Sounds and Silence

Hi

2011-02-23T18:56:00.002-05:00

For any of you that still have me in your reader, first, thanks for sticking with me, though I don't really know why you would unless it was just out of laziness...

Second, I'm back, but not here. I'll be blogging over at my web 5.0 (that's right FIVE.0) blog over at wordpress. Here's the link:

http://timothyjlayton.wordpress.com

I think that's a better URL than tlaytonblog.blogspot.com

Enjoy.

Ashley + Tim

2010-10-13T15:20:00.003-04:00

So Ashley and I got married a few weeks ago, and so far it's been a fantastic time. I don't think I could be happier.

See pictures of us sealing the deal here.

See a fun slideshow of the whole weekend here.

A quote...

2010-07-13T19:57:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite economists, Joseph Stiglitz, said this in a recent article about the world's reaction to the financial crisis:

Finance is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is supposed to serve the interests of the rest of society, not the other way around.

Find the entire article here.

Oil

2010-06-16T16:14:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted here for a long time, but I heard something on NPR today that I wanted to put up here. This quote shows just how much oil we use here in the US.

"The millions of barrels of oil that have been pouring out of the BP oil well would power the US economy for about 4 hours."

Think about it.

Volcano Pictures

2010-04-19T17:21:00.008-04:00

Happy Patriot's Day. Yes, there is a holiday called Patriot's Day. It's conveniently timed to coincide with the Boston Marathon. I decided to celebrate my patriotism with a 40-mile bike ride passing through such patriotic locations as the Minuteman Commuter Bike Trail, Lexington, Concord, and Walden Pond. It was a great ride and included a few Patriot's Day surprises like a little boy dressed as a Minuteman walking on the Minuteman Trail playing a flute surprisingly well and a Handicap Bus painted gray with New England Patriots logos all over it blasting some sort of Patriots them song. I love Boston.

So a little while ago I subscribed to RSS feeds from several photojournalism websites. My favorite of these sites is Boston.com's "The Big Picture". Today's photos were to good not to share. They can be found here. These are a few of my favorites:

Find more cool volcano pictures here.

BYU Economics

2010-04-17T09:44:00.001-04:00

“I can honestly say that of all the universities around the world, the top undergraduate economics majors at BYU are consistently at the top of the pile in terms of readiness to matriculate to the University of Chicago,” said John List, also a professor of economics at Chicago. “Give me a few good BYU graduates, and I will have the makings of a wonderful class.”

I need to stop convincing myself I can actually get work done on Saturdays...

2010-04-10T17:53:00.003-04:00

So after a trip to the MIT Press Dock Sale this morning where I acquired an odd collection of mostly economics related books, I came home, cleaned my room and did some laundry, and then while eating a couple of m delicious grilled cheese sandwiches, got stuck in front of the tv watching Part 2 of the PBS documentary on the Mormons for 2 solid hours. I'm sure I'll be watching Part 1 tomorrow morning. For those of you who don't know, I am Mormon (read more about this here). I don't know why I had never seen this documentary before, but I was quickly drawn in and enjoyed pretty much all of it. There were some controversial parts, but I think the filmmakers were pretty fair about their treatment of the Church. I encourage anyone interested to watch it here.

After watching the documentary, I became interested in some of the people that were interviewed and spent the rest of the afternoon reading things some of them had written. I doubt I will comment on those things here, as I don't feel that this blog is an appropriate venue for that type of discussion; however, during my research, I came upon a quote by T.S. Eliot that I found incredibly insightful, and I wanted to share it here:

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

I don't think I want to make any particular comment about the quote. I just wanted to post it here for all of you to read and think about. I think this quote has a deep religious meaning, but that it also applies to pretty much every experience we have throughout our mortal lives.

Anyways, on a lighter note, the song of the day today is I'm a Pilot by Fanfarlo. Check it out here.

Tipping Bucket

2010-04-09T00:05:00.005-04:00

So I know I haven't posted anything for a while. I'm sorry. I'd say I've been busy with school or something, but that would be a lie. I think I've just been lazy, or riding my bike.

Anyways, a couple friends of mine, Ryan and Angie Fairchild, are heading to Uganda in a few weeks to work as country directors for an NGO called HELP International. They're going to be helping restore sight to people with cataracts and river blindness disease. They explain the project in the following video:

Ryan and Angie are two of my favorite people. One of the reasons I like them so much is because they like helping other people, but not through the typical ineffective bleeding heart methods. They're a little too cynical for that (they have both taken classes/worked for Frank McInytre). These are two of the most intelligent people I know, and they would never waste their time on a development project that wasn't worth it. What I'm trying to say, is this is a project worth donating to. If you like the video and want to know more or help out with a donation to their project (they're trying to raise about $3,000), click here.

Aid Data

2010-03-25T14:28:00.002-04:00

Also, the data from the project I worked on for like 3 years at BYU finally went public this week. For anyone interested in how much money the African Development Bank gave to Nigeria for AIDS prevention in 1998 or in how much Germany gave to Vietnam to build power plants or in how much the World Bank gave Costa Rica to improve their rule of law click here. But don't you dare take this lightly. This is the product of my getting paid for endless hours sitting at a computer typing (usually incorrect) CRS codes into a database while watching such programs as 24, House, and Arrested Development and movies like Capote, No Country for Old Men, and Changeling and listening to podcasts of NPR shows. I made huge sacrifices to make this data go live, including taking one for the team and letting my employers fly me to England and pay me to live in a beautiful flat in rural Somerset for 4 months, going on daily walks around the countryside, travelling to London on weekends for shows, wandering Spain, Ireland, and France whenever I got bored with my work, taking impulsive trips to Dublin to see Radiohead play live at a castle, and putting up with those sarcastic Brits. It's a hard life I was forced to live, and now you can reap the benefits by finding out exactly how those billions of aid dollars are being spent every year.

Honestly, I never expected this project to become a reality. I guess I'm glad something useful to the world came out of all those years of coding rather than just me getting to travel around the world, learn a lot about the economics of foreign aid and international development, and get into a great graduate program so I can spend the rest of my life continuing doing both of those things.

Way to go PLAID. You did what we all thought was impossible, or at least highly improbable.

Spring

2010-03-25T14:05:00.002-04:00

So it seems that spring has come here in Boston, at least mostly. It got kinda cold for a few days earlier this week and I felt like fall had returned, which wasn't such a bad thing since fall happens to be the best season. I honestly felt like the leaves were going to start changing, I would be departing on a cheese tour through Vermont, a trip to Block Island was about to occur, my friends would show up for an epic weekend of road tripping around New England, and I could go ride my bike every day. Only the last of these ended up being an actual possibility, and I only decided to make it a reality on Saturday and today.

I feel like my weekly spin class hasn't kept me in the shape I thought it had. My 30 and 35 mile rides have gone really well, but today's 25 mile ride was totally exhausting. I was riding against fairly strong winds, but it still wasn't supposed to be that strenuous of a trip. I felt weak and a little embarrassed as a guy on a heavy mountain bike passed me on the trail. Looks like I need to get out on the bike more...

Partially to blame for my state of exhaustion today is the fact that I decided to take up swimming yesterday. Since I knew I was going to ride today, I decided that spin would be a bad idea and went and invested about $50 in a new swimsuit, goggles, and a swim cap (required at BU's world-class aquatics center). I am an awful swimmer. I jumped in and did two laps at super high speed without really breathing, and then I realized that my strategy was somewhat ridiculous. I was quickly out of breath and had to keep my head out of the water for almost the entire length of the pool to allow my breathing to go back to normal. After I got a little better at the breathing thing, I realized I have zero upper-body strength and was going to have to quit. I lasted maybe 25 minutes. I guess I'll just have to keep at it.

This new warm weather plus my current access to a roommate's car also lead to a weekend expedition to a disc golf course for the first round I had played in about 8 or 9 months. I went out with some classmates who are also disc golfing enthusiasts, one of whom guessed on the second day of class from my appearance alone that I must be a disc golfer. It was a great time. We were even blessed with the honor of running into a local disc golfer who told us about a tournament he runs where you "get a ton f-ing great sh** for just 25 f-ing dollars." It was already about 4pm at this point so, needless to say, he had already downed 4 or 5 drinks. He also quickly eyeballed us for talent and after looking us each up and down informed my friend Paul that he could probably be pretty good at this sport, leaving me and Steven trying to figure out what it is about our physical appearance that suggested we could not attain to that level ourselves. The day was followed by a traditional post-disc golf visit to the 7-11 for Slurpees. It was a great time.

Anyways, I guess that's enough updating for now. The song of the day is Animal by Miike Snow (The two i's in Miike is not a typo). Enjoy it here.

Travel

2010-03-19T12:20:00.004-04:00

So a friend of mine from high school recently posted an album of photos from her world travels conssting mostly of journeys around the African continent, but also including trips to Israel and India. I was immediately convinced that my traveling experiences are insufficient and that I need to correct that problem. I think I'll be doing so during mid to late June this summer after my first round of qualifiers. I think I want to go somewhere where much of my time will be spent outdoors wandering through countryside. Because of this, I think Peru or Argentina may be ideal destinations. Peru is of special interest because apparently Machu Piccchu is going to be closed for a long period of time at some date in the near future. I would also be interested in traveling to Eastern Europe, mainly the Balkans, as well. Bike trips across Spain, France or Italy are also possibilities. I'd love to add South Africa to the list, but I think I'll wait until after the entire world converges on the country for the World Cup.

If anyone wants to join me on these adventures, let me know. I'm enlisting recruits. Ideas for other potential destinations would also be appreciated.

The song of the day is something I found on The Hype Machine while working today. It's a mix of 1901 by Phoenix and Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John. Enjoy

Google Bike

2010-03-10T11:01:00.002-05:00

Notice anything new on Google Maps today? Yet another sign that I need to get my bike repaired as soon as possible.

In Defense of Up In the Air

2010-03-10T10:48:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine Buzzed this story earlier today. It makes so many good points about the movie Up In the Air that I have to post it hear for everyone to read. Enjoy

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/in-defense-of-up-in-the-air/

Oscars

2010-03-09T12:54:00.004-05:00

I'm working all day today, going through 19th century wage records page by page, so I'm kind of bored, hence two posts in one hour.

This one's about the Oscars.

I am ecstatic that Avatar did so poorly. I was sure it would win all kinds of awards. Fortunately, I was wrong. This doesn't mean the awards corresponded with what I thought they should be though. So, here are my picks for the big awards:

Best Picture: Up In the Air
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Carrie Mulligan
Supporting Actor: Cristoph Waltz
Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick
Adapted Screenplay: Up In the Air (deserved), An Education (desired, cuz I just wanted Nick Hornby to have an Oscar)
Original Screenplay: Hurt Locker

Spring Break

2010-03-09T11:51:00.002-05:00

1) I'm on spring break this week so I'm staying up late every night and waking up late every morning, and it feels great.

2) Yesterday I got back on a road bike for the first time since my crash and got to ride with some new friends for a few hours through some country roads just outside of Boston out near Walden Pond. It felt incredible, and I loved every minute of it. Due to that experience and a larger than expected tax refund, I've been inspired to get my bike fixed and to buy some cycling shoes so that I can have the distraction of cycling back in my life for my last midterm, finals, and qualifiers, just when I need it least but will love it most.

3) I'm not a huge fan of broadway musicals (even though it may seem like it since I'm talking about one for the second time in two weeks), but I have always loved Phantom of the Opera. I was listening to Morning Edition this morning while working, and I heard that the sequel will be opening tonight in London and then in New York in November. Anyone want to go see it with me once reasonably priced tickets are available in like 5 years? You can read about it here.

4) Even though I failed to get tickets to the Spoon concert before it sold out, I've been listening to Gimme Fiction a lot lately, so the song of the day today is Sister Jack by Spoon. Enjoy it here.

Numbers

2010-03-05T15:31:00.003-05:00

So a couple weeks ago there was a great story on This American Life about a chimp that was raised as a human. This story was actually from another radio show called Radiolab. After listening to the story, I immediately signed up for the Radiolab podcast on iTunes. But, as often happens, this new podcast was overshadowed by new episodes of my other favorite podcasts.

