All right, so I’m pretty much dying right now. I somehow managed to catch a cold and a fever over the weekend, and I finally ate a few minutes ago, the first time in 2 days. Well, by eat, I mean drink hot and sour soup, but that’s good enough. Anyway, while I was lying in bed in my relatively useless state last night, I started thinking about finding someone to take care of my babies should I die of this plague.

But when I woke up today (at around noon) and looked at the news, I knew all these trivial matters of life and death were unimportant, because apparently, the world is ending. Interestingly enough, at around the same time that the rescue package got voted down, dark clouds rolled over Manhattan… or at least over my window. Ominous….

Now, I read earlier on the NY Times about how a Georgia Representative proclaimed his willingness to vote in favor of the bill in order to save the economy, at the risk of his seat. Regardless of your political persuasion, you’ve got to admit that that’s an honorable stance to take. So I thought, “Wow! Are there actually politicians who care about the good of the people? Could it be possible that he valued his constituents’ jobs than his own?” But then, when I checked the article again after an update, that quote was gone. False hope is so horrible, is it not?

When I spoke with my friend today, he had this to say:

They’re making this partisan.
Maybe they are short the market or something.

Which made me wonder, as a representative in congress, do your trades have to go through the compliance department?

Since everyone loves professor quotes so much, here’s one that’s bound to amuse, from the Operations professor this past Monday:

If you go to Cisco, or GE, or any other large company, they have a group of people especially there to plan. All big companies have a division dedicated to planning the future, except maybe Lehman. They’re probably not doing a lot of planning now…

And then, later this week, the same professor says:

In life, you should keep your eyes open and look for the things that are most important to you. Whether it’s a really beautiful woman… [eyes glaze over briefly, voice drifts off]
Or a very attractive man, or whatever is most important to you. [Smooths hands over shirt quickly as he rushes to return to his slides]

That must have been one of the most classic professor moments I’d seen in a while. Moments like these make an early morning class so much more enjoyable.

Also, on an unrelated note, Happy Birthday “Zue”! It took 3 tries to get his name right on the cake, but in the end, it was worth it. Mmm, ice cream cake is the best! transporter 2 dvd

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05 – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

On an eve of mourning here in New York, where half of the people on Wall Street will be without a job by week’s end, I would like to talk about something a little lighter. Yes, I would like to chat with you about… Pee! Urologists and aspiring urologists, take note.

So, it’s been super humid here the last few days, and the other day, I was in a small humid room for a few hours, and I noticed the oddest thing. Although I only had about a cup of water to drink, I went to the bathroom about once every 20 minutes. I swear, there was much more coming out of me than went into me. So I started wondering, was my skin actually absorbing so much moisture that my body was able to generate the extra pee? Can some doctor in the room answer this question for me?

Also, did you know that if you eat too many beets, you might start peeing pink, and then red? My med school friend told me that one. The thought of it is rather exciting, actually.

(Now, back to your regularly scheduled disaster programming….)

Listening To:

Punk Goes Pop – Various Artists

You know what’s the best way to prepare for karaoke? Working out on the treadmill or some other boring machine while listening to Punk Goes Pop. I would encourage you to practice by singing along. Plus, I’m convinced that it adds a little something to an otherwise boring cardio regimen. If you don’t know I’m talking about, you’re definitely missing out. We’re talking about a record where all the latest and greatest (ok, well, mostly unheard of) punk bands are screaming the lyrics of pop “classics” like I Want It That Way or Get This Party Started, in some vaguely musical fashion.

The best thing about this experience is that you can hear almost exactly how you and your friends will sound in front of the microphone because these guys can’t sign either! Of course, that is assuming that the lyrics are actually correct on your karaoke system. (That’s a big if.) I’ll have to admit though, the other people at the gym didn’t seem to think that this was as good of an idea as I did somehow. I wonder why…

On the other hand, I can do an almost perfect Britney Spears in the now very old skool Hit Me Baby One More Time. This means that I’ve increased the number of talents I possess by 100%. My only previous talent was the ability to imitate a hyper puppy surprisingly accurately. Ah, how hard it is to be a truly accomplished woman!

I know this is a little old, but I was reading the Freakonomics blog the other day and found Stigler’s list of common objections to Economics research, written in 1977. I highly recommend reading it for a nice chuckle, especially if you’re an econ nerd. If you’re not a huge geek like us, you might not get it, but believe me, it’s funny.

In order to make discussions of research papers more efficient, Stigler suggested that one should simply interrupt the speaker by shouting the numbered objection, rather than the usual, overly long interjection.

And the truth is, if you ever come to the seminars, you’ll find that the discussion is almost exactly the same now as it was in 1977. Depressing, isn’t it? Anyway, I’m bookmarking this one, for the next time I have to critique someone’s paper. Teehee!

In a similar vein, you can also check out Mimi’s contributions to my collection: Andrew Lo’s You Might Be a Quant If… I love the line about Judge Lance Ito.

And finally, if you’re like me and my friends, and you’re hitting that quarter-life crisis point, or if for whatever other irrational reason, you feel like you’re over the hill when you’re clearly not, cheer up! You’ve still got lots of living left to do. Check out what you might be missing before you just decide to up and die.