experiences as more relevant to the people I see in person rather than those who have/would frequent this blog.  That's not to say those who read this journal would find my life uninteresting, just that I am increasingly less motivated to come up with things to talk about that (I think) you all would find insightful and/or interesting.  In short, the election is (long) over, and while there are certainly interesting and entertaining things that occur in the world of politics (e.g. John Stewart taking it to Jim Cramer), I'm less motivated to discuss them.  

Of course, I imagine the more realistic cause of my lack of posting is that I just have much less time than I used to.  From my last post until, well, about now, I've been doing school, basically, all the time.  I had midterms and finals.  I took a prelim (comprehensive exam) in methods and models in early February.  I studied for a month so that I could sit in a room for 8 hours and write a closed book/note exam on political methodologies.  Sound fun?  I'm glad it's over.  It's currently spring break and, low and behold, I've found that there's a bit more free time in my life (for the next 20 minutes or so).  However, this respite will soon be over and I can make no promises about my brain coming up with things to say. 

Has anything else happened in my life?  Frankly, not really.  I am quite happy.  I love my life with Cassie.  I have good friends.  I enjoy what I am and will do for a living.  Perhaps as my life varies more, above or below the fairly stable equilibrium it has settle in, I will have more to say.  For now, this will have to do.  Cheers to everyone and have a great St. Patrick’s Day.  

As my subject implies, it's been a while since my last post.  Rest assured, I did return safely from Palo Alto, CA.   I've had a very busy semester.  Difficult methods classes and a great political psychology class.  All told the semester has gone well.  I don't really have much more to say on that front. 

Regarding the election, I was not surprised with the outcome.  Six months ago I thought it was the Democrat's to lose; four months ago I thought it was Obama's to lose.  It's nice to see that the literature I read isn't always incorrect.  :)   I think it's a great win and I think I'll enjoy the Democrats being in power for the next two (hopefully more) years.  It'll be tough for them to maintain unified government for very long, but here's to hoping.  I don't buy into the emerging narrative that this was a fundamentally different election which signifies a major American political realignment.  I love political cartograms so here's some which are supportive of my previous statement. I'm also super disappointed that so many states passed homophobic, misogynistic, and racist ballot initiatives. 

Well, I don't have much else to say.   Here's to hoping Fraken can pull out the victory!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been on the road since the beginning of July.  Currently I'm at Stanford (without internet access in my dorm) attending the Summer Institute in Political Psychology.  In short, it's going very well.  I'm enjoying myself, but am looking forward to getting home to see Cassie. 

Here's a great article about the (lack of) closeness of the election.  Let me know what you think. 


http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/article.php?id=AIA2008072401

In light of my newly discovered affinity to all things random, I've been reading Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  So far I've found it to be an interesting read - nothing earth shattering but still entertaining.  The book is simultaneously an introduction to probability and a tirade against popular (mis)understanding about the random nature of the world.  Taleb combines amusing illustrations from life with brief and comprehensible mathematical illustrations. 

Taleb's disdain for those who do not understand randomness path/phat dependency is clear - he levels jabs towards, in no particular order, journalists, professional and day traders, historians, and postmodern literature.  While at times I find his attacks tiresom, at the end of the day I cannot turn down a book which argues for the virtues of deep introspection and adherence to a rigerous, systematic way of thinking and understanding reality. 

Is it sad that when not required to read academic books I find myself drawn to books like this? I've become increasingly interested in probability and how people think about it and this is going to be the perfect read for me.  Not to mention the fact that I'll use much of what it discusses in my own work.  Alas, school never seems to end...

In light of the NBA Finals, I'd like to point out that there is no evidence of the 'hot hand' phenomenon in basketball.  An individual is no more or less likely to hit/miss a shot after they have already missed/made a basket.  They are independent probabilities. 

Ps - yay for Sunday morning bike rides around the chain of lakes! 

I'll come clean now, I supported Obama throughout the primary.  I came in predisposed to supporting him and I never seriously considered another candidate.  I find this more than a little ironic given my interest in studying political decision making and the quality of those decisions. 

I first heard about Obama when I worked on the Herseth special election in 2004.  Many members of his campaign staff came to SD to help us with our GOTV efforts (we won, for the record).  They brought with them stories and buzz.  I watched his speech at the Democratic convention that year and was enthralled (and jealous of my friends who were there).  I read and enjoyed his books.  I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for emotion and watching the Yes We Can video activated some major feel-good portions of my brain (my amygdala, I imagine).  I waited in line to see him speak at the Target Center (although I chose to attend Iron Man with Cassie and fellow political scientists rather than watch his victory speech a few days ago). 