Fortunately, this morning while I was just beginning my first day of spring break by working (the opposite of what one should do with a spring break) my friend Rich recommended I listen to a particular episode of Radiolab. After listening to Morning Edition and a couple old episodes of This American Life that have been sitting on my Must Listen list, I decided to give the episode a go. The title of the episode was "Numbers" and it was probably the most fascinating hour of radio I've ever heard. They spend the hour discussing how number influence our lives.

This may sound like something only someone who loves math could get into, but that's not the case at all. One of the two hosts is very skeptical of how useful numbers really are, and he provides a voice to all those non-math lovers out there. The topics on the show range from how babies start out thinking in logarithms and how when it comes to math the counting song we all listened to from our parents and from Sesame Street is the only thing that separates us from the rest of intelligent life living on Earth to how math saved a man from going insane during the Holocaust and almost destroyed a friendship between a teacher and a student.

I recommend everyone give this episode a listen, so I'm going to post it as the song of the day even though it's not a song. If you don't have a lot of time, just listen to the first story. Enjoy.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/10/09

Winter Blues

2010-03-02T14:45:00.005-05:00

While the winter here in Boston is a fairly mild one, I still wish it was a little bit (Ok, a lot) warmer. Today I've found myself longing for the night swims across Walden pond that made up most of my life here in Boston during the month of August. I miss the warm water of Walden, the cool summer night breeze, the light of the full moon, the thousands of stars in the sky, and the lights and sounds of the commuter train rushing past and reflecting off the black water. Maybe a mild winter means summer will come early this year, but I kind of doubt it.

Today my midterm studying continues. It's getting old and I can't take much more of it.

The song of the day today is a little embarrassing, but I'm going to post it anyways. I tried to come up with a different song to post today, but I haven't listened to anything else for the past few days so I guess I have no choice. I went to see the Lion King musical last week and it was pretty incredible, and now I've been listening to the song "They Live in You" all day. I don't know if you'll want to go listen to it, but if you do you can find it here.

Peanut Butter Twix

2010-03-01T19:04:00.003-05:00

So I just took a little trip to the CVS to stock up on some candy and water to get me through my Monday evening 7-11pm midterm study block. Most of my CVS trips end in one of two purchases: a Peanut Butter Twix or a Nantucket Nectars Orange Mango juice. This trip ended in the former. However, the decision was made more difficult than usual due to a disturbing new revelation.

You probably think I'm about to say something about the fact that the Peanut Butter Twix bar is the most unhealthy bar on the market. You're wrong. I've known that fact for year, and it has yet to deter me. This is worse. Mars decided that it would be prudent to decrease the size of the Twix bar by about a centimeter. Needless to say, I am a little perturbed by this decision and will probably be forced into more frequently purchasing the larger King Size version of the candy bar. So, in the end, this decision by Mars will have one of two effects on me: (1) Increase my life expectancy by about 5 years due to me eating slightly less of the most unhealthy candy bar in the world or (2) Decrease my life expectancy by about 15 years and doubling my monthly candy bar expenditure by forcing me to purchase the King Size bars. Either way, I am not going to be happy about this.

Also, I'm back into midterms this week (Wednesday and Thursday mornings), so if any of you want to do anything to lower my stress level, have at it. Fortunately, spring break begins the moment midterms end, so there is an extremely bright light at the end of this tunnel.

The song of the day is "All I Need" a Radiohead song performed by my favorite concert pianist Christopher O'Riley on his newest album Out of My Hands. Check it out on lala.

Picture

2010-02-22T21:29:00.001-05:00

This may be the coolest picture I've ever seen.

...

2010-02-22T20:44:00.002-05:00

So I just cooked my first batch of from-scratch cookies ever. They're peanut butter cookies, and they're sugarless. I've been watching Lost every Tuesday night with some friends of mine from school and we trade off making cookies every week. This week it's my turn, and one of my friends mistakenly decided it would be a good idea to give up processed sugar for lent so I got the job of finding a cookie recipe with no sugar added. I found one. They're not too bad, given the lack of sugar.

On another note, I think I'm heading to my grandparents' empty house in Arizona for my spring break. Anyone want to join me for a few days?

The song of the day today is "'Till it Happens to You" by Corinne Bailey Rae, my new favorite female singer. Enjoy.

JT

2010-02-12T16:30:00.004-05:00

I've always considered the music of Justin Timberlake a guilty pleasure, mainly just his first album, Justified. Today I felt "justified" (I know, that was a lame try at humor) in that guilty pleasure after seeing this picture:

and accompanying article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/12/ten_completely_speculative_rea.html

Your Ex-Lover is Dead

2010-02-12T16:04:00.003-05:00

So this week on All Songs Considered they decided to reverse the tradition of playing love songs for Valentines Day by playing breakup songs instead. To me this sounded like the makings for the most depressing episode ever of my beloved podcast. Also, having never been broken up with before and not really understanding the experience, I figured that since I wouldn't be able to relate to any of these songs, I would be rather bored for the duration of the extra long hour and ten minute show. However, after the third song of the show, I decided I love breakup songs, specifically one breakup song: Your Ex-Lover is Dead by the band Stars. It's the song of the day so go check it out here. Enjoy.

P.S. Songs 4 and 6 are equally enjoyable.

Europe

2010-02-09T09:32:00.002-05:00

I read today that the Euro is tanking due to excessive debt. This means the price of a trip to Europe is also going to tank. This means I will be most likely celebrating the end of the first round of qualifiers (June 7 and 11) on a Mediterranean Beach. Who wants to join me?

The song of the day today is Black River Killer by Blitzen Trapper. Enjoy.

Sundance TwentyTen

2010-02-01T10:44:00.003-05:00

The number one thing I miss most about Utah is the 10 day festival that starts around the third week of January and finished yesterday: The Sundance Film Festival. Many of you know that while living in Utah I usually disappeared for these ten days to go work as a volunteer at the festival and that any extra free time I had I spent watching the films. This is the first year in a while that I haven't been able to participate in the festival. I always had grand plans to return every year to volunteer, but it turns out grad school gets in the way of fun things like Sundance (I do intend to return after I'm done with my first two years of coursework, however). I had actually completely forgotten it was going on until they started discussing the festival daily on the Radiowest podcast I've been addicted to for the last month or so. Every morning they've been discussing the movies showing at Sundance, and I've become very nostalgic because of it.

There are a few reasons why I love this festival so much. Living in Utah was never a very easy thing for me. To this day I feel like most people in that state are always trying to use you for something. Every time I talked to a girl, she thought I was trying to marry her. Every time a guy talked to me I felt like he was trying to network or somehow use me to get some girl. I never really felt like people did things just to be nice or to be good people. They did nice, good things, but I felt like they did those things because they felt obligated to or because they wanted something. I realize that I'm not backing much of this up very well here, but that's not the point of this post, maybe I'll address this again in the future. The reason why I'm saying this, is because at the film festival, I didn't feel any of this. People would always do nice things for each other and for me when there was no ulterior motive to do so. The people I worked with and associated with at the festival were some of the most genuine, kind people I've ever met in my entire life. Everyone was always very different. Some were very wealthy and some were very very poor, but everyone got along great and were always looking for ways to help out the people around them. This may not be everyone's experience with the film festival, but it was consistently mine. I felt like it was a 10 day period where I could live in Utah but not have to deal with the parts of Utah I most dislike. Note: I'm not talking about the stars here, I'm just talking about the people there to see the movies.

The real reason I love the festival, however, is the films. Sundance has a weird effect on people's tastes. After pretty much every film you see at Sundance, you come out wanting to recommend it to your friends. Usually, you later realize the recommendation was completely ridiculous and you ask yourself how you ever could have like that movie, but the fact remains that at some point you loved it. For some reason, movies just seem better at Sundance. Maybe it's the atmosphere, maybe it's the fact that the directors and actors come out after and explain a lot of the weird aspects of the film that you'll later realize you don't like at all, but whatever it is, the films are just better. I loved that, and I miss it.

One of my favorite parts of the festival, however, are the documentaries. I always made it a point to see a couple of these every year, because many of them never make it out of Sundance, and most of them are very poignant and well-done. These films always provided my liberal ideals with a kind of recharge to combat the libertariam economic ideas I've been taught at school for the last 3 or 4 years. I feel like my bleeding heart closes up from time to time and needs a good documentary to reopen it. This part of the festival is actually why I'm writing this post. One of the films that has been discussed on Radiowest all week is called "Waiting for Superman". It's a documentary about the American education system and how it is failing. This is something I've always cared fairly deeply about. I've on a number of occasions seriously considered being a labor or public economist and spending my career studying and giving policy recommendations for the education system (the first post on this blog was actually devoted to a discussion of the American education system, specifically to the topic of charter schools). I've even often considered being a teacher because of the impact they have on so many lives. This film, which is directed by Davis Guggeenheim (, explores the successes and failures of the system, and it has the potential to bring issues to light that people have ignored for many years. You can see an interview with the director and read some about the film here. Go watch the interview, and when it's released, go watch the film. If you live in Utah, I'm guessing this one will be shown at "Best of Fest" tonight (Monday), so try to go check it out. It's free for locals.

Fear the Boom and the Bust

2010-01-25T17:44:00.003-05:00

I apologize in advance to any readers who are not econ nerds. I'm going to nerd out for a minute and post a video made by the guys at NPR's planet money that my dad sent me earlier today. I find it both informative and hilarious. Enjoy.

MFA

2010-01-21T17:33:00.003-05:00

So I've been wanting to get to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts since I got here. As a BU student I can get in for free, which I find incredibly convenient since I hate going to museums for hours and hours but rather enjoy going to museums, checking out an exhibit or two, and then leaving. This is what I did on Saturday.

Currently, the MFA has an exhibit called "Seeing Songs". The theme of the exhibit is music in a visual arts form. It was a pretty fun exhibit with some interesting pieces. The most interesting of these pieces consisted of a wall of TV screens simultaneously playing obsessive Madonna fans singing her hits. Each person had sung the song individually for a camera, and then the artist put together the TVs and played them all simultaneously, creating a kind of virtual acapella choir. It was great stuff. The facial expressions of some of these fans were priceless. Below is a brief video of one of the songs (Apparently all male Madonna fans are fairly flamboyant).

The song of the day today is "Is Love Forever?" by Spoon, the second song of the new album "Transference". Enjoy.

Food

2010-01-18T22:08:00.003-05:00

So, I'm lying in bed right now feeling like crap. I ate Indian food for lunch, and, apparently, it has decided it doesn't agree with me. This actually happens pretty much every time I go eat Indian food, mainly because I love the really hot stuff and the really hot stuff does not love me. I should probably just learn and not eat it anymore.

This experience reminded me of something a friend of mine was talking about earlier today. It's called "Intuitive Eating". It's all about listening to your body and eating and doing what makes you feel good. It sound kind of weird, I know, and it's not something you would usually find on this blog. However, I recently gave up soda in order to try to feel better, so this is something that's been on my mind lately, and, hence, something that is now on your minds since you take some pleasure in reading about what's on mine.

Check out the ten principles here and try them for a week or so. I'm going to. I think it's probably a good way to start out the new year.

Enough health crap. Today's song of the day is the first of 11 similar upcoming songs of the day celebrating the return of the song of the day and the new Spoon album. Go find a copy of Before Destruction by Spoon and give it a listen. Enjoy.

Christmas Break

2010-01-14T19:36:00.003-05:00

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I have an excuse: I've been on vacation. But, now I'm back, so all of you who have been desperately awaiting an update on my incredibly exciting life, here it is, sort of. I don't actually intend to talk about every little thing I did over break, I think it probably suffices to say that I spent some time in MO and UT seeing family and friends, blowing up fireworks at Bear Lake, doing some snowboarding, eating good food, seeing some good movies (Up in the Air and Sherlock Holmes) and reading some good books (How to be Good by Nick Hornby, Breathing Lessons by Ann Tyler, Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby, and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck). All in all it was a good time, but I'm glad to be back in Boston. I missed this place.

Today, I was listening to the latest All Songs Considered Podcast, and I about had a heart attack when I heard about the latest indie rock collaboration: James Mercer of the Shins and Dangermouse of Grey Album and "Crazy" fame. Their group is called Broken Bells, and it's brilliant. Go listen to their song "The High Road" at lala.com right now.

