1. After the ceremony, when I'm exiting, whip out a wizard hat from under my robe, put it on, and shout jubilant spells in false Latin.
2. Wrap my honor cord around my belt.
3. On my name card, write "Say this like Albus Dumbledore does with Harry's name in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - go for batshit crazy."
4. Wear platform shoes to the ceremony so that I'm the tallest one there.
5. Interweave my tassle with red licorish for a tasty snack during the boring parts.
6. Go to graduation as a wizard judge, while going to Halloween as a graduate.
7. Adopt a stentorian chortle to use at improper times, slapping my knee, touching my nose, and winking at the person next to me. "Eh? Eh?"
8. Dye my hair and wear a disguise kit (glasses + fake nose + mustache) so my family can't find me.
9. Tape the day's newspaper puzzlers to my hand, and try to do the jumbled quotation entirely in my head so it takes most of the two hours.
10. Factor the time on my watch, so that whenever the time hits a prime number, mention to someone next to me, "It's a prime time to graduate!"
11. When the seventh speaker gets up to speak, get up with them and stretch a little.
12. Slip sheets of paper in, but instead of them being puzzles, make them quotes, poems, pi to the hundredth digit, whatever. Try to memorize it.
13. Text family with "OMG IM GRADUATING." (Who wants to take bets that this will happen, even though they've said no cell phones?)
14. There's a trick in math where, if you have a number, and add it with the number with its digits reversed, and repeat if necessary, one will often end up with a palindrome. (42 + 24 = 66; 102 + 201 = 303; 127 + 721 = 848; 168 + 861 = 1129, 1129 + 9211 = 10340, 10340 + 4301 = 14641.) I will attempt to perform this trick with 196.
15. I will compose a poem. In my mind. Extra points for poems of 10 lines or more, metrical verse, or particularly luxuriant free verse. Sonnet gets an 70. A villainelle gets a 90. If I can perform a sestina, I win forever. So if you see me frantically writing afterward, that's why.
What I'm saying is that it'll be long, and I'll need ways to amuse myself.
Apr 29, 2008
Apr 25, 2008
So I Don't Forget the Federal Debt
... or why I was wrong about it.
I was reminded of a lecture earlier in the semester in Globalization when I heard a desk worker in the library talking a little too loudly, enough so I could hear him at a computer about 40 feet away or so. (Whatever happened to indoor voices?) I agreed with him on a lot of what he said, but he kept going, "Look at the federal debt!" And then I was reminded of that lecture. The reply?
"Yes. And?"
So I'm going to get my thoughts out before I revert back to leaping again, trigger at the ready, at the mere mention of debt. The point? Debt has its uses too, and need not be bad debt. But I'll get there. I'll try to go by points.
1. Money has to do with the exchange of value for goods.
Money is not a George Washington, nor is it a gold nugget. Money is not any one material good. When corporations hurl money about in investments, they aren't trucking their chests of gold around (even if the investment happens to be gold, nowadays). They oftentimes simply sign a check, or now even carry out the exchanges in value electronically. When we use a debit card, value is exchanged between our bank account and the seller, who then provides the good.
The best way to think about money then is not as dollars and cents, not as certain measurements of value, but as an exchange of electricity or energy. In our pockets, in our bank accounts, in our investments - to our name - rest the potential for exchange, stored as if in a battery. They each hold a certain liquidity or accessibility. Cash is readily exchangeable, checking account money is with the proper tools, and investments have varying liquidities depending on how efficiently we can sell or redeem them for some value. All of those are potential energy. The active energy come with the payment. Then value is transferred.
2. The federal gov't and the Federal Reserve function separately.
Yes, the Federal Reserve is partially owned by the government. But it has autonomy too; when Ben Bernanke says things, there's not much the President can do. They help each other out. But the debt that the federal gov't runs is not the Federal Reserve's debt. The money that the gov't prints is from the Treasury Department. So on.