Thus, it would have taken a lot for me not to support him.  While major issue differences would have done it, there were none.  Sure, I'm in favor of universal, single-payer health care but I buy Obama's argument that it's not going to happen because it won't get through the Senate (As an aside, I've always wondered what would happen to what would have to be tens of thousands of jobs in the health insurance sector were we to switch to a single-payer system.  Not saying this is a reason we shouldn't do it, just that it makes me wonder).  In short, there is a reason why the NPR candidate placement test consistently told me to support Kucinich but I consistently chose not to. 

I peg that reason as my affective attachment to Obama.  I really like him.  And that's a pretty difficult thing to overcome.  I think his message is the epitome of "good" politics.  He's an amazing orator who, agree with him or not, inspires people who don't normally participate to participate.  I like that.  I like the fact that he's not a blue blood from the northeast or the son of a oil baron in the south.  I like that he's obviously incredibly intelligent and that he earned his accolades in school.  Coming from a union family I like the fact that he was an organizer. I could go on, but there's really no point. 

In sum, I'm happy he won.  I thought him the strongest candidate and think he'll probably win the general.  Speaking of which...

Obama v. McCain, eh?  Interesting. 

Prediction: barring no extreme changes in national conditions (i.e. the war doesn't end, our economy doesn't suddenly morph into that of the EU, etc.) Obama wins by a pretty decent margin (outside of the sampling error of a poll).   Really, this should be his election to lose - a lot of things have to go right for McCain to win.  But, a lot can happen between now and election day. 

For the record, while I don't care very much about this, I do not think Obama should pick Clinton as his VP.  I agree with the pundits and "experts" who argue this compromises his "message".  Further, I don't really buy into the argument that people who voted for Clinton in a primary won't vote Democrat in the general election.  I'm sure there are some hyper-invested Clinton backers who may not vote for him, but I suspect they are relatively rare.  As for other VP options - I'm not remotely interested enough to offer insight beyond what I would read in the times.  I've always liked Biden - mostly because he stood up to Kucinich.  For the record, I also love Kucinich.  However I get miffed when candidates let him run wild in the debates (the few times he actually got to speak, that is).  I imagine Obama will pick somebody with foreign policy experience.  Seems like Richardson is probably a decent bet.  Meh, time will tell. 

NBA Finals

Lakers in six, although I'm rooting for the Celtics.

I feel like I've reached middle age.  While I still frequent (with fair regularity) happy hours and bars in general, my life is increasingly dominated by dinner and a movie on the weekends.  Frankly, more often then not, dinner is homemade and the movie is from netflix.  Case study: this weekend.  Cassie and I didn't head out to any bars or take in a concert.  Instead, we went to bed early on our brand new mattress (our level of excitement for this purchase provides more evidence for our age being over the hill), went to the farmer's market and garden stores to find tomatoes and herbs (I really wanted thai basil...), went on a bike ride , and just generally hung out.  Two of the three nights involved movie watching with dinner (home made pizza and fajitas with home made Mexican rice).  For the record, I'm not opposed to a weekend like this - I had a great time.  I just find it interesting. 

I think our weekends, to greater or lesser degrees, are like this for both natural and environmental reasons.  We're both naturally low-key people who don't like big social scenes.  For me at least, another reason weekends are like this is because I worked so hard during the semester.  Even two weeks after I finished I'm still a bit tired.  Plus, we both really enjoy cooking our own food and watching movies. 

Two other things I want to note.  First, vegetarians listen up - the best Chinese food I have ever had is found at Evergreen  For a little over a year now this place, along with Tum Rup Thai, has been our go to supper when we don't want to cook.  Now, I don't really have any way to justify saying it's "authentic" or "real" - but it's certainly nothing like what you'd find at Leann Chin or even other great Chinese restaurants like Rainbow Chinese.  Vegetarians should love it because they have a great selection of tofu dishes and just about all of their meat dishes can be made (deliciously!) with mock meat.  I suggest, in no particular order: three cup chicken/tofu, pepper fried mock pork, and lemon grass mock beef.  All great. 

Second, this summer when I'm at the Summer Institute in Political Psychology there is a chance that one of the sessions will be taught by Dr.  Philip Zimbardo.  To those that don't know, he was the architect behind the Stanford Prison Experiments.  Interesting...