Also, over the break, on our way home from an epic Bear Lake adventure, my friend Rich Patterson and I listened to an episode of This American Life that I found incredible entertaining. The episode was great for two reasons: (1) Act 1 was the most cynical, driest, most morose, yet also the most hilarious thing I've ever heard on the radio (2) Act 5 included a shout out to any economics graduate students listening to the show. The rest of the show was also a real treat. Click here check out the episode.

Minesweeper

2009-12-23T12:34:00.001-05:00

This is for any of you who frequently get bored at work or in school and try to fight that boredom by sweeping minefields.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Pioneers

2009-12-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

This commercial makes me want to buy Levi's Jeans.

Home for Christmas

2009-12-21T14:33:00.002-05:00

So after my first crazy east coast Christmas snow disaster, I have miraculously made it home to Missouri for Christmas. For future reference, anyone who has their non-Southwest Airlines flight canceled due to weather should immediately get online and try to find a similar Southwest flight later in the day for cheaper than the price you paid for the original ticket a month or two before. But that ticket and refund your old ticket so you get to go home the same day instead of being forced to stay where you are for 3-7 days. That's the moral of the story of my yesterday.

Now that I'm here at home, I'm trying to occupy myself with productive activities because usually while I'm at home I just sit in front of the TV and do nothing and somehow regress in age back to however old and however mature I was in high school. I'm determined not to let that happen this time. Hence, I woke up around 9 this morning (quite early for someone on Christmas break) and decided to take care of all of my insurance stuff regarding my stolen laptop. I then did my laundry, finished How to be Good and got on the elliptical machine for about an hour while listening to This American Life. Now it is early afternoon, and before heading out to finish my Christmas shopping I'm going to engage in my next somewhat productive activity: Making a list of my most played albums of 2009. I figure lists like this will be good to have in the future when I decide to look back through my blog and see what I was listening to 5 or 10 years before. These are not necessarily albums that came out this year, they're just albums I listened to this year. So, here's my list. I recommend that you check out anything on this list that you haven't heard.

(500) Days of Summer Soundtrack
The Black Keys - Attack and Release
Blind Pilot - 3 Rounds and a Sound
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Duffy - Rockferry
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Jay-Z - Blueprint III
Jaydiohead - Jaydiohead
John Mayer - Continuum
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
Kanye West - Graduation
Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
The Low Anthem - Oh My God Charlie Darwin
M Ward - Hold Time
Matt and Kim - Grand
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Passion Pit - Manners
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Queen - Platinum Collection
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Simon and Garfunkel - Collected Works
The Strokes - This Is It
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White Rabbits - It's Frightening
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

By the way, (500) Days of Summer comes out on DVD on December 22nd. Someone should buy it for me for Christmas.

Done

2009-12-18T19:24:00.001-05:00

One semester down. Hopefully many to go.

"...this is the only way in which men in our particular postal code are unreconstructed."

2009-12-17T16:18:00.002-05:00

So, after getting rocked by a macro final this morning, and during a brief break from studying for my last final (tomorrow afternoon), I allowed myself to read a few pages from my current novel, How To Be Good by Nick Hornby. After seeing him read from his newest book a while back, a friend and I decided to read all his books by the end of the year. While I'm fairly certain I'm the only one actually trying to meet this goal (and I only decided yesterday that I would actually do it), I'm kind of upset that I'm doing it because when I'm done, there will be no Hornby books left for me to read. And since I hate rereading books, my life will be much less enjoyable next year. I only started reading his books this summer, and I will soon be finished. I'm currently simultaneously reading How To Be Good and one of the most interesting books I've ever found Songbook which is a collection of essays about Hornby's favorite songs (Any of you that are Hornby fans or have read the book or seen the movie High Fidelity know that he's a music junkie like myself so his song selections are quite a treat).

Anyways, back the reason for this post. As I was reading today, I came across a passage that reminded me why when I met Nick Hornby I told him he was my favorite author of all time. He just seems to understand me and my world better than I do myself. Hornby's books are not just entertaining, they seem to have the rare gift of helping me to see why I say certain things or act certain ways that to others (and sometimes to myself) may seem strange or just unexplainably weird. The best part is that he does this by having his characters say the same things or act in the same ways as I do, boosting my self-confidence by convincing me that I'm not alone. I think that's why I love Hornby so much. His books just feel so real to me. They're just about normal people, doing normal things, and those normal people are like me, so when I fall into the trap of thinking that I'm weird or socially awkward or when I feel insecure about myself and the way I am, I can at least take solace in the fact that not only do there exist people like me, but there exist people like me who occasionally have the same feelings of insecurity and awkwardness, and they suffer through them just as I do. I'm pretty much in awe of how Nick Hornby has been able to remain an insecure, awkward, music- and movie-loving nerd/author even with his immense success and popularity, and I thank him for it.

Anyways, enough Hornby praising. Here's the passage. I've probably way oversold it at this point, but I don't care. When I read it, it made me tingle all over, because it describes perfectly how I act when I'm in a situation where I'm very hurt by something someone has done to me. So criticize all you want, but this isn't about why you should love Nick Hornby, this is about why I love Nick Hornby: He knows me.

"You don't mean that"

I say this even though I know that he almost certainly does. He's that sort of man. Maybe when it comes down to it, this is the only way in which men in our particular postal district are unreconstructed. They know about changing nappies and talking about feelings and woman working and all the basics, but he would still rather close things off right now than admit any possibility of doubt or confusion or hurt, however much it costs him, however much he is eaten up by what I have done.

Landlady

2009-12-16T21:46:00.000-05:00

I may not have the greatest apartment ever, but I do have the greatest landlady ever. She just came over and gave us all Shaw's giftcards for Christmas. I think all landlords should give their tenants Christmas presents now.

Taken By Trees - My Boys

2009-12-16T11:28:00.002-05:00

I loved this cover of Animal Collective's My Girls. I hope you do to.

Have you seen this?

2009-12-15T16:17:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite distractions from studying is watching movie trailers. I just saw this one and got a little bit excited. I'm glad to see that Russell Crowe is back in a role in which he belongs instead of the weird ones he's been taking lately. I have a feeling this film is going to be epic.

Update

2009-12-14T22:38:00.003-05:00

So I once heard a story about a first year law student whose retina actually detached from his eye because he studied so hard for finals. I thought this story was ridiculous. Now, I think it's probably true. Even though I'm not in law school, I'm in the middle of my first finals of graduate school. My eyes ache, and there's nothing I can do about it because my glasses are at home and I know that if I go there, the studying will end for the day, and that would be a problem since I have about 2 or 3 hours more to go tonight. Fortunately, the library's open 24 hours. Unfortunately, the buses run rather infrequently after about 11, so the later I stay, the longer it will take me to get home. I'll probably just end up walking, which will probably be nice. I'll probably just let my eyes glaze over and stumble the couple of miles in the cold. So, if you live in Boston, and see some dark haired guy who looks a little like a zombie walking home around 1 or 2, it's me, so give me a ride.

That may be the most rambling blog post I've ever written, but I don't have the energy to go back and make it less so. Sorry.

The song of the day is The Kids Don't Stand a Chance by Vampire Weekend. Listen to it and then follow it immediately with Bankrobber by The Clash. Let me know if you find the songs as eerily similar as I do.

Improv Everywhere

2009-12-09T20:46:00.003-05:00

If you don't listen to This American Life, this is a great week to start. This week's episode is called "Mind Games" and is fantastic. Listen to it here or subscribe to the podcast and listen to it there.

In this episode they spend a while talking to the guy who started Improv Everywhere, the group responsible for things like No Pants Day on the NYC subway. I had heard a lot about these guys, but it was fun to listen to the founder talk about why he does it.

Here are some videos of a few of their "missions". Enjoy.

Phoenix

2009-12-08T18:50:00.002-05:00

So, as I reported in a recent post, I was able to see Phoenix in concert last Friday, and it was fantastic. Today, I found out that one of my favorite music blogs, La Blogotheque, which is known for its interesting videos of bands playing impromptu shows around Paris, recently did a piece on Phoenix. It's interesting that it took La Blogotheque this long to do a piece on Phoenix, given that the band is from France. Although, I heard on the World Cafe a couple weeks ago that the French don't like Phoenix because they sing in English.

On a side note, I take my first final of graduate school on Friday: Mathetmatics for Economists. This may be a disaster, but it may not, depends how my luck is on Friday. So yeah, wish me luck. Math is followed by the other 3 (micro, macro, and stats in that order) next week. I recently found out the library at BU is open 24 hours during finals week. I will be taking advantage of this, and I will most likely not be sleeping. So, if you find me on g-chat or something during the next week and a half, talk to me to distract me for a second, but don't get offended if I respond to any questions in the form of a logical proof or attempt to chat using Greek letters.

Anyways, here are the Phoenix vids. Enjoy.

Phoenix - 1901 - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix - Lizstomania / One time too many - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Phoenix - Long distance call - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

What I Was Doing Last Night...

2009-12-05T11:44:00.004-05:00

I'm going to write this post in the form of an extended story.

The story begins about a month ago with a friend informing me of a concert I could not miss. The concert was called the Miracle on Tremont Street and featured three of my favorite bands of all time: Passion Pit, Phoenix, and Spoon. Being the procrastinator and social instigator that I am, I decided I could put off buying tickets for a little while in order to find a group of people to attend this wild, high-energy indie-dance-pop-fest. I was an idiot.

The reasonably priced tickets sold out before I could get any. All that were left were super expensive seats that I could not afford. Needless to say, I was fairly devastated.

I decided to wear my devastation on my sleeve and tell everyone about my horrible predicament in order to garner excessive amounts of sympathy. The Sunday after I found out about my predicament, I was at a dessert party at some friends' place, complaining yet again about the fact that I was not going to be able to attend this fantastic show. The person I was complaining to about this, one Colleen Kelly (who is right now my favorite person in Boston), says:

Colleen - Don't worry, I'll just email Britt and see if he can get us in.
Tim - Britt? As in Britt Daniel? The lead singer of Spoon???
Colleen - Yeah, I know him from Austin.
Tim - (speechless)

I didn't really believe what had just happened. I decided that I wouldn't get my hopes up, because things like this don't often actually happen. Fortunately, Colleen is the greatest person ever, and it did happen. She informed me shortly after that the show was being put on by a radio station, so the bands may not get tickets. This saddened me, but I figured I'd survive.

Arrive November 29, my birthday. I see Colleen at church and ask her what's going on with the tickets. She says we're in. I'm floored, and ecstatic, greatest birthday present ever.

Unfortunately, she found out later in the week that there would only be one ticket. This saddened me yet again, because I figured, like any rational person, Colleen would take the ticket and go. But I figured wrong. Instead, she walked me to the theater, got her ticket from the guest list, handed it to me, and went home. I am still kind of in disbelief that this happened.

I took the ticket and walked into the theater. I kept showing it to the people who would tell me where to go, and they kept sending me closer to the front, until I arrived at row 4 center. Here's a map of the Orpheum theater where the concert was held. I was sitting where the yellow dot is. I knew I had good seats when the kids behind me started complaining about how they had bought front row seats, but I was in front of them.

Needless to say, the show was phenomenal. I loved every minute of it. I don't think I had ever been to a show where I loved every song that was played by the openers and the headliners. I'm fairly certain, this one will enter my top 5.

Here are a couple of videos from the show. The first is Little Secrets by Passion Pit because it's my favorite Passion Pit song. The second is the end of Phoenix's set when the lead singer ran out into the audience while continuing the chorus of 1901. They were just super happy to have such a huge energetic crowd there for them, just like they were at Bonnaroo. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries and space before spoon. I got a couple videos on my phone, but I still have to figure out how to get them off before I can post them.

Passion Pit:

Phoenix:

This concert was the perfect way to end a very crappy week. Thanks Colleen.

Why?

2009-12-03T16:33:00.002-05:00

So last night I went to see the movie "The Road". It was a phenomenal film. When I left, I kind of wanted to go out and see how long I could survive in a post-apocalyptic world. It made me think about a lot of things. I was was planning on writing a post about all of these things, but then something else happened that has been plaguing my life: my laptop was stolen.

At some point between me placing my bag under the seat next to me in the theater and me returning to the theater after realizing I didn't have my bag, the bag was moved to the top corner of the theater and my laptop was removed from it. I searched pretty vigorously with the theater manager for a while, and then eventually gave up. Currently, I'm trying to figure out if my renter's insurance policy will cover the loss. Whether it does or not, between this and getting sued, I'm probably willing to make the not-so-bold statement that this is the worst week of my life.