3. There are commercial and investment banks.
Commercial banks are the ones we put our money in for ready access, or take loans from. When we put our money into a bank, we've put it in with many, many other people's. The bank holds an assumption that everyone will not demand their money all at once, that they will hold a certain level of money unused for some time. They use this money to give out loans, from which they get a return and make their profit. The trick is to balance the inflow (deposits + loan payments) with the outflow (withdrawals + loans) so that the bank always has money to fulfill its obligations and makes the maximum profit possible.
Investment banks are those that deal with businesses, making all kinds of... yes, investments.
4. The Federal Reserve lends money to banks.
When commercial banks balance between their inflows and outflows, sometimes they run into issues. Perhaps they have more money than they currently want, but want to put the money in something safer than loans. In that case, they buy treasury bonds, treasury notes, so on. Perhaps they have more outflows in a certain time, and need money to meet an obligation. What happens then?
The bank sells some of its treasury notes to meet the obligation, and adjusts otherwise. Who will buy the treasury note without looking to make a profit? The Federal Reserve. It buys high. Then, when more inflow comes than is anticipated, the Federal Reserve will sell those treasury notes at a low cost. If it should ever run out of treasury notes, it buys more debt from the federal gov't. The Federal Reserve manages itself so it works out for them without long-term costs, and the banks meet their obligations.
5. Treasury notes are federal debt.
So, in this way, federal debt is actually used to keep banks operating and lending between each other. If there were not such a way to give some safety net for investing more money, then banks would not lend as much. Hence unhappiness.
Why use Treasury Notes? Because the gov't always pays its debts.
6. If the federal debt were low, the system would not work.
If the federal debt were to fall (a speculative concern in the late 1990s, not now), then the Federal Reserve would have to figure out another investment to exchange with banks, one that is as secure and guaranteed as Treasury Notes. So the Federal Reserve doesn't create money to meet is obligations... it uses the gov't's debt.
So that's one reason why having some debt is important. However, the debt may seem perhaps... adequate. Too adequate? Too large?
7. Debt is not an issue as long as it is paid off.
8. When one goes into debt, that happens because someone has bought the debt.
That's what a treasury note or a savings bond is. It is purchased debt, bought until it has accrued its value plus interest, when it is redeemed. The gov't takes the value, uses it, and through other revenue-raising activities (like taxes), gradually sets money aside as interest paid off on the loans, which is how it accrues. It is easy to pay things off gradually rather than all at once.
9. There is a high demand for this debt right now.
We're in a recession most likely. So people go to a safe investment, like gov't bonds and such. Because the gov't always pays its debts. Much safer than having it in the volatile stock market, exchange market, commodities market...
10. Debt is not an issue as long as someone is willing to pay it off.
Which has held true thus far, and shows no signs of changing. Even when we were doing well economically, people are willing to speculate that the gov't will pay. The only time the debt will become a concern is when people refuse to buy it over a certain period of time. Then the gov't would go bankrupt because it would not meet its obligations in exchanging value.
But such an event would happen with enough time for gov't agencies to react, assuming they were on their toes. So it's not a pressing issue. Only a potential one. Something for a sigh, but not anything to cry about. It isn't a major problem.
There are major problems involving debt of course. Like the trillions of dollars American households hold in debt... if I remember correctly, three times the national debt. How? I don't the hell know.
What I know is that, if that continues, then we the children of America will not live as good a life as our parents. And I only hope we aren't bitter. (I'm not.)
I was reminded of a lecture earlier in the semester in Globalization when I heard a desk worker in the library talking a little too loudly, enough so I could hear him at a computer about 40 feet away or so. (Whatever happened to indoor voices?) I agreed with him on a lot of what he said, but he kept going, "Look at the federal debt!" And then I was reminded of that lecture. The reply?
"Yes. And?"
So I'm going to get my thoughts out before I revert back to leaping again, trigger at the ready, at the mere mention of debt. The point? Debt has its uses too, and need not be bad debt. But I'll get there. I'll try to go by points.
1. Money has to do with the exchange of value for goods.
Money is not a George Washington, nor is it a gold nugget. Money is not any one material good. When corporations hurl money about in investments, they aren't trucking their chests of gold around (even if the investment happens to be gold, nowadays). They oftentimes simply sign a check, or now even carry out the exchanges in value electronically. When we use a debit card, value is exchanged between our bank account and the seller, who then provides the good.