Throughout the month of March I looked forward to and dreaded weather which would allow me to hang my laundry out to dry.  The upside is that I save $1.25 and, probably more important, energy, by not using the dryer.  The downside is that anybody can stop and look at my clothing.  I realize this is a silly qualm - I wear those same clothes in public all the time.  However, there is something about them just hanging there.  Wrinkled and wet - they just look weak.  Not to mention the fact that anybody can see my underwear...

So far I have yet to have to go in for jury duty.  I signed up for the call in option.  This allows me to call in twice a day, once at noon (to see if I have to come in at 1:30) and again after 6 pm (to see if I have to come in the following morning).  This seems like a substantially better option than going in to the courthouse all day everyday for two weeks. 

Finally, I had an excellent weekend.  It was topped off with a Saints game.  Best yet - I obtained one of 2500 "Larry Craig" bobble foot dolls.  Actually, because Cassie was also there we have two.  I'm debating whether or not I want to see one - at the moment some are going for as much as 85 dollars on ebay.  We'll see.  For now, I am content to amuse myself with what can only be described as one of the most creative promotional give aways I've heard of. 

I found this to be an interesting article.  During the last year I've become increasingly interested in the judiciary - especially in judicial decision making.  For a long time I, I think like most people, didn't like the idea of judges being elected.  I like the idea of an insulated judiciary free from the influence of faction and politics.  However, as this article points out, I think it's important to take stock of the fact that insulation has problems as well.  For instance, a lot of research shows that judges don't make decisions based solely on precedent - there are important other considerations as well - the judges' ideology being critical (there are also many really cool game theoretic models).  I think it's a bit troubling that there are political (or, in general, non-legalist) rooted decisions made by individuals in an institution that is, more or less, not responsible to anyone.

Relatedly, I start jury duty on Tuesday.  Yay?  Also, when flying back from Cleveland Cassie went through security with Dennis Kucinich.  While she did not him, Cassie can confirm that he is at short as everybody says he is. 

Well, it's been about three months since my last update.  Wow.  In some ways a lot of things have happened since then, but overall not much has changed in my life. 

Most important, I finished my first year of school.  It's pretty amazing to think about, actually.  Almost one year ago I was still living in Morris, get ready for my big move to Minneapolis.  Let's just say between then and now I read a lot of books and articles.  In other good news, this summer I'm attending the Stanford University's Summer Institute in Political Psychology (sounds fun, right...?).  It's a pretty sweet gig: living in California for three weeks (lame that I have to be away from Cassie though) taking seminars from many of the best political psychologists & attending those seminars with many of the smartest grad students.  The best part is that my department is paying for everything. 

Otherwise, I really enjoyed my first year - I bonded with my cohort, made great friends with other people in the department, and did well in my classes.  I actually just returned (with Cassie) from Angie Bos and Bas Van Dorn's wedding.  It was a fitting way to end the semester - many other people from the department were there, as were numerous Morris people (most of whom were older than me).  I'll say this - there are some cool older Morris alums and Paula O'Loughlin can dance. 

Aside from school, not a lot has happened.  Honestly, school defined my life for the last two and a half months.  I really have done very little beside work that is somehow related to it.  Although, I imagine I'll get a nice break from school when I start jury duty next week.  As a student of democracy (that's what we political scientists call ourselves), I feel like I should want to do my civic duty and participate in jury duty, but I can't help but hope that I am disqualified.  Frankly, I'm not sure if my knowledge about prejudice, specifically judicial & jury prejudice, is a good or a bad thing going into this duty.  I imagine I'll cross that bridge if I have to. 

Taken from the Star Tribune Letters to the Editor section here.

Most scientists have spoken

Paul Chesser of the Climate Strategies Watch criticizes global warming governmental initiatives in his Feb. 4 Counterpoint, arguing a consensus around global warming has not been reached. He cited as evidence a Newsweek poll that found only 42 percent of respondents believe humans are the chief cause of global warming.

Coincidentally, on the front page of the same section a recent survey found that 25 percent of respondents said Winston Churchill never actually existed, that he was a mythical figure. Shall we remove Sir Winston from the history books until we reach an absolute consensus?

Although the United States National Research Council, American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Physics, American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Geological Society of America, American Chemical Society, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have issued statements saying that climate change is occurring due to human activity, we could wait for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists to come out with a more definitive stand.

JON URBAN, MINNEAPOLIS

Life's been great this past week. 