I think this is causing me to believe in karma because all of these horrible things are taking place after my birthday which turned out to be one of the best I've had.

I am not a fan of karma.

On a different note, the song of the day today is "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys because Alicia Keys is awesome.

MA vs. Provo

2009-12-02T17:28:00.002-05:00

So I've been watching this blog's analytics reports since I got to Boston, trying to figure out when Massachusetts would pass up Utah's page views. Today, I noticed that MA and Provo are tied. This is the first step towards the end of the dominance of the Utah readers of my blog. Just thought you'd like to know that.

Also, consider this encouragement to MA residents to up your readership to surpass Utah.

Google Wave

2009-12-02T11:04:00.001-05:00

I'm not really sure what Google Wave is, but it seems kind of cool. I have 8 invites to give out. The first 8 people to tell me they want them can have them.

Getting Doored in Boston Part 3 or 4

2009-11-30T23:55:00.002-05:00

So I don't remember what I've said about my bike accident, and I'm too lazy to go back and look, so I'm going to do a little updating right now. A few weeks back I got a letter from the driver's insurance company informing me that the accident was not more than 50% his fault (they are apparently incapable of understanding basic math) so they were rejecting my claim. I was rather upset about this, but not as upset as I am now.

The next chapter in this epic drama consists of the birthday present I received from the insurance company today in the form of a letter. The letter informed me that not only are they still rejecting my claim, but that they are essentially suing me for the damage my shoulder did the car. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be angry with the insurance company or just feel sorry for them for being so mentally handicapped that they can't understand that when a person is riding his bike in the bike lane and someone opens their door and the cyclist runs into that door, in no way is the cyclist at fault.

Anyone who has Travelers Insurance please do me a favor and switch to a different company, otherwise, don't expect me to ever talk to you again.

What a crappy day.

Structured Procrastination

2009-11-24T12:57:00.002-05:00

I read about this essay on my friend Dan Argyle's blog. I think it's one of the greatest things I've ever read. Although while sharing it with a friend, he pointed out that the whole essay makes the assumption that all procrastinators want to be effective human beings, a somewhat rash assumption in his opinion.

I think I've been following this model for most of my life. As evidence of the validity of this model, I'd like to share with all my readers my latest success story.

After midterms, I pretty much checked out of school. A couple weeks ago, I realized I still had one more midterm, so I spent 2 or 3 days claiming to be cramming for an exam. Because the exam was still 2 or 3 days away, according to me there was still time to accomplish other important tasks like visits to the dentist, setting things up on my new computer, going to the gym, and trying to catch up on episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even on Wednesday, the day before the exam, I continued to fill my day with less important tasks because I knew I could wake up early the next day and cram right before the test. When the next morning arrived and my alarm went off, another important task intervened: Sleep. I ended up skipping my first class and cramming during the last hour or two before the test. I ended up getting a score about 10 pts above the average. Hence, structured procrastination is a true principle.

On a side note, this test score has once again boosted my confidence that I will someday actually become an economist, even with my ridiculous procrastination habits.

Also, the song of the day is Jailer by Asa. Enjoy.

New Moon

2009-11-21T10:32:00.004-05:00

A friend asked me to post this video to help it go viral. So whether you love or hate twilight, watch it.

Going Green

2009-11-21T01:04:00.002-05:00

If you don't love 30 Rock, there's something wrong with you. I found this clip from this week's episode particularly enjoyable.

School

2009-11-17T00:11:00.006-05:00

I got home from school a little before midnight today, a new record. And it was all for a lame problem set, well and a few distractions including a classmate showing us this hilarious scene from a new episode of one of my favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Enjoy.

If only the necessary Silhouette

2009-11-12T16:15:00.003-05:00

I just found this remix of Phoenix's Fences. Listen to it.

White Rabbits - Blogotheque

2009-11-12T13:15:00.002-05:00

So one of my favorite blogs, La Blogotheque, recently did a series of videos with the White Rabbits, a band including my high school friend Alex Even. Even though I can never read anything on La Blogotheque because it's all in French, I love the videos they put out. They always get bands to play their songs in bizarre situations and interesting locations. One of my favorite videos of theirs is of the Fleet Foxes in Paris. These ones of the White Rabbits aren't quite as good, but they're still kind of fun, and it's cool to see them get this kind of recognition. Enjoy.

White Rabbits - Rudie Fails - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

White Rabbits - Percussion Gun - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

White Rabbits - The Salesman - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Duffy

2009-11-11T14:00:00.002-05:00

This seems to be turning into a common theme here; I'm posting another music video. This one is a song by Duffy, Warwick Avenue. A friend of mine showed it to me this past weekend, and I love it. Notice there's only one time the camera cuts away through the entire video. I think I just love how everything about this video is so real. She really seems to care deeply about what she's singing about. Enjoy.

Peter, Bjorn, and John

2009-11-10T22:50:00.001-05:00

I just saw this video, and I think it's fantastic.

Sarcasm

2009-11-09T21:04:00.002-05:00

I found this quote today on an economics blog I read occasionally:

“I don’t consider Larry Summers a serious economist,” Armey said. “You can get a Ph.D. from Harvard without ever having seriously considered the subject.”

I thought it was funny and probably a little bit true. I'm thoroughly convinced that I am forced to endure more in my program at BU than anyone in the Harvard PhD program is forced to endure. I guess this is just karma forcing me to pay back the debt I incurred by snowboarding more than an excessive amount during the winter of 2003, doing irreparable damage to my undergraduate gpa. Was it worth it? Depends what day you ask me...

Today I'm studying for a midterm so the answer is, probably not.

Indian Summer

2009-11-09T13:04:00.002-05:00

It's gorgeous outside today, and I'm stuck in the library studying for a test. Although, it's not like there's much I could do outside since I still have no bike. I hate insurance companies who don't understand that individual portions of responsibility for an accident must sum to 100% and that when there are only 2 participants in an accident and one of them was 0% responsible the other person is 100% - 0% = 100% > 50% responsible which means he is liable for bodily harm and damage to my bike.

I've started to realize just how addicted I was to cycling. Pretty much every day I fall into this weird funk that I never used to fall into when I was biking all the time. I hate it. I've tried the gym, but it's really not the same at all. There's something satisfying about picking a destination and riding to it and then riding back. I don't know why I get so much pleasure out of that seemingly meaningless exercise, but I do, and I miss it.

Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions for other enjoyable individual sports I could try (not running), please give them to me.

As a further update of my New England antics, I have continued my misguided tradition of not studying when I should (last non-final exam this week) and went on a wild tour of cheese factories in Vermont this weekend that included a great deal of singing and talking and little sleeping. Apparently this combination of activities is a recipe for voicelessness, which is my current state, which is turning out to be incredibly inconvenient.

The song of the day is Fences by Phoenix because they're awesome. Enjoy.

Health Care

2009-11-06T15:40:00.003-05:00

So my dad sent me this article today, and I thought it was really good so I'm posting it here. Last Spring I attended a lecture at BYU by a Harvard professor who studies the kind of evidence based healthcare practiced by Intermountain Healthcare and discussed in this article. I thought the lecture was very eye-opening, and I think this article is as well, so if you're into this kind of thing, check it out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/magazine/08Healthcare-t.html?emc=eta1

If you're not into this kind of thing, go listen to Out of the Blue off of Julian Casablancas' new solo album cuz it's the song of the day. Enjoy.

Christopher Walken

2009-11-04T09:18:00.002-05:00

So I saw this video posted on a friend's blog and had to steal it. I love pretty much everything Christopher Walken has ever done. He's quite possibly the most ridiculous man alive (See US Census SNL sketch or Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice music video). Enjoy.

Battle Studies

2009-10-27T16:54:00.002-04:00

Some of you know of my somewhat secret man crush on John Mayer. If you didn't, you do now. A few months, during a weekend retreat at Bear Lake, I forced a group of my best friends to sit around and listen to his album Continuum from start to finish. When we started the album, I'm pretty sure most of them were pretty certain that my love of John Mayer was some sort of ironic joke, but when we finished, everyone understood that it was no joke.

I really love pretty much every song John Mayer has ever written with the exception of everything on the Heavier Things album which I forgive him for only because he more than made up for it by embracing his blues roots on Continuum.

I started listening to John Mayer when I was in High School and he was just breaking into the music scene. I remember only being able to hear him on the local college radio station. His music has come a long way since then, but to this day from time to time I will set my ipod to play such hits as Why Georgia? and 3x5.

Even though I appreciated his early music, Continuum is one of my favorite albums of all time. I think I have listened to it at least 5x per month since it was released a few years ago. That album has the ability to cause me to step back from life for a few minutes and just appreciate the world I live in. Every song on that album is a masterpiece in my mind because they can each dramatically change my mood almost instantaneously, and the change is always positive.

I'm writing this post today because I just found out that John Mayer will be releasing a new album in a couple weeks. The album is called Battle Studies, and I'm hoping that he continues to embrace his blues influences on this album as he did on Continuum. From what I understand, the entire album is recorded in different parts of his house, kind of Led Zeppelin sort of thing.

As I'm sure you've guessed, the song of the day today is going to be a list of my favorite John Mayer songs plus the first song off his new album. Give the following a listen.

Why Georgia?
3x5
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Gravity
Bold as Love (Jimi Hendrix cover)
Out of My Mind
I'm Gonna Find Another You

and the new single: Who Says?

Enjoy.

Lovins for fools

2009-10-23T15:15:00.002-04:00

So I spent most of today working in the historical collections of the Harvard Business School Library. It was kind of mindless work, which was great cuz it meant I got to catch up on all my radio shows including Morning Edition, All Songs Considered, and the World Cafe. One episode of the World Cafe was especially enjoyable. It featured Sarah Siskind. I had heard of Sarah Siskind a few months ago just before attending Bonnaroo. I don't remember where I heard of her, I just remember hearing that Bon Iver covered one of her songs at most of his shows. The reason I remember when I heard of her was because when we were in Knoxville, we went to this great little restaurant, and they had these posters advertising a show she would be performing in the restaurant later that week. Unfortunately, we were gone by time the show took place.

On the World Cafe, Sarah mentioned a song she had done with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver where he sings the high part and she sings the low part. I immediately looked it up on Youtube and thought I should share it here as the song of the day because I loved it so much. Enjoy.

Near Death

2009-10-21T14:31:00.002-04:00

I went for a morning ride today thinking it would be a good way to start off a long day of studying. I thought wrong.

I was riding on Mass Ave in Arlington headed towards Belmont and on to the Cambridge Reservoir when disaster struck. I was headed with traffic at a quick pace passing a parked car when suddenly the car's door opened. I proceeded to slam into the car's door, smacking my shoulder against the door. I then fell to the ground and slid with my bike for a moment. As I slid a car in the left hand lane swerved to miss my body (fortunately, otherwise I may not be typing this post) and ran over my bike and skidded to a stop just as the front passenger side tire reached my leg, leaving a big black skid on my leg and a nasty scratch, but fortunately no permanent damage.

I just sat on the ground for a few minutes, kinda stunned about what had just happened. When I snapped out of it I stood up and tried out my arms and legs to make sure everything was alright. In my head, the car head run over my leg, fortunately this was not the case. All bones were intact, and other than a sore shoulder, I was pretty sure I was fine. The two drivers involved were about as shaken up as I was at this point and we all just kind of sat and stared at each other for a while. They were both very nice and did everything they could to help me (The old lady driving the other car ordered me to get to the doctor whether I wanted to or not). Pretty quickly, however, my attention focused on my poor bike. That beautiful Trek 1.5 road bike that I bought just 2 months ago was destroyed. The back wheel had popped off and the rim was broken, the spokes dislodged, and the derailleur pretty much gone. I'm still not sure if the frame survived, but I doubt it escaped unharmed. I guess I'll be taking public transportation a lot more...

After the police arrived, I decided to look at my shoulder cuz it kinda hurt a lot. I noticed there was a gash in it about 2.5 inches long and kinda deep. I later found out that rather than a gash, it was probably actually the case that a strip of skin had been ripped off. Hence, there was a line of bare flesh on my shoulder that looked a little bit freaky. I showed the cop and he reported it. Within 30 seconds sirens came from all sides and an ambulance and a fire truck joined the two police cars already at the scene. I can't deny that I was a little embarrassed about all this. They checked it out and loaded me into the ambulance.