The best way to think about money then is not as dollars and cents, not as certain measurements of value, but as an exchange of electricity or energy. In our pockets, in our bank accounts, in our investments - to our name - rest the potential for exchange, stored as if in a battery. They each hold a certain liquidity or accessibility. Cash is readily exchangeable, checking account money is with the proper tools, and investments have varying liquidities depending on how efficiently we can sell or redeem them for some value. All of those are potential energy. The active energy come with the payment. Then value is transferred.
2. The federal gov't and the Federal Reserve function separately.
Yes, the Federal Reserve is partially owned by the government. But it has autonomy too; when Ben Bernanke says things, there's not much the President can do. They help each other out. But the debt that the federal gov't runs is not the Federal Reserve's debt. The money that the gov't prints is from the Treasury Department. So on.
3. There are commercial and investment banks.
Commercial banks are the ones we put our money in for ready access, or take loans from. When we put our money into a bank, we've put it in with many, many other people's. The bank holds an assumption that everyone will not demand their money all at once, that they will hold a certain level of money unused for some time. They use this money to give out loans, from which they get a return and make their profit. The trick is to balance the inflow (deposits + loan payments) with the outflow (withdrawals + loans) so that the bank always has money to fulfill its obligations and makes the maximum profit possible.
Investment banks are those that deal with businesses, making all kinds of... yes, investments.
4. The Federal Reserve lends money to banks.
When commercial banks balance between their inflows and outflows, sometimes they run into issues. Perhaps they have more money than they currently want, but want to put the money in something safer than loans. In that case, they buy treasury bonds, treasury notes, so on. Perhaps they have more outflows in a certain time, and need money to meet an obligation. What happens then?
The bank sells some of its treasury notes to meet the obligation, and adjusts otherwise. Who will buy the treasury note without looking to make a profit? The Federal Reserve. It buys high. Then, when more inflow comes than is anticipated, the Federal Reserve will sell those treasury notes at a low cost. If it should ever run out of treasury notes, it buys more debt from the federal gov't. The Federal Reserve manages itself so it works out for them without long-term costs, and the banks meet their obligations.
5. Treasury notes are federal debt.
So, in this way, federal debt is actually used to keep banks operating and lending between each other. If there were not such a way to give some safety net for investing more money, then banks would not lend as much. Hence unhappiness.
Why use Treasury Notes? Because the gov't always pays its debts.
6. If the federal debt were low, the system would not work.
If the federal debt were to fall (a speculative concern in the late 1990s, not now), then the Federal Reserve would have to figure out another investment to exchange with banks, one that is as secure and guaranteed as Treasury Notes. So the Federal Reserve doesn't create money to meet is obligations... it uses the gov't's debt.
So that's one reason why having some debt is important. However, the debt may seem perhaps... adequate. Too adequate? Too large?
7. Debt is not an issue as long as it is paid off.
8. When one goes into debt, that happens because someone has bought the debt.
That's what a treasury note or a savings bond is. It is purchased debt, bought until it has accrued its value plus interest, when it is redeemed. The gov't takes the value, uses it, and through other revenue-raising activities (like taxes), gradually sets money aside as interest paid off on the loans, which is how it accrues. It is easy to pay things off gradually rather than all at once.
9. There is a high demand for this debt right now.
We're in a recession most likely. So people go to a safe investment, like gov't bonds and such. Because the gov't always pays its debts. Much safer than having it in the volatile stock market, exchange market, commodities market...
10. Debt is not an issue as long as someone is willing to pay it off.
Which has held true thus far, and shows no signs of changing. Even when we were doing well economically, people are willing to speculate that the gov't will pay. The only time the debt will become a concern is when people refuse to buy it over a certain period of time. Then the gov't would go bankrupt because it would not meet its obligations in exchanging value.
But such an event would happen with enough time for gov't agencies to react, assuming they were on their toes. So it's not a pressing issue. Only a potential one. Something for a sigh, but not anything to cry about. It isn't a major problem.
