Econometrics Homework

I feel damned accomplished. I didn't get into class this past Thursday because of the snowstorm - I wasn't driving in for an 8am class (the only one for the day) before the snow removal between here and there was completed. I woke up today with the intention to go over the Power Point presentations for last week - this I did - and I realized that we must've finished the chapter on Thursday. This means that this Thursday the homework is due to be handed in. I got cracking, opened the book up and started going through the assigned problems. Only one part of one problem gave me any distress, so I put it aside for later. I emailed with my main homework buddy to confirm that yes, the homework is due on Thursday; usually we are chatting through the weekend pinging each other back and forth with what we are doing... So, to sum up, I just figured out that last part that bothered me...

I did the homework ALL by myself!

This from the person who has been dreading econometrics for the last two years. Though I know it will get harder over the course of the semester - probably - I'm feeling pretty good right now. I think I need warnings from all of you not to get too cocky. Wow.

Now, I'm just waiting to hear back from the Cow Pot people so that I can get started on some sort of Independent Study project. This is essential for my graduating this May. That and finally getting my European Economic History paper graded and having that Incomplete changed over to a GRADE which I hope is at least a B.

Damn... Does this mean I have to start looking for a job? Shit.

Reaction - Need Feedback

Okay, there was an article in the NY Times about a book getting banned by a lot of elementary school librarians. You've probably already read about it or heard about it by now, however, me doing my homework all day, this if the first time I've seen it. It won the Newbury Medal... what do all of you think?



With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar
By JULIE BOSMAN

The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.

Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”
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Begin Reaction
Squicky!

It sounded medical and secret, but also important.

The above sentence, coming from a girl of ten, after overhearing the word scrotum smacks of female penis worship and envy. Medical in this sentence is akin to "sacred" because doctors are the priests of science - of the medical profession. So lets see, we have sacred, secret and important. Something to be worshiped. That which is worshiped by someone who does not have said object brings about envy. Blech. Great message to give to elementary shcool level kids.

Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much.

That this is the sentence previous to the one I just dissected is like an attempt to bait and switch in advertising. Yeah, it may be something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much... but it is still sacred, secret, and important.

*shrug* I guess I would have to have a more indepth look at the book and give it a read-through to really assess it. However, off the cuff, my reaction to it is negative. It isn't the inclusion of the word scrotum, it is the symbolic meaning given to the word represented by Lucky's first impression of it that bothers me.

Here's a Number to Remember...

2.22222222222x10^-5

Okay, I could go through my previous posts... but I won't right now. Long long ago, right here on this journal, there was a bit of a panic attack on this asteroid when it was first discovered. Before it had a name - which I think was thought up by a Stargate SG1 fan - its chance of hitting the Earth fluctuated from 1/500 to about 1/45,000 which is where it is now.

PS: For all my science geek friends, there is a $50,000.00 reward for the best plan on tagging this rock with tracking devices. I thought a rocket that would boost out of orbit, conserving all other fuel for attitude jets to adjust in transit while the main transit power source (non-course-adjusting) could be a deployable solar sail. After all, this thing isn't due to hit until 2036. OH GOGS! That's only 29 years from now! Damn, there is a 1/45,000 chance that a city or region somewhere on this globe will be a big pool of melted crust and gigantic crater.

What kind of primary, secondary, and tertiary effects would result? Somebody... my brain will not compute.

Scrat is appropriate, isn't he?