I'd never ridden in an ambulance before. It was kind of a fun experience, especially during the Boston morning rush hour. People really do get out of the way, even on gridlocked interstates. I was quite impressed with the driver in the end. I chatted with the other paramedic on the way, and then we arrived at the hospital. They checked me out and decided to give me a bunch of x-rays just in case and to stitch me up. The entire time I felt like I was trapped in an episode of Scrubs. You see, this was a teaching hospital so there are all these residents and students doing rounds and getting excited to see a fully conscious, fully aware patient who they could use for their school projects. So I got asked a bunch of questions and then a couple of young x-ray techs in training started to claim which parts of my body they'd get to x-ray so they could cross them off their training list.

In the end, the whole process took a couple hours and then I was stitched up and ready to go. After a ride home and a delicious hot chocolate from a friend, an awkward shower trying not to get the stitches wet, an advice session on what's next from my father/lawyer, a call from an insurance company, and an afternoon of studying, I'm now sitting here attempting to continue to study for my last midterm tomorrow even though my shoulder pain is getting worse by the second. I've started popping loads of Rapid Release Tylenol, but it's not releasing quite rapidly enough for my tastes.

Fortunately, it looks like the guy's insurance company will replace my bike. Otherwise, I'd probably be crying right now.

Lesson to be learned from all this: Don't ride a bike on the streets of Boston.

Funeral

2009-10-20T19:56:00.002-04:00

Funeral by Band of Horses is one of my all time favorite songs. While reading one of my favorite music blogs, I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, I came across this cover of the song by Serena Ryder. I think it's beautiful. Tell me what you think.

This American Life

2009-10-20T17:32:00.003-04:00

So while some friends were up here visiting a couple weekends ago, there was a discussion of the radio show This American Life on NPR. I had heard of this show before but had never taken the time to listen to it. Recently, I've added the podcast to my list, and I think it's my new favorite (after All Songs Considered of course).

I've only been through a couple episodes while riding one of the 3 exercise bikes in the BU gym and during my morning and evening bus adventures, but I've really enjoyed everything I've heard. The last couple weeks have been on rising health care costs, which is an issue we're probably all sick of hearing about, but for some reason I found their take on the story to be really interesting, and I feel like I understand a lot more about what the problem is.

If any of you are in the market for a new podcast, check this one out.

In other news, I think I kind of dominated my Stats midterm yesterday. It's probably a skewed perception of reality, but I think I'm going to roll with it at least until my last midterm is over Thursday morning. Until then, it's nothing but studying for me, and maybe the occasional episode of 30 Rock to chill out. Wish me luck.

So I was reminded today that one of my favorite bands of all time, The Sounds, put out a new album recently and I hadn't listened to it yet. While preparing to turn in my most poorly put together micro assignment yet, I decided to check out the album. I haven't had time to choose a favorite track yet, so I'll put up the most popular one as the song of the day: No One Sleeps When I'm Awake. Enjoy.

Johnny Etchemendy

2009-10-19T23:35:00.003-04:00

So I've neglected to post much here lately because I'm in the middle of midterms and am incredibly busy, but I just read this post by my friend Johnny about the most fantastic weekend ever which took place about a week ago, and I thought a link was necessary. Don't just cast this off like it's not important. Everyone reading this should go read Johnny's post. It described in vivid detail all of the events of the trip Johnny, Rich, Brooke, and Rob made to visit me here recently, and it is well worth your time. Don't let its length deter you, you'll love every minute of it.

Because of Johnny's excellent post, I probably won't write anything about the weekend myself, except to say that it was fantastic to have my friends out here. I often feel like I don't really connect with anyone here, but I think it's actually the case that I just connected so well with these friends of mine that everything else pales in comparison. I think they help me to be me, and I'm so glad they came to visit me all the way out here in Boston. Anyone reading this should take the time to get to know Johnny Etchemendy, Rich Patterson, Brooke Stevens, and Rob Clarke. I promise you won't be let down. Probably the most quality people I know.

On that note, I'm going to put two songs up as the songs of the day today. Both are repeats, but they're in honor of the epic New England trip of October 2009 as they were probably each played about 1000 throughout the weekend. The first is Sweet Disposition by the Temper Trap, and the second is Horchata by Vampire Weekend. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. They currently wake me up and get me out of bed every morning.

Midterms and Laptops

2009-10-16T13:58:00.002-04:00

So I took my macro midterm today. I actually don't feel too bad about it. The answers are posted online, but I refuse to look at them because I don't want to ruin my weekend. I think I finally understand a lot about macro and actually kinda like it.

I also had a meeting with one of my employers today. It was the first time I'd heard from them in over a month. My new task will be to sit in the Harvard Business School library entering wage records for weavers from the 19th century. This will probably be totally uninteresting and mindless, but totally worth the 20 bucks an hour I'll get for doing it. I found out I'm not allowed to bring anything but a laptop into the room where I'll work (not even a power cord). This is a problem because my laptop is unable to function without a power cord or something to prop the screen against.

Turns out this is exactly the kind of motivation I needed to break down and buy a new one, something I've been trying to get myself to do for a while but constantly failing because I hate spending large chunks of money at once (even though I have no problem spending larger chunks of money over time).

So, I came home and ordered a refurbished Macbook. I've sworn many times throughout my life that I would never go the way of the Mac, but I've gone and done it. It was a really good deal, and I just couldn't pass it up. So it's official, I'm 3-5 business days away from becoming a Mac person. I don't know if this makes me happy or depressed...

Sign this petition

2009-10-09T14:39:00.002-04:00

Today I was a little upset to read the following piece of news:

The federal government should stop funding political science and leave the field to pundits and bloggers, says Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

The Oklahoma Republican introduced an amendment yesterday to an annual appropriations bill that would eliminate funding for the National Science Foundation’s political science research.

Coburn said cable news networks could fill the void

So my relationship with the discipline of political science has been a little touch and go for the last few years. I kind of abandoned it for economics because econ was more appealing and economists get paid way more than political scientists and get to have cooler jobs. However, during my time as an undergraduate, I was employed almost exclusively by the political science department, usually doing very interesting and important work. Some examples of that work include:

1. The creation of a comprehensive database of foreign aid loans and grants to developing nations coded by the intended purpose of the money. Oddly, a database like this did not previously exist, making it next to impossible to determine the effectiveness of the aid flows, probably causing a lot of money to be spent inefficiently.

2. The study of the effect of foreign aid on income inequality. We found that aid flows tend to increase inequality, suggesting that the majority of the benefit from foreign aid goes to the rich, rather than the poor.

3. Studies involving the distribution of public goods. We are seeking to answer the question of how government institutions affect public goods like the quality of education, health care, economic stability, etc.

4. The study of the effect of monetary cooperation (Currency unions like the Euro or other exchange rate arrangements) on trade between countries. We determined (still questionable) that countries in currency unions actually engage in less trade while in a currency union than while they are not in one. Other exchange rate arrangements seem to have a positive effect on trade.

All of these studies involve interesting topics that have important policy implications. They are all examples of objective, scientific research that could improve lives for people around the world. For my work on some of them I was paid from a grant from the National Science Foundation. I think there are definitely worse things that the government could be spending our tax dollars on.

If you agree with me that this type of research is important, please go sign this online petition being put together by the American Political Science Association and use their links to send letters to your senators and congressmen.

http://www.petition2congress.com/2/2508/go/

Note: This supplication is not out of self-interest motivated by the future possibility of money from the NSF for two reasons. (1) The NSF will probably never give me money because I won't do anything cool enough to deserve it and (2) My NSF grant possibilities aren't threatened because I would apply in the field of economics whose money is not being threatened.

Horchata

2009-10-07T22:12:00.002-04:00

I noticed a little message on my friend Rich Patterson's Gchat status today mentioning the new Vampire Weekend song. I had no idea there was a new Vampire Weekend song. I immediately listened to it, and I have to acknowledge that, like Rich, I am "tickled" by this song and very excited for the release of this album in January.

Gravity

2009-10-07T17:36:00.002-04:00

So, I did end up changing my mind about the song of the day. I was on my bike coming home from class and the song "Gravity Rides Everything" by Modest Mouse came on. Listen to it. Love it.

I think I've also decided, on a whim, to become an environmentalist. Now that I don't have a car, it should be easier to do. No more elevators, no more lights being left on, shorter showers, more recycling, and probably some other stuff too. We'll see how long this lasts. Judging by my poor performance on my last conviction to change (waking up early), this may be over before it starts...

Wednesday

2009-10-07T14:02:00.002-04:00

So I woke up early this morning hoping for a Wednesday morning bike ride but a little worried because of a rainy forecast I observed last night. Unfortunately, the forecast was right on for the morning hours; hence, I returned to bed. When I woke up again a while later, I realized that my day had been completely thrown off. I couldn't get my head clear all morning, a really bad thing due to the fact that I really need my study time to be productive. In the end I resulted to a 30 minute yoga session which did the trick. However, due to this sequence of events, I've realized that I am addicted to Wednesday morning rides. I can't function without them. For this reason, I'm throwing out this question: Whose idea was it to make it rain this morning until the precise hour at which it became too late for me to get on my bike and ride and then make it sunny with a perfect light breeze for the rest of the day when I had to remain indoors studying?

Needless to say, I am not happy right now.

Due to the day of studying, I've been listening to all classical music for the last few hours. Hence, I think I may be forced to make the song of the day a classical composition, a first for me. I may change my mind later today, but for now, the song of the day is an entire concerto by my favorite composer, Antonio Vivaldi. If you have a long day of studying ahead of you, do yourself a favor and allow Vivaldi to keep you company with his masterpiece, The Four Seasons.

11th Dimension

2009-10-05T17:26:00.002-04:00

So, I've been very anxiously awaiting the release of one album this year: Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas' solo album. I haven't really known what to expect, except for excellence of course. Today, Brooke pointed me in the direction of a first cut from the album, and it is quite a bit different from what I was expecting to hear from Mr. Casablancas, but it is every bit as fantastic as what I was hoping for. Take a listen here and let me know what you think.

Bon Iver at sunrise...

2009-10-05T12:44:00.002-04:00

I really can't think of many things I'd love more than to have been able to be at this show (Read about Bon Iver's sunrise show here). I've been waking up early once a week to go ride my bike, and, while I'm not waking up in time to see the sunrise, through these morning rides I've somewhat reluctantly come to appreciate the early hours of the day. After those rides, reading about the Bon Iver sunrise show, and reading this article (thanks Tom), I almost feel like I've been missing out on the part of the day that may be the best for inward reflection which I think may be the ideal way to lighten the blow of the endless hours of study that will surely follow. This doesn't mean my schedule will change. My stubbornness and love for the late night hours will probably prevent it. However, I think I may at least reevaluate my hatred for the hours of 6 and 7am. We'll see...

It may be too early for me to declare a song of the day today, but I think that it will have to be one from Bon Iver, so I think I'll just throw out my favorite Bon Iver songs as my picks for today. Go check out Skinny Love, Re: Stacks, and Flume. Enjoy.

House M.D.

2009-10-03T17:52:00.002-04:00

I love the tv show House. It's long been one of my favorites. Today I watched the season premiere. It was probably the most powerful hour and 20 minutes of television I've ever seen. I feel like the all of the time I've invested in watching every episode of the 5 seasons of this show were justified by this episode. Anyone who has watched House before should make it a point to watch this season's premiere. Anyone who hasn't watched the show should go watch it right now as well. I hope you enjoy it.

p.s. I am not posting this link just because it starts with a Radiohead song, but I will admit that this fact definitely did not take hurt this show's standing as one of my all time favorites.

River

2009-10-01T19:29:00.002-04:00

What's my favorite thing about Boston? See picture below.

I like to leave school at dusk, not because I want to get home and away from studying, but so I can watch this from my bike.

Gatsby Redux

2009-09-29T23:15:00.002-04:00

So this weekend while relaxing on Block Island, I finished my rereading of The Great Gatsby. I usually don't reread books because I feel like there's so much out there I haven't read yet that I'd be wasting precious time. However, as I recently finished Fitzgerald's first novel The Other Side of Paradise, I decided that it would be good to revisit this classic to remind myself why exactly I consistently refer to it as one of my favorite books.