There are major problems involving debt of course. Like the trillions of dollars American households hold in debt... if I remember correctly, three times the national debt. How? I don't the hell know.
What I know is that, if that continues, then we the children of America will not live as good a life as our parents. And I only hope we aren't bitter. (I'm not.)
Apr 23, 2008
Time to Stretch a Little
So I finished the paper I was supposed to this week. The immediate burden. On the goddess Asherah in early Isrealite religion (think around the time of Solomon to when the Israelites were exiled by Babylonia). Yeah, there was a goddess. The Bible didn't talk much about her. I thought it was interesting, and wrote on it.
Except that, after I'd gotten approval for the outline I had turned in, I had typed it out, and it turned out to be... 5... pages. When the minimum was 8. So it took a little bit of scrambling to do those last three pages, including a good deal of today. But it's done. And I turned in my thesis on Mnday. With that, I only have end-of-the-term assignments:
2 papers
2 exams
Then I'm done. *jig* I know a lot of other people have more strenuous final exam activities, so I don't go shouting it to everyone. But I've had those too... and I'm relieved to have one semester before graduate school where I can really relax at the end of it. Especially with going to the wedding of two good friends next weekend.
A Book Recommendation
What? I've actually had time to read something for pleasure since spring break that was longer than a newspaper article or a short story? Yes. I've been reading it at a crawl, but with the book due back to the library Friday, I had to put more effort into it. So after going to the bank today, after I was done with my paper, I reached this fork in the sidewalk. I could go left, and go to the Golden Roast, and hunker down and read it. I know people that go there on Wednesday, and I could hang out with them if I shied away from reading.
But I was tired of shying away. After throwing my pen in the air and determining myself to go wherever it pointed, I disregarded which way it pointed, and went right. I walked to the Botanical Garden.
I didn't exactly know I was going there at first. But it was the farthest place I could walk and stay on nice green grass without turning around, and it had been a while since I'd been there. True, I'll be there in only a week and change (for the wedding), but it was good to go alone.
It was a good atmosphere for the book. I did get distracted at one point from reading, but it was one of the cats (whose name as called by a caretaker was "Indigo") who kept accosting my hand. A fluffy, black cat that would look up whenever I retracted my hand and meow, not the plainitive (1) "Why aren't you paying attention to me?" of Nona (Leslie, Becky, and Derek's cat), but a simple friendly, "Hi. Pet me."
So I've done about everything but talk about the book. It's Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley. Leslie recommended it after we saw the old French movie La Belle et la Bete. The movie was good because it was fantastical, even as it kept to the traditional line. Rose Daughter breaks many of those lines, but both what is kept and what changes is... refreshing. I don't want to say anything more. It isn't a retelling of a fairy tale, so much as a reinvention of one, an innovation of its own.
(1) I am thinking of this word, I think, but I wonder where I got it. The dictionaries I checked don't have it, Google doesn't acknowledge it. Am I spelling it incorrectly? I've always thought it meant something like, "demanding of attention, or even pleading" at least in connotation.
Except that, after I'd gotten approval for the outline I had turned in, I had typed it out, and it turned out to be... 5... pages. When the minimum was 8. So it took a little bit of scrambling to do those last three pages, including a good deal of today. But it's done. And I turned in my thesis on Mnday. With that, I only have end-of-the-term assignments:
2 papers
2 exams
Then I'm done. *jig* I know a lot of other people have more strenuous final exam activities, so I don't go shouting it to everyone. But I've had those too... and I'm relieved to have one semester before graduate school where I can really relax at the end of it. Especially with going to the wedding of two good friends next weekend.
A Book Recommendation
What? I've actually had time to read something for pleasure since spring break that was longer than a newspaper article or a short story? Yes. I've been reading it at a crawl, but with the book due back to the library Friday, I had to put more effort into it. So after going to the bank today, after I was done with my paper, I reached this fork in the sidewalk. I could go left, and go to the Golden Roast, and hunker down and read it. I know people that go there on Wednesday, and I could hang out with them if I shied away from reading.