Best of all, Cassie was offered a job with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's air quality control division.  As of this morning she's accepted the position.  It's a significant pay increases (especially if you factor in that the state will pay her benefits).  But, most important, she's going to be doing work that she wants to do.  As of now the specifics of the job are a bit vague, but it seems like her primary job will be developing "the message" the agency uses when it, for instance, puts out information about pollution and other air quality issues. She'll be coordinating with the media, government, and community members when she does this.  She'll also be tasked with some conference travel, grant development, lab work, and data analysis.  As I said, it's all a bit vague as of now.  Nonetheless, it's GREAT news. 

Also of great fun was the Super Bowl "party" (more like a get together) Cassie and I hosted for members of my cohort.  We made guacamole, chicken & vegetarian tacos, and some other good stuff.  Others brought food - all of which was delicious - and we had fun watching what turned out to be a great game.  Quasi-tangent - how the hell did Eli escape the sack prior to completing his 32 yard pass to David Tyree...unbelievable.  Going into the game I was going to be content with either team winning.  I can derive happiness from "the perfect season" and also from "the greatest upset of all time."  In short, I was good either way.  But during that last drive I was really rooting for the Giants, despite the fact that I really dislike NY sports.  It appears my choice of Sam Adams for the Super Bowl party did not help the Pats win the game. 

Biggest downside of this week?  I didn't get very much work done.  That was partially because I worked ahead last week, but also because I wasn't focused enough.  That won't happen this week! 

This is such an interesting election.  The competitiveness within both parties is amazing.


I'm excited as a liberal because there are two strong candidates on the Democratic side.  I was also excited when I thought Romney was going to be the Republican nominee (because I think he'd get wasted by either Democratic candidate), but I'm not so sure about McCain.  In the end I think any match up favors the democrats, but I think their surefire road to victory is to nominate Obama.  Recently he's been compared to Reagan in terms of his abilities as an orator and the language he uses in his speeches.  I'm not a Presidential historian so I can't comment on the validity of  that comparison, but I think it's interesting.  I'm quite excited that I'm going to caucus for him in a little more than a week. 

Aside from elections not a whole lot is going on in my life.  I've started classes again.  Thankfully this semester I'm excited about each of them.  I'm taking a course called Introduction to Political Science (all first-years are required to take it).  I'm going to learn about the discipline but also about methodological approaches and, broadly speaking, the philosophy of science.  I'm very excited.  I'm also talking a course fondly called "Regression" by the other grad students.  It is what the name implies - an introduction to linear regression (as well as some other forms of data analysis).  I've learned most of the content before, but it will be a good refresher.  My third (and final) class is the one I'm most excited for: Campaigns, Elections, and Voters.  Get to study campaign effects, voter ideologies, identities, and values, political participation, etc.  I already have a loose idea for what I want to write my final paper on, so I think that's a good sign.

Overall I think this is going to be a good few months...

1. Scrabulous
        - Except when I play John Alden. 

2. Half.com
    - Great for buying and selling books.  It's saved me great amounts of money. 

3. Broders' Pasta Bar
    - Best pasta I've ever had.  Seriously.  Plus, their 26 dollar evening dinner meal is amazing. 

4. Tum Rup Thai
    - Best Thai food I've had.  Mmm...curry. 

5. Having a laptop
    - So bloody awesome.  Makes life quite easy.

6. Having a vacuum cleaner
    - Carpets are so clean!

7.  Our apartment
    - good space, hardwood floors, many windows, tall ceilings, great location.  What more could we want? 

8. Cassie
    - She's great.  What more is there to say?

9.  Watching things come to equilibrium.
    - e.g. the Downy ball float from the bottom of the washing machine to the top. 

First off, I'm about done reading Phil Tetlock's Expert Political Judgment and all I can say is that it's one of the best books I've ever read.  In brief, he operationalizes Isaiah Berlin's Fox and Hedgehog argument and applies to political judgment.  Two important findings.  First, on a whole experts systematically fail to live up to the quality of forecasting that formal mathematical models make.   Second, those experts he labels as foxes (people who make judgments based on a lot of disparate arguments) outperform hedgehogs (who make judgments based on one "big idea" - i.e. an ideological lens, for instance).  Great read that I'm looking forward to finishing.