The verdict? It remains on my all time favorites list. Gatsby is a step up from This Side of Paradise, and as readers of this blog know, I loved that book. Fitzgerald's writing seems to have matured since Paradise, evidenced by the fact that he seems to be able to say more in the 150 pages of Gatsby than he did with twice the length in Paradise.

I remember in high school being told that Gatsby was all about the classic American dream. I don't believe this to be the most important message to be taken from this book. To me, the book describes an experience that is probably all too familiar to most, or possibly all, of us. The experience is summed up in the following paragraph from the book:

As I went over to say goodbye I saw that the expression of bewilderment had come back into Gatsby's face, as though a faint doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. Almost five years! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams-not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

How many times have we all experienced this? We waste entire lives living in a fantasy world. We build things up in our minds to a perfection that can never actually be achieved, and what happens in the end? We're just let down, and not smoothly; we're let down hard, and we hate it. But we all do it again. We continue to live in the illusions we build in our minds, and we waste away huge portions of our lives doing so. We imagine things that aren't there, and those things consume us. How do we avoid this? I don't really know. I think honesty is the best policy. If we are honest on the outside, maybe that will help us be honest on the inside as well. Gatsby's dishonesty was present in all aspects of his life. His work, his social life, and his thoughts were all lies. In the end, it was all a waste, and while at first he refused to admit that his dreams had been shattered by reality, he eventually fell, hard.

I love everything about this book. I now remember why I it was the only assigned book in high school that I actually read all the way through and enjoyed thoroughly. I read it in 24 hours, most of it while babysitting a bunch of kids belonging to the Roberts family in Jefferson City, MO. Between Gatsby and This Side of Paradise, I feel like Fitzgerald and I must have a lot in common. I think I understood more about myself after finishing each of these books, and I hope the trend continues with the rest of his collection.

On another note, I'm currently on a Strokes kick so the song of the day is Last Nite by one of my top five favorite bands of all time, The Strokes.

Enjoy.

I'm a grad student?

2009-09-29T00:00:00.002-04:00

So I'm finally acting like a grad student. 13.5 hours on campus today, a new record. Plus, I forgot the power cord for my computer, so I actually spent all of that studying. Today I found this little unused conference room in an out of the way part of the library with big windows and a chalkboard waiting for me to fill it up with utility functions, income constraints, Lagrangians, Walrasian Demand Functions, Hicksian Demand Functions, Indirect Utility Functions, and whatever other somewhat useless economic crap I could think of. I think that room will be my new home.

This was all followed by a ride home in the rain. While this all sounds somewhat depressing, for some weird reason I think I actually kinda enjoyed it. I think I may be a masochist...

Now it's time to sleep, but not without providing a much delayed song of the day: "No Ones Gonna Love You" by Band of Horses.

Enjoy.

I'm Mormon?

2009-09-23T22:04:00.002-04:00

So, I've kind of had a policy for a long time to not discuss my religious beliefs much in public. As this blog is "public", I've never really posted much about my religion here, aside from a link to a NY Times article about a missionary a week or two ago. I don't think that this is due to any embarrassment or shame or anything like that, but rather, I think I just avoided it because of the stereotype that people associate with Mormons. Yes, I am a Mormon, or a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I've decided to write a post about my religious convictions for several reasons. First, I have a friend who has recently posted brief powerful statements about his beliefs on his G-Chat status, and I was inspired by this. Second, I think it will be good for people to know and understand a little more about why I do what I do and am the way I am. Third, I receive these little emails every few days called Young Single Adult Gems which contain inspirational quotes from leaders in my Church. I'll explain why those quotes are so important later in this post, but I'd just like to share the one that made me want to write what I'm about to write:

“The Lord knows who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we really are becoming.” - David Bednar

I've spent a great deal of time over the last year trying to figure out who I really am. I talk a lot about this, about being real, about not doing things because others think they're cool, about doing things because you really want to. I probably talk about it a lot because I struggle with it so much, especially now that I'm in Boston and am constantly trying to make friends. But that's not what I want to talk about here. What I want to talk about here is a part of discovering who I really am that I neglected to think about during my last year in Utah: my religion.

I don't want to talk here about some sort of conversion or crazy experience that is the cause of my beliefs, I just want to talk about my beliefs themselves. These are not things that I just think or that I've just accepted because my parents taught them to me. These are not things that I've been brainwashed into believing or things that I haven't thought long and hard about. I know that these things are true. There is really no doubt in my mind.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because it is full of truth. The reasons why this church is more full of truth than any other church are fairly simple and, to some, may sound a little silly, but they are what they are, and I know them to be legitimate. After Christ and the apostles the church fell into a degenerate state without divine direction. In the early 1800's God saw fit to restore his church to the Earth and he did so the same way he always has, by visiting a man, Joseph Smith, and authorizing him to reestablish his church via divine direction through Christ himself. Since Smith, God has continued to direct this church through a series of prophets, including one who lives today, Thomas Monson. This is why this church is full of truth: its doctrine comes directly from God. I know this because I believe in the power of prayer, and I've used it to come to this conclusion.

To some of you this may sound silly, but I really don't care. You all know that I'm a very rational person. You also know that I don't just accept things that other people tell me without question. These two facts should suggest to you that what I'm talking about here is real.

The reason I talk about this here is because my religion is a major part of my life. This is something that I didn't realize while in Utah because everyone around me was the same. Here, things are different. I am a 24 year old single male who attends church every Sunday, who attends a religion course every Wednesday night, who doesn't drink, who doesn't smoke, and who doesn't engage in pre-marital sex. This is not exactly normal behavior. You may ask why I am the way I am. After reading this post you may think the answer to that question is because my religion tells me not to. You would be wrong. My religion doesn't tell me what I can and cannot do. In my church we believe very strongly in personal responsibility and personal choice. We can all choose what we do and do not participate in, that's part of life. If we were forced to do certain things, we would never learn to make them part of us, we would never be real. My religion is all about being real, its all about choosing for oneself, its all about learning who you really are, a child of God, understanding what that means, and living your life the way that understanding suggests you should. I am not the way I am because someone tells me to, I am the way I am because it makes me happy. Attending church every week, attending my religion course, not drinking, not smoking, not having sex, these things all give me confidence in myself, keep me free of guilt, and help me to live a richer, fuller life. I may have the privilege of knowing these things because they are taught to me in church and came through the mouth of a prophet of God, but I don't do them because some guy thinks they're a good idea, I do them because I think they're a good idea. As a matter of fact, I know they're a good idea. How do I know? Because I've tried them, and they've made me a better, happier person. I also believe very strongly the statement quoted above. The statement implies that the best way to find out more about oneself is by living one's life in the way the Lord would have him live it, really in the way Christ himself would live. The best way to know how to do that is through inspiration from the source of all truth and the one person that knows us better than we know ourselves, God himself. This inspiration is available to everyone willing to receive it through a prophet and through personal inspiration via prayer. This is something that I've experienced and that I use often to better understand how I should live

I just wanted any readers of this blog to know that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because that is part of who I am. I am proud of my convictions, and I'm always willing to discuss them with anyone who is interested.

Truth spoken in whispers will tear you apart....

2009-09-20T23:29:00.003-04:00

So it's been a while since I've written here. This always seems to happen. I'll write an excessive amount of posts for a while and then drop of the face of the Earth for a few days. I think I feel like it's been a long week, yet I don't have a great deal to write about. School is a little out of control. I'm feeling like I'm in way over my head and don't really know what I'm doing. I think I can handle most of my classes, but macro is really frustrating. For some reason somebody decided it would be a good idea to take the last 2 months of the macro sequence and make them the first 2 months. This means that we're being taught optimization techniques that none of us are familiar with at lightning speed because we will be learning the techniques in depth in the math course later in the semester. I'm trying to deal with this, but not succeeding. Unfortunately, I'm easily distracted these days and prone to accept invitations involving any sort of fun.

Fortunately, the cold winds that indicate the arrival of fall are upon us here in New England. While to some these winds represent an unpleasant reminder of the approaching winter, to me they represent a somewhat unwelcome, but also much needed, change, a change from the lazy days of summer to the more disciplined, work-filled days of fall and winter. Hopefully, the weather will affect my habits as it usually does. I just hope it doesn't steal away the things I love most about this city as well...

Anyways, as I sit here typing this post there are papers, notebooks, chewed pens, incomprehensible textbooks, and slightly more comprehensible class notes scattered all over my desk. They are calling for my return, and I will soon acquiesce their request, but not until I offer a much needed song of the day. I think this track is appropriate for today, especially after a post describing the occurrence in my own life of the action called for by the track name.

Go listen to "Humble Me" by Norah Jones.

Justice and the third Blueprint

2009-09-14T14:45:00.003-04:00

So I've been really slacking in my duties as an individual with an unhealthy obsession with indie music and I'm fairly ashamed. To try to compensate a little, I include the following video by Justice. The song is D.A.N.C.E. and it was recommended to me by none other than Brooke Stevens. The video was passed on by Ryan Fairchild.

In other music news. I recently acquired the new Jay-Z album, The Blueprint 3. As frequent readers of this blog know, I'm kinda a huge Jay-Z fan. It used to be a closet obsession, but its been out in the open for a little while now. Anyways, the album is fantastic. As I noted in an earlier post, Mr. Carter collaborates with Empire of the Sun and one member of MGMT on this album, which should speak to its greatness. My favorite song, however, is Run This Town with Kanye and Rihanna. Check it out as its today's song of the day.

Rich Patterson, it's on!

2009-09-13T23:54:00.002-04:00

This post is dedicated to Rich Patterson.

This is why.

Rich, I was about to write a long post about how I don't need 12 hours a day of studying to rock grad school harder than you do because I can accomplish the same thing in the 9 or 10 hours that I tend to put in, but then I realized that you would probably call me out and not accept that claim. Because of this, I will take you on. I will put in 12 hours per day of studying for the next year. I swear on my music collection that I will be honest about whether or not I am doing this. Most likely, I'll fail pretty quickly due to the fact that Boston provides me with prolly more than 10x the distractions provided by Ithaca, but that will not stop me from making the audacious claim that I will rock grad school harder than Rich Patterson. I recruit roommates, Boston friends, non-Boston friends, family members, and classmates to help me in this quest to work as hard as Rich, mainly because if I don't Rich will never stop reminding me that he rocked grad school harder than I did, at least not until the day that I'm department chair at UBC and refuse to hire him unless he concedes that I always rock everything harder than he does.

So Rich Patterson, it is on. I'll see you when the sun rises over the Eastern United States on that fresh June 2010 morning as I wake up knowing that I've passed my Qualifiers and won this battle of huge egos and outrageously unhealthy amounts of price. Until then, my friend.

One in 8 Million

2009-09-12T01:30:00.001-04:00

So my econ 588 TA recently posted this link on the F-book. It's a story/interview of a girl who was in my 588 class and is now an LDS Missionary in New York City. I know I don't often post things like this on here, but I remember her being a really great girl and it's a really little slide show. Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#/naisi_zhao

Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am

2009-09-10T22:01:00.002-04:00

So I've been doing school for over a week now. It's an interesting experience. Classes kind of suck. I preferred having time to hang out and do what I want but I guess nobody can do that forever. We all have to move on at some point. You might ask why I'm pursuing a doctoral degree in economics if I hate the classes? That would be a very good question, so if you're not asking it, you probably should be. Fortunately I have an answer for you. I'm not actually doing economics right now. I'm just doing math. Math can be fun, but I want to do economics, and, unfortunately, I have to wait for that, and, again unfortunately, I'm an impatient person. So, I just have to suck it up, do the work, put in the hours, and then I can do what I want.

I've also recently found out that the broad area of economics that seems to interest me the most, macroeconomics, due to its policy relevance, happens to be the most ridiculously impossible to understand part of economics. Does this mean I'm changing interests? It probably should. But, unfortunately I'm extremely stubborn and love a challenge, so I'll probably stick with it. This may be a bad idea, but that's too bad. I'll come out on top in the end.

I'm sure you all really wanted to hear all that. For those of you who suffered through my rant, I'm going to provide you with a song of the day. It'll probably disappoint you too, mainly cuz it's a Kanye West song. But fortunately, it's pretty much one of the greatest songs ever. Go look up Everything I Am by Kanye and chill out for a 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

Sarcasm

2009-09-10T17:01:00.002-04:00

So one of the perks of being a fan of sarcasm on the F-book is updates on my newsfeed regarding some fairly fantastic films (Please applaud my alliteration) by the Naturist. I strongly recommend checking them out here.

