Catching up

So I am utterly exhausted...I finished mid-terms today and I give myself a B-/C+ overall. I have tested the limits of my body and brain's ability to comprehend things when pushed to the edge. I actually had to ask myself the other day what the first derivative of Total Revenue with respect to quantity was! Bogdan made me take a break at that point.

I wish I had another 2 days to study for each of the exams. I missed some I should have gotten and we shall see how it all plays out. My strategy for the rest of the semester is to stay as far ahead of the game as possible.

I decided this is the hardest thing I have ever done. Cooking for 18 hours is a joke by comparison. I would rather pull a 100 hour week rather than go through what I've been through. Maybe I am just older and weaker. I guess a PhD shouldn't be easy to get.

I must say though...through some discussion over the past week or so I have realized that I enjoy economics. Even though I was thinking about it 18 hours a day, I still found time to read a few chapters of Hayek's Individualism and Economic Order and debate the robustness of the beta matrix in ordinary least squares regression under both binary independent and dependent variables. I really love it and even though my poor, sleep deprived brain was fried, I found enjoyment this morning when I figured out a proof on my exam.

Ok so some housekeeping (random thoughts):

1. So I love my Treo 700w. I think Palm has the opportunity to make something good even better when their next generation of phones come out. My suggestions:

a. Let the media player and other aps that use sound play over Bluetooth.
b. Make an option to disable the touchscreen in a call but press a specific button to allow
access.
c. Crashing IS a problem.
d. Can we do ANYTHING to allow IE to browse non-xtml pages faster
e. How about a flash player/pdf reader? (I want to watch MLB.tv and NHL Center Ice Net)
f. Better control over system memory.

2. Vouchers

This may surprise you, but I am against vouchers. It doesn't make schooling competitive. The argument reminds me an awful lot of Lange's (1936) revision of socialist calculation. Vouchers are still paid for by taxes, so for me, the discussion ends there.

3. A good piece on minimum wage over on Jeff Miron's blog. One of my favorite, clearest libertarian economists.

4. More later.