I've been watching C-Span over these past few days because I've been just sick enough not to go out  and about.  It's been a bit of a bi-polar experience.  I've really enjoyed watching it when the candidates give speeches and when, once in a blue moon, there's a real expert giving her or his opinion.  On other hand, listening to the programs in which people call in makes me a bit concerned for Democracy.  To be frank, there are some crazy people out there who are really excited to express their opinions.  I mean, I have an opinion, but I also tend not to express it whenever I'm given the opportunity (although I'm getting better at expressing it more often).  It's not like people call in with real revelations (although, maybe for them they are revelations), it's mostly just to rant.  For instance, the last caller was a self-described racist who urged Nevada voters to support Obama.  That sad story aside, the most disappointing aspect of caller's responses is the complete and utter lack of any ability to form coherent arguments and, often, sentences. 

Tangent: how can somebody watch this show and decide to support candidates who don't favor significantly increasing funding for public pre-primary, primary, secondary, and collegiate education?

These criticisms aside, dominant views in political science suggest these shortcomings aren't nearly as big of a deal for both individuals or  democracy.  In reference to the former, people's memory is limited and they construct evaluations of attitude objects, like candidates, based on a large number of unconscious associations.  It's pretty taxing to hold concrete evaluations in conscious memory.  In reference to the latter, there  are a number of bodies of literature one can look to ameliorate some, if not all,  fears for democracy.  Page's work on aggregate public opinion and Lau and Redlawsk's work on heuristics and decision making are two important areas. 

What I'm left with is simultaneous faith that the American people make political decisions that are commensurate to their predispositions and also a desire to see students better trained to engage in critical analysis.

Thus, right back at square one.  Ugh.

It's been quite a while.  I was initially distracted by finals (which, I think, went well), then by the holiday season, and finally by being a bit sick.  But, I'm mostly healed, my grades are mostly up, and the holiday season is fully over.  The downside is that I've done nothing to warrant updating my journal.  Nonetheless, here's what's happened these past few weeks.

School ended with writing papers and taking finals.  I spent over eight hours straight writing my methods final.  I haven't received any critiques of my essays, but since my final grade in the class was pretty good I assume they were, at the very least, okay.  I also had to write a couple of papers for that class (one of which I'm still revising).  I'm actually very happy with both papers, especially the research design I created.  Hopefully I'll be able to carry out the experiment in the future.  The worst part of finals was taking an in-class, blue book final for American core.  I'm still a bit surprised that I have yet to escape blue books, but the test went really well. 

After finals I headed out to Seattle to visit my mom and other family.  It was my first time spending Christmas with my aunt and uncle.  It was a very nice time, I received very generous presents and had a great visit.  I was sad to return home actually, but it also meant that Cassie and I were able to celebrate our Christmas gift exchange.  As soon as that was over (Saturday the 30th) both of us promptly got sick, and I'm still fighting it off. 

I'm excited that Obama won Iowa and am pulling for him in New Hampshire.  Of the three major democratic candidates I like him the most.  That said, I really do think Clinton gets a bad rap far too often.  So much of the anger directed seems derived form irrational sources, maybe from some weird intersectionality of her status as a women in power.  Who knows.  I can understand people not liking her because of past or current policy positions (which is why I won't vote for her).  There's also something...weird...about the potential for the same two families holding power for what could be 28 years (if she wins and is reelected).  I do wish the candidates would pay more attention to a carbon tax than to cap and trade systems they each support.  I think I've come around to the pragmitism of Obama's health care plan (similar to, if I understand, how the UK does it), but I'm still torn about mandating health care coverage.

Finally, I really enjoyed the format of the NH debate.  I liked that the candidates were actually given a chance to interact with one another.  Hopefully other networks will take note of the format and adopt it.  I'm torn about the inclusion of major and minor candidates in the debate.  On the one hand minimizing the number of candidates makes conversation between the front-runners much easier, however the downside is that they, for the most part, don't really disagree a whole lot so there's not a lot to say.  For now I would err on the side of including all of the official candidates if only because my favorite debate memory is Biden going after Kucinich.  One last thing -  is it just me or does Ron Paul come across as, pretty much, an idiot in the debates and, particularly, in one-on-one conversations?  Watch his interview here and let me know.  Maybe it's just that I haven't seen him much? 

1) Was 2007 a good year for you?
Yes, it was a very good year. 

2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
Wow, there are a lot of great moments.  Three stand out.  Getting accepted into my first graduate program.  The few hours after presenting my paper at the Midwest Political Science Conference, and, best moment of all, sitting with Cassie (on the floor) of our new apartment.  Hot and sweaty, but quite happy. 

3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Finding out that I didn’t get into Northwestern (what the hell – it was the worst program I applied to!).  Or early June for reasons I’m not willing to talk about.   