Candy of the Gods

2009-09-09T17:04:00.001-04:00

I'm currently eating Gummi Peach O's. They're the greatest candy ever invented. Just in case you were wondering.

I am apparently addicted to the internet

2009-09-09T10:06:00.002-04:00

I was without internet except for brief spurts stolen from nearby routers from Friday through this morning. It was tortuous. I barely made it out alive. Fortunately, life has returned to normal and I again have access to the outside world through this slowly dying machine known as my computer. This probably means less reading and less studying, but at least it also means more sanity.

Seriously?

2009-09-04T23:53:00.002-04:00

I begin this post with a warning. I am not going to attempt to skirt around this issue (I'm not telling you what it is till you start reading), nor am I going to attempt to avoid offending anyone here. My goal is to offend and provoke so that someone can finally explain their actions to me, and I don't think anyone in the group I'm probably going to offend really deserves to have me try to avoid offending them. This may sound harsh, but I'm just being honest. That being said, read on if you wish...

I am personally rather embarrassed to live in the same country with people who lack the common sense and level of intelligence that it takes to understand that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Shawn Hannity, Anne Coulter, and other right wing talk radio/tv show hosts are completely full of crap. People who know me know that this is the case, but I thought this opinion needed to made public because of the current controversy regarding the fact that the President wants to broadcast a speech to the young people of the country of which he is the elected leader to tell them to, get this, "Stay in school" and "Work hard while in school." Apparently, to conservative parents, this type of broadcast encouraging children to work hard in school is socialist propaganda. Let me say this: if believing that is socialist, every parent should be a socialist, and any parent who is not fit to take care of their children.

Since when do Americans consider it brainwashing to have the President address their children at school? Has our country really become this politically divided, so much so that parents their children listening to a point of view different from their own? Not even that, are these people so afraid of ideas different from their own that they won't let their children listen to non-partisan ideas that will encourage them to do better in school just because the spokesperson thinks differently than them? I think this is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard, and as I said above, I'm embarrassed to live with these people and especially embarrassed that I lived in a state full of them for 4 years of my life, a state where most school districts refuse to broadcast a speech about pushing yourself in school by a man who is an excellent husband and father, a man who has constantly been a worthy role model for children around the world. This makes absolutely no sense to me.

The only possible reason that I can think of for this controversy is that people actually believe the utter nonsense that comes out of the mouths of the conservative political commentators listed above. Don't tell me that that's not why you oppose having your children listen to the president of your country try to encourage them to serve their country and do well in school, because if you do, I flat out won't believe you. That pathetic group of commentators has succeeded in convincing you of the existence of a socialist conspiracy led by Barack Obama. Do you really think that the man has no good intentions? Do you really think that if he says he's going to give a non-partisan address to encourage the students of this nation to do well in school and serve the country that he's actually secretly planning to brainwash every American child to be a little socialist version of the Nazi Youth? If you really think this, I feel very sorry for you, mostly that you don't have the level of intelligence required to see that this belief is idiotic. Please think back on why you are opposed to this broadcast and see how ridiculous you're being.

President Obama ran on a platform of bringing this country together, a platform of hope and change. I know these things sound naive and somewhat mystical, they probably are. But the fact that the country is becoming more divided and degenerating into even more bitter partisanship than before Obama's election is not due to a lack of effort on Obama's part, it is nearly 100% due to the efforts of these conservative commentators to cause Obama to fail. They are more concerned about the success of the Republican Party (which is currently the most pathetic excuse for a party and anyone who professes to be a member of it should be somewhat embarrassed that you belong to an organization whose leader was forced to apologize to Rush Limbaugh for saying something Rush didn't like) than they are about the success of this nation, and that is just said. Don't tell me you're not like the rest of the party, don't tell me you don't support the commentators, if you don't prove it by leaving the party, otherwise you just support this nonsense and you support loyalty to party over loyalty to the country. Ya know, for a party that considers itself so much more patriotic than everyone else, you're really failing to be patriotic right now by being more concerned with causing the failure of a president than about the success of your country.

I know I'm biased in my views because they are somewhat liberal. Yes, I supported Obama, yes I voted for him, but please read this as though that was not the case. I pride myself in being fairly objective and only slightly partisan when it comes to politics. This is not about partisanship, this is about getting real and about taking down the conservative commentators that are ruining this country. If you oppose this broadcast, I hope you someday realize how ridiculous your opinion sounds to those of us that aren't blinded by the crap spewing forth from the mouths of these politically untrained, utterly unqualified, so-called journalists who have built their careers by stirring up lies and controversy over things that nobody in their right minds would find controversial.

New Radiohead

2009-09-03T13:22:00.000-04:00

I came across this post by Thom Yorke today for anyone interested:

Dear Sir or Madam

This is to inform you of the release of two more bits of work shortly.
They are loosely under the Thom Yorke name this time, although these days its all getting kind of blurry.
FeelingPulledApartbyHorses is written & played by Jonny and I and is a radical rework of an old tune thats been kicking around without a home since 2001? i think.
The Hollow Earth is a bass menace that was born out of the Eraser period but needed a little more time.
Both were produced by Nigel Godrich as ever. And mastered by Bob Ludwig.
They are being put out on 12" with sliced sleeve by Stanley and Tchock.
My sources tell me this will be available from the 21st of September if you're interested.. On sale in the w.a.s.t.e part of our website (with a gratis download.)
Or you can go buy it in a good record shop if you are lucky enough to have one near you.
Then later on there will be like a normal download thing i think around the 6th of Oct through the usual channels.

And so it goes. all the best

Thom

Enjoy.

Why I'm a fan of Wednesday, September 2

2009-09-02T22:16:00.002-04:00

So today was the first day of school...and it was the easiest first day ever. I only had stats which is probably my strongest part of this program. It looks like the class is going to be about 95% review, which is about 99% awesome and makes me about 100% happy.

I also started working as an RA today, getting paid about double the highest wage I've ever gotten. The work is fairly interesting and should get more fun as we get the data in and I start running regressions (For those of you who are unaware, running regressions is one of my favorite activities. In other words, I'm a huge nerd).

The last reason why today was a good day is probably the lamest sounding reason, but quite possible the biggest contributing factor to me being a fan of today: Itunes Genius made me the greatest playlist ever from the song Little Secrets by Passion Pit. Here's the list. Enjoy.

Amory Blaine

2009-09-01T23:55:00.002-04:00

So last week I started reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. As The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books, I expected great things from this one. I was not disappointed. This Side of Paradise immediately jumped into my top 5 favorite books of all time. If you're wondering why the book is so incredible, you should know I'm probably not going to tell you. As one of the commentators at the end of the library's version of the book says, it's not really about anything.

The book pretty much just meanders through the life of Amory Blaine, who many assume is really F. Scott Fitzgerald. I think the reason I enjoyed the book so much was probably how much of myself I saw in Amory Blaine, and how by reading about his early years, I was able to understand more about mine. Many of his actions and motives were similar to mine during high school and college, and by reading about them a little more light was shed on why it was that I acted that way or had those desires. His changing attitude toward life throughout the book and his introspection aligned so closely with my life that I have to assume that many of those around me share similar life stories.

Anyone who has not read this book should go find a copy and devour it immediately.

As I listened to the music of Rodrigo y Gabriela during the final chapters of the book, they are the artists of the day, so go look them up as well.

Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson?

2009-09-01T18:39:00.001-04:00

So they're not as cool as the actress/folk singer collaborators Zooey Deschanel and M Ward (She & Him), but I say they're pretty fantastic nonetheless. Check out the video for this new song by Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson off their new album Breakup.

What we talkin' about

2009-09-01T18:12:00.002-04:00

I think Jay-Z is a genius and he's tied with Kanye and Deltron 3030 for my favorite rappers of all time. After reading this article about The Blueprint 3, I think he may have passed the other two on my list. Any rapper who recognizes the talent of Empire of the Sun, MGMT, and Grizzly Bear deserves to hold the top position. You win Jay-Z.

The water is warm, but it's sending me shivers...

2009-08-31T22:15:00.003-04:00

Got a job today. I'll be working for a law and econ prof at the BU law school doing a bunch of applied econometrics stuff for some research on whether the US patent system is a net gain or a net loss for businesses. Should be interesting. Should also cause me to be even more of a hermit this year. Fortunately, I hear that as soon as it gets cold nobody leaves their houses so I won't be any different from anyone else.

Took my bike on the Minuteman Bike Trail today. Quite an enjoyable ride. About 15 miles out there and then out of nowhere a plethora of quiet New England roads appear, then 15 miles back again. Great time.

I think today's song of the day is Kids by MGMT just cuz I love MGMT and I think everyone else should too.

Have I said how much I love Boston? I think everyone should move here. By the way, Massachusetts is quickly catching up with Utah regarding visits to my blog according to Google Analytics. MA readers need to step it up and take down Utah in the next 2 weeks or I promise horrible consequences.

Ignorant Swan

2009-08-29T00:39:00.002-04:00

So I saw the movie Cold Souls tonight. Fantastic flick. Go see it. Be prepared for some classic indie humor, all coming from Paul Giamatti. One great thing about living in the city: great indie theaters just a quick ride on the T away.

One bad thing about living in the city: no mountains. I just saw some pictures of some friends climbing Mt Timpanogos at sunrise. I have to say I was quite jealous. I miss the Utah wilderness. Biking up the canyons. Hiking the mountains. Driving quiet alpine roads. Gazing out over Alpine lakes. Hanging out with those friends. All things that are impossible here in Boston. All of you living in Utah, take advantage of it. It's a great place. Life is simpler there. The stress of life can always be escaped via a 5 minute drive to the Wasatch Front.

Also, if any of you readers have been wondering as I have what Radiohead song is used in the Jaydiohead song Ignorant Swan, I just found it. It's Black Song and it's on Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser. I hope someone reads this and appreciates it. I've been wondering what song that was for ages.

Well, there's a hurricane coming. His name is Daniel. He'll be dropping plenty of rain here for the next couple days. Should be interesting...

Critical Mass, Boston Style

2009-08-28T20:19:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, during my time in Provo the first Friday of every month was by far my favorite day. Why? Critical Mass. There's just something exhilarating about a large group of people riding their bikes through the streets not concerned about traffic cheering every time someone honks or waves a middle finger. I love it.

Upon moving to Boston, naturally I took it upon myself to find out if there was a chapter of Critical Mass here. There is. Today was my first experience with the eclectic group. Upon arriving at Copley square, as the critical mass-ers rode around in a circle I was taken aback and became oddly nostalgic for my Provo days. It was the exact same group of kids. They may have had new names and new faces, but they were no different, except for maybe a few extra fixed gear bikes that are a rare siting in Provo.

We took off into a mist around 6pm. The weather was similar to the February Critical Mass in Provo this year when we were few in number, but had the time of our lives leading the cops around south of campus and attempting to free the citizens of The Colony from their shackles. As we rode away from Copley, it became evident that the Boston Critical Mass-ers are even more belligerent than we were in Provo. We never waited at stoplights, not even if the first of the group showed up at a red light. They just rode through. Fantastic. Fortunately, like in Provo, no matter how angry the drivers got, we kept a smile on our faces and just cheered louder.

I figured we would ride the minor roads of downtown Boston for a while and then head back to Copley. I was wrong. We road the busiest streets, at rush hour: Mass Ave, Comm Ave, and through tunnels and all the way to Harvard Square. At one point, Austin and I tried to break away from the group to head home, due to a flat tire, and the group followed us. It was the most fantastic Critical Mass ever. If you love riding through the streets of Provo, please, someday, come to Boston and try riding between skyscrapers, over the Charles River, through MIT and Harvard...it's an experience you'll never forget.

The song of the day is Dirt Off Your Android by Jaydiohead, as this song was playing during C-Mass this evening.

Vickie, Christina, Barcelona

2009-08-28T00:43:00.000-04:00

I just watched this movie. I'm moving to Spain.

