A

Economics and the stock market

Another syptom of my cabin fever is my recent obsession with the stock market and economics blog debates.

I honestly can't wait to start studying something unrelated because the endless arguing among economists is enough to drive anyone nuts.  No wonder many of them seem off their rockers.

Anyways, for the record, I must say that I think we are in for a rough few years. The recent market drops have proven out the theory that investors could care less about the deficit, even though that's all republicans and the president can obsess about. Obama has really come out of this mess looking like a coward who just rides the most popular political trend to get reelected.

The problem with this strategy is that it has backfired. The fiscal restraint bandwagon he is jumped on was never going anywhere because its not an answer to the economy's malaise. So, now that the republican narrative has been refuted by the market, obama can't hang the failure on republicans. They both own it now. Who's speaking up for an alternative? No one except paul krugman that I can see. Like I said we're in for a rough few years.

My summer work vacation is nearing an end

I have mixed feelings on this.  On one hand I've really enjoyed my time off and I've been able to do a number of things around the house that I wouldn't have done had I been stuck in my cube.  Another thing adding to my anxiety is my pending commute to Tempe and my fear I'll be overwhelmed with my classes.  MBA courses were by trimester so they were short and sweet.  PhD courses will go much more in depth and will last an entire semester...I hope im prepared!

On the other hand, Im starting to get cabin fever being stuck in the house all day.  Yesterday I had a battle with the toilet plunger that left me bloodied and the bathroom floor full of water.  Other things I cherished at the beginning of my break such as my starbucks morning outing are losing their beauty as well.  I guess too much of anything can be bad.  Oh well, here's a picture from my last days as one of the unemployed starbucks customers.

Typical morning for one of the Starbucks unemployed

This has been my morning routine now for the past 2 weeks.  Ill miss it when school starts!

Nice salad!!!

Nimbus with his mama

Yessir!

Noemi with the new clothes

Baby clothes from South Carolina are here!

Thanks a ton to Noemis friend for sending this.  It'll be a great help.

Ayla is happy that im home

She loves it when daddy gets home!

Happy July 4th!

We just got back into town from a overnight stay in Sedona. Overall, it was a nice getaway. We arrived at around 1pm just in time to catch a nice afternoon monsoon downpour. It was the first rain we had seen in a long time (it's been a brutal June here in Phoenix).

We stayed at a nice B&B called the Baby Quail Inn. We really liked the atmosphere of the place, but there was one BIG problem...the mattress was UNcomfortable. It's really sad because we enjoyed everything else about the place, but it's hard to think about staying there again when you spend the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

The owner seemed to have been somewhat involved in the Hollywood scene back in the day and he showed us a little "museum" room of old photos of himself on shows like Mary Tyler Moore. He was 83, but was still in great shape.

After we checked out, we drove towards Flagstaff and the Sliderock state park. After awhile driving, we finally happened on a fairly remote stretch of the creek where I could take my shoes off and wade in the water. Man was it cold.

I will upload some pictures once Noemi downloads them from the camera.

Nimbus in the bathtub

We left some pool towels in the tub to dry and guess who I found there! In other news im going to play basketball tonight.  We are 0-4 and hoping for our first win.  Hopefully alfred can lend a hand!

The garden is on its last legs

We've had over a week of 110+ temps in PHX.  Its taking a toll on many of my plants but especially my garden.  Cucumbers and strawberries never stood a chance.

Typical scene....

Wife and cat in bed.

Going swimming!

Water should be great today Noemi coming too.

Nimbus

Big Week!

Well, today is the day I have been waiting for. I have my HR meeting at work to discuss the terms of my layoff. No need to worry, this is actually a good thing. In order to do the PhD program, I need to leave my job and this is the best way! Let's hope everything goes smoothly.

The weather is still nice here in the morning, so I can still enjoy my daily coffee on the patio (as long as I make it outside by about 7am. I'm afraid this will be changing soon, though. Once monsoon season comes and the humidity outside increases to about 30%, Phoenix turns into a muggy mess...day and night...ugh.

Does Klout Have Legs?

Interesting article in the NY Times about the rise of influence scoring by companies like Klout and Peer Index.

Basically, these sites give people grades based on how effective they are at influencing followers to act on their recommendations.  Klout, for the moment, only uses Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to compile its score.

Some in the article say that this is tantamount to creating a online social caste system.  I think this is stretching it a bit.  I'd guess that uncertainties about the scoring methodologies combined with the the fact that 95% of people will probably end up in the average score range, will not make this as intrusive to our daily lives as people anticipate.

The wifey!!!

World War II

So it's HOT today in Phoenix. Who am I kidding, it is going to be HOT here everyday until about October! Anyways, we're basically stuck here in the house today. Noemi is actually being productive and cooking some food for the week. As for me, I'm watching Netflix.

For the past couple of days I've been watching Ken Burns' documentary on WWII. Besides the story of the conflict itself, a couple of facts piqued my interest...

Could our government persuade it's citizens to ration in 2011? There always seems to be a lot of nostalgia for the 40s and 50s, but compared to today's political environment, that era seems like socialism run amok! Rationing, propaganda films, internment camps, war bond rallies, the draft! Pretty incredible if you really think about it. If push came to shove, would today's generation willingly give up these freedoms for a greater common goal? I guess that some would argue we actually have in the wake of 9/11, but the Patriot Act seems somewhat small in comparison doesn't it?

Also, why didn't massive government spending on defense result in an unsustainable bubble that burst after the war was over? Instead, it led to a massive economic expansion that made the US the world's wealthiest nation. I think that this is a question that today's advocates of government budget cutting should be prepared to answer.

Education

I've been noticing a lot of chatter recently about the real value of a college education. The latest example of this is David Leonhardt's op-ed in support of a college education, even for jobs that may not necessarily require it:

Since I'm leaving work to pursue a full-time PhD program this Fall, this is a debate which I think about often. Judging from the comments to the NY Times article, the majority of posters did not seem convinced by Leonhardt's argument.

In my opinion, the debate boils down to two issues:

1) ~50% of undergraduates do not belong in college at age 18. They are too immature/unprepared/entitled to really get anything out of higher education.

2) The costs of attending college. A liberal education was never intended to be a jobs program, but the rising costs of college have made people justify their degree solely in terms of return on investment. At a micro level, this is a rational individual response. However, at a macro level, I think it bodes ill for our society.

First Post!

OK, I got the idea to give blogging another try.  I'm not doing this because I think I have anything great to add to the public conversation, but because I'd like to keep some sort of daily diary for myself and my family.  Time passes so quickly that I think now is as good a time as any to record daily thoughts, events, etc so we can look back on them some years down the road.