4) Did you keep your new years resolution of 2007?
I don’t make them.

5) Did you breakup with anyone in 2007?
Nope.  

6) Did you make any new friends in 2007?
Yes – a lot.  Most notably people in my program. 

6B) Did you lose any friends?
There are people I have fallen further out of contact with, but I haven’t had a falling out with anybody. 

7) Who are your favorite new friends?
People in the program.

8) What was your favorite month of 2007?
Late June to mid-July.  Cassie and I traveled to her family (Wisconsin), my mom (Seattle), and my dad (Ohio).  It was a lot of work, but it was nice. 

9) Did you travel outside of the US in 2007?
Yes!  On the cruise we went to the Grand Cayman Islands and Mexico. 

10) How many different states did you travel to in 2007?
Uhh…not many – Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, and Ohio are it, I think. 

11) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2007?
Not so close to me, but close to someone I love, yes.   

12) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
I miss friends from college.  Very much. 

13) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2007?
Juno and No Country for Old Men come to mind, but there may be some recency effects.  But I’m confident Juno is the best movie I saw this last year.

14) What was your favorite song from 2007?
I don’t know, I don’t really pay attention to single songs.

15) What was your favorite album of 2007?
Tough one – I’ll go with the White Stripe’s Icky Thump. Really there isn’t one that sticks out. 

16) How many concerts did you see in 2007?
I think none…I may have gone to see Eisley with Cassie, but I can’t remember if that was this year.

17) Did you have a favorite concert in 2007?
See above.  Probably Eisley by default.

18) did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2007?
No.  I continued to enjoy wine and good beer, but I don’t think I got drunk once in 07. 


19) did you do a lot of drugs in 2007?
Nope. 

20) How many people did you date in 2007?
One. 

21) Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
not really, at least that I can think of. 

22) What was the biggest lie you told in 2007?
Beats me.  None stick out. 

23) What was the worst lie someone told you in 2007?
“I’ll be fine.”

24) Did you treat somebody badly in 2007?
I’m sure I have. 

25) Did somebody treat you badly in 2007?
No, not really. 

26) How much money did you spend in 2007?
Probably more than I needed too, but I not more than I could.

27) What was your most embarrassing moment of 2007?
I probably fell down at some point. 

28) If you could go back in time to any moment of 2007, what would it be?
Don’t look back, look forward.

29) What are your plans for 2008?
Note – plans, not resolutions.  Get back in touch with college buddies, rock my classes, make time for Cassie, start (and complete) my party frames research project. 

It's certainly been a while since my last post and this one isn't going to be very long, but since very few people actually read this I don't feel too bad.  It's a busy time of the semester. For those who don't really care what's going on in school feel free to skip the next paragraph. 

 I only have one more week of class then I have finals.  I also have a few final papers I have to turn in.  I think I'm about half finished with my papers, so that's good. I'll probably try to finish them up this weekend.  I'm actually really (kind of...) enjoying writing the papers.  For one I was able to contrast the rational choice and psychological approaches to individual decision making.  While I know this won't amuse many normal people - I'm enjoying it.  I'm also liking my research design for social cognition - I think it's a project I would actually like to conduct (possibly this summer?).  It's on framing effects - I like nothing better than framing effects.  I have two finals I also have to take - one in my methods class (dear lord I'm scared) and one in American, which shouldn't be too difficult.  Assuming nothing goes wrong during these next two weeks I'd say this has been a pretty good semester.

Not a whole lot else has gone on.  As you learned from my last post, I saw No Country for Old Men.  It's very violent but I think very good.  Cassie and I, as well as a couple of other people from the department, were able to get into an early (and Free!) screening of Juno at the Lagoon in Uptown.  It's a hilarious movie - I wish I was better at remembering quotes because there are so many great ones.  To paraphrase a few:

     "That thing's not an Etch a Sketch...This is one doodle that can't be undid, Homeskillet", Rainn Wilson's character talking to Juno after she's taken a pregnancy test and is shaking it. 

    "Doctors are sadists who like to see lesser people in pain", Alisson Janney's character telling  Juno why the doctors won't give her an epidural. 

Overall I thought it was funny and a bit dark.  Quite enjoyable.  And a great soundtrack.  Plus, I got a free t-shift (and, did I mention the movie is  FREE!).  If anybody is interested in seeing it, you can go here for tickets.  There's one last free screening this next Tuesday.  I may just go so I can get another shirt...

Okay, I'm getting back to work!

No Country For Old Men - great movie!