We are still counting on cannibal resource

2009-08-27T22:41:00.002-04:00

Relaxed day today. Most fantastic weather I've seen in a long time. Nice breeze, high around 75, blue skies, couldn't be more perfect. Unfortunately, I've been riding my bike a lot lately and was unable to go out for a long ride due to sore muscles. I hate sore muscles getting in the way of my plans. Maybe tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, critical mass will be taking place here in Boston. I will be in attendance, of course. I invite any Boston-based readers of this blog to join me. The mass congregates at Copley Square around 5:30. Be there.

Back to today. Got a library card today from the public library. Haven't had one of those in years. The Boston Public Library is too fantastic not to be a member of. And they have lots of movies. I checked out Vickie, Christina, Barcelona because I've been wanting to see it. I also checked out This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm fairly certain I will soon be a fan of both of these pieces of media.

The song of the day today deserves a hat tip to Rich Patterson. Rich reminded me of a band called the Dirty Projectors (I have to admit they were also recently recommended to me by Brooke Stevens so she gets a hat tip as well). Listen to the song "Cannibal Resource". I'm a fan. Let me know what you think.

"All morons hate it when you call them a moron"

2009-08-26T22:32:00.003-04:00

I haven't written a long post in quite a while. I actually prefer the short and sweet blogging practice I've fallen into as of late. However, I think this post is going to be a little longer, more essay-like even, but I just feel like writing tonight, so I'm going to do it and post it here instead of stashing it in my random thoughts folder hidden away on my hard drive. If you prefer the short and sweet posts, stop now. If you are curious and want to see what I have to say, continue on, but don't say I didn't warn you that it would be long and possibly get boring at some point.

Upon deeper reflection while eating a 7-11 brownie and drinking a bottle of milk sitting on a bench overlooking the Harvard Foot Bridge and the Charles River after getting kicked out of the Harvard bookstore which apparently closes at 10pm rather than 11pm as the website indicates, I decided that my reading of The Catcher in the Rye deserved a little more discussion.

After pondering on the book for a while, I realized that much of Holden's narrative described his struggle to please others while not being a phony. This is a topic I've been thinking about a great deal lately, and my reflections after reading this book have led to a few additional insights about the quandary. Often, being a phony and pleasing others go hand in hand. We do the former with the purpose of accomplishing the later.

While we may feel that phoniness is justified when its purpose is making others happy, I believe that these two desires/actions fight against each other rather than work together. It seems to me that by doing being a phony, one can never fully please others. The struggle is to figure out how to accomplish both, being true to oneself and making others happy. I think that one cannot be accomplished without the other. We cannot be true to ourselves without making others happy because I believe our happiness is at least somewhat influenced by the happiness of those around us, and we cannot be true to ourselves without fulfilling our innate desires, one of which is lifting others. We cannot make others happy without being real because people have the ability to feel when you are complementing them for your sake or for theirs, and when we are doing it for ourselves, it does nothing to make their day a little brighter.

What is the answer then? How can we accomplish both? Is it even possible? These are the questions that Holden Caulfield struggled with throughout The Catcher in the Rye. While he was never able to reach a verbal conclusion, his actions teach a valuable lesson. It is possible to accomplish both. This can be seen in his interactions with his sister Phoebe and the two nuns. An equilibrium must be reached. However, to reach this equilibrium, we must change. Now, because I mention change, it must be noted that change does not contradict being true to oneself. Being true to oneself, or being real, just means that we do things for ourselves. We don't do things to make others think better of us, we do things because we want to. One can change and still be himself; however, that change must be real and deep and be made for personal reasons rather than to conform to the desires of others. Without those personal reasons for the change, change is contradicts being real, but with those personal reasons, the change becomes a permanent fixture of one's character.

The change that must occur is a difficult one. In order for equilibrium to be reached, we must adopt a philosophy of selfless and unconditional love, something that none of us can ever completely accomplish in this life. In other words, equilibrium can never truly be reached because it is synonymous with perfection and that is impossible in our current state. However, while equilibrium may be impossible, there is no reason to get as close to it as we can. As a matter of fact, I believe that is one of the purposes of our lives. Learning to live with this struggle between phoniness and pleasing others is a vital lesson that is learned in time. It is learned in time because a simple realization of how to do it is not enough: the action remains. The process of the change is how the lesson is learned. It is through our transformation from someone who cannot both please others and be himself into a person who pleases other by being himself and vice versa that we learn this lesson and complete one of the principle reasons why we are in this mortal state.

While most of this didn't come from the reading of the book, a lot of it was inspired by Holden's struggle, and for that I'm glad the book exists and I encourage you all to give it a read.

On another note, the song of the day today is Oviedo by Blind Pilot. It's a fantastic song by one of my favorite somewhat new bands. Go check em out.

Math camp has come to an end...

2009-08-26T19:39:00.002-04:00

As you may have surmised from the title of this post, today was the last day of math camp. It only lasted about an hour, which was pretty fantastic. This afternoon was the exam to test out of the math course 1st year PhD students have to take. It's an optional exam. I elected to not take it. No, I didn't wuss out. It was a logical decision. I figured I should take the class no matter what, even if I could pass the exam, so there was no point in wasting my time taking it. Instead I've started Math Camp pt 2, the sequel. Math Camp pt 2 consists of me watching these videos from MIT. They're pretty awesome. You should watch them too. Hopefully they'll help make up for my lack of knowledge about differential equations.

In addition to watching those incredibly entertaining videos and taking scrupulous notes, I've been riding my bike a lot, at least 25 miles per day. I'm really enjoying it. It's taking some time to find good roads to ride on (especially since I tend to ride around rush hour), but I'm getting there. The last two days have been gorgeous here in Boston, and I've been taking advantage of it. I just wish I could go out on a sailboat. Yesterday, I sat and watched the MIT boats sprinting around the river. They were pretty fantastic. I liked to watch them almost capsize and then not capsize at all. I think they were racing. I want to race too.

While riding today I finished listening to the Catcher in the Rye, one of those books that I felt like I always needed to ride but never had before. It was incredibly entertaining. Holden is an incredibly smug individual. I thought he was pretty great. I think I saw a little too much of myself in him. That was worrying. But it was an entertaining book nonetheless. I think I need to be less judgmental and negative so I'm not too much like Holden Caulfield. It was a little comforting, however, to note that I'm not the only one constantly identifying people as "phonies", although the amount that he judged people in that way did make me think phoniness isn't quite as bad as he thinks it is, and maybe not quite as bad as I think it is either...

Bold as Love

2009-08-22T22:42:00.002-04:00

Today I took the bike out for its first real ride. It was pretty fantastic, until I got completely lost. I was originally going to follow the route that I found online. The website said it was marked with some chevrons, but I never found them. Instead, I took off riding up Mass Ave for a while and eventually broke off to find some quieter streets. I found some really great roads and ended up north of the Middlesex Fells Reservation which, I found out, has some fantastic quiet roads through the woods and along lakes. It was quite enjoyable until I realized I had no idea where exactly Middlesex Fells Reservation was. Unfortunately, I also have a serious aversion to retracing my steps (prolly goes along with my dislike of watching movies multiple times or re-reading books) so instead of turning around when I realized I was going the wrong way, I would try to find some new, more interesting way to end up going the right direction. This ended up being a bad idea. Eventually, I broke down and asked for directions and was told to go back the way I had come. While this pissed me off, I obeyed the directions and, after about another hour, found my way back to Cambridge and then back home.

It was quite the adventure (somewhere around 50 miles I would guess), and I'm pretty sore (while the bike is a fantastic ride, the seat isn't the most comfortable) and I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna lie around and do nothing for a couple days as I tend to do after an excessive amount of exercise.

This evening I occupied myself with a virgin trip to Chipotle (pretty good, but did not meet the extremely high expectations formed by the raving from my MO friends) and reading my book in Harvard Square for a while, occasionally getting distracted by the guys playing chess. I'd really like to know who these guys are during the day. Maybe I'll stalk them sometime.

The song of the day today is indicated in the title of this post. It's Bold as Love by Jimi Hendrix. Also give John Mayer's cover of the song a listen. It's on his latest album, Continuum.

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence, a time of confidences

2009-08-22T00:12:00.003-04:00

I am officially the proud owner of a new Trek 1.5 road bike. I've been looking around for a bike for a while now, and I found this one on sale. I tried it out the other day, and I was instantly sold. The bike flies down the road with minimal effort. I've never riden anything quite like it. Now I'm just antsy to get out of town and ride it through the New England countryside. Then life will be good.

On a completely different topic, this evening I watched The Graduate for the first time. Fantastic film. I mention this because I want to briefly discuss my belief that Simon and Garfunkel are two of the greatest musicians of all time. This belief may be mostly due to the fact that my parents listened to them constantly throughout my youth and, according to Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music, this caused my brain to be programmed to love these two performers. For those of you who don't know, Paul Simon wrote the entire soundtrack to The Graduate and then performed the songs with Art Garfunkel, and yes, it's a fantastic soundtrack.

Because of my current preference for Simon and Garfunkel, today's song of the day will consist of a list of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs. I invite those of you who have never given these guys a good listen to take a minute and look up these songs. I promise it will be a good investment of your time. The list is a little long, but it only represents a small portion of the music made by these two. My most favorite songs are starred.

Favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs:
* Bridge Over Troubled Water
* The Sound of Silence
* Bookends
Bleecker Street
Wednesday Morning 3 am
April Come She Will
Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Homeward Bound
* The 59th Street Bridge Song
America
* Cecilia

Enjoy.

You were right all along Tom, you just weren't right about me...

2009-08-21T00:14:00.003-04:00

Saw (500) Days again. Fantastic film. Watched it with a more careful eye after a discussion about the film with some friends the other day. Had a great post-(500) Days discussion with deep thinkers Tom and Austin. Really made me think about how I've been approaching life since I got to Boston.

Unfortunately, Tom will be leaving tomorrow. Boston will miss Tom Bell. I think Tom Bell will also miss Boston. Good luck in Provo my friend.

The song of the day today is Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by the Smiths. Listen to it now, whether you like the Smiths or not. It's a beautiful song, and everyone should know it.

Also, I bought a bike today. A Trek 1.5. I think it'll be a good one, and it'll be good to get back on wheels. I pick it up tomorrow, so there will be more news about the purchase soon.

Walden Redux

2009-08-20T00:15:00.002-04:00

So I've spent the last two nights at Walden Pond. It's really a fantastic and magical place. Fortunately, the swim across seems to be getting shorter (it was originally unbearably long). I could really see this pond becoming a fixture in my life.

In other news, for those of you who are amused by the fact that I'm currently in math camp, I thought I might include a camp update. Things started out pretty easy. Now things are getting rather difficult. We've entered the world of differential equations, a world with which I am unacquainted. Unfortunately this means that what appears on the white board everyday seems completely foreign. I've spent some time in the library lately, so maybe that will help. I doubt it, however, since most of that time has been spent with my head on the table with an embarrassing amount of drool accumulating slowly on my notebook as I take my afternoon nap.

Also, for anyone interested, I'm currently buying a new road bike. Tomorrow my mind will be made up and I will either purchase a Trek 1.5 or a Scott Speedster S40. Any input as to which may be the better buy would be greatly appreciated by myself.

The song of the day is Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap off of the (500) Days of Summer Soundtrack.

I wonder if Eminem is aware he makes "Gym Music"...

2009-08-17T23:29:00.005-04:00

So I took a little trip this weekend up to Portland, Maine with some truly fantastic individuals. After the longest sacrament meeting in the history of the Mormon church, it was decided that a road trip was necessary, so we took one. Due to the excessive heat and the need to get out of town, Maine was decided upon as our destination. After a long drive filled with readings from Tolstoy (which I slept through), half-eaten caramels, and misleading guide books, we arrived in Portland. Upon arriving and having our hopes of a picnic of fresh fruit purchased at the Portland Market dashed to pieces, we proceeded to the famous lighthouse, but not without a quick stop at Red's Dairy Freeze for their 10 soft-serve ice cream flavors.

The lighthouse was picturesque, the company was fantastic, the weather was approaching miserable, the ice cream was refreshing, the market was closed, the ride home was full of Austin's movie impressions, the end was abrupt.

Today's song of the day is a new recording by Radiohead: These are my twisted words
You can find this song for free at in the Radiohead store at radiohead.com

Also, for those new readers who may be looking for some fun indie-pop music, go check out two songs: Electric Feel by MGMT and 1901 by Phoenix at lala.com.

Enjoy.