But I was tired of shying away. After throwing my pen in the air and determining myself to go wherever it pointed, I disregarded which way it pointed, and went right. I walked to the Botanical Garden.
I didn't exactly know I was going there at first. But it was the farthest place I could walk and stay on nice green grass without turning around, and it had been a while since I'd been there. True, I'll be there in only a week and change (for the wedding), but it was good to go alone.
It was a good atmosphere for the book. I did get distracted at one point from reading, but it was one of the cats (whose name as called by a caretaker was "Indigo") who kept accosting my hand. A fluffy, black cat that would look up whenever I retracted my hand and meow, not the plainitive (1) "Why aren't you paying attention to me?" of Nona (Leslie, Becky, and Derek's cat), but a simple friendly, "Hi. Pet me."
So I've done about everything but talk about the book. It's Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley. Leslie recommended it after we saw the old French movie La Belle et la Bete. The movie was good because it was fantastical, even as it kept to the traditional line. Rose Daughter breaks many of those lines, but both what is kept and what changes is... refreshing. I don't want to say anything more. It isn't a retelling of a fairy tale, so much as a reinvention of one, an innovation of its own.
(1) I am thinking of this word, I think, but I wonder where I got it. The dictionaries I checked don't have it, Google doesn't acknowledge it. Am I spelling it incorrectly? I've always thought it meant something like, "demanding of attention, or even pleading" at least in connotation.
Apr 14, 2008
O, the crap I will reach for when I fumble for words. Excerpt:
"Lyonet responds to Gareth's disguise, reducing it to a public subjectivity that would say such hard criticisms; her words address the stereotype and assume it incapable of defeating two knights even after that has been done."
What? Reducing? Public subjectivity? Stereotype? Both my readers quirked an eyebrow and, at best, underlined it, and at worst, labeled it "unclear phrasing."
It's true.
There are at least two kinds of C-grade writing. The first is the one that I ridiculed before. It's fairly barebones, functional writing that is barely grammatically passable before a pass through the electronic proofreader. Stilted phrasing, schematic writing riddled with clunky language, so on.
I've committed the second one, where people introduce words and phrases that certainly mean something at the time, and may indeed do so at a high level, but which otherwise use such disgusting cliched obfuscating terms as "public subjectivity" and "reducing."
What does reducing mean? Well, in this sense I mean it's a degraded sort of perspective compared to Lyonet's own one, a more two dimensional one. What is the public subjectivity? Why, it's the way the aristocratic court would see Gareth in disguise, how they would judge and be biased against him. The stereotype isn't a large problem; it refers to his being an uppity kitchen knave, and that's clear when it's not in excerpt.
So how do I redo it?
"Lyonet responds to Gareth’s disguise by berating him as an aristocratic court might; her words address the kitchen knave stereotype and assume that the knave is incapable of defeating two knights even after that has been accomplished."
Clearer, I hope. I just had to rework a couple of words as I posted it. Whee, writing!
Good writers are the ones that have the sense of when to revise, and how, and that aren't afraid of making large changes.
Great writers do it better.
I'd say I'm pretty good. I'd say I'm pretty too, but that's off topic. ;)
"Lyonet responds to Gareth's disguise, reducing it to a public subjectivity that would say such hard criticisms; her words address the stereotype and assume it incapable of defeating two knights even after that has been done."
What? Reducing? Public subjectivity? Stereotype? Both my readers quirked an eyebrow and, at best, underlined it, and at worst, labeled it "unclear phrasing."
It's true.
There are at least two kinds of C-grade writing. The first is the one that I ridiculed before. It's fairly barebones, functional writing that is barely grammatically passable before a pass through the electronic proofreader. Stilted phrasing, schematic writing riddled with clunky language, so on.
I've committed the second one, where people introduce words and phrases that certainly mean something at the time, and may indeed do so at a high level, but which otherwise use such disgusting cliched obfuscating terms as "public subjectivity" and "reducing."
What does reducing mean? Well, in this sense I mean it's a degraded sort of perspective compared to Lyonet's own one, a more two dimensional one. What is the public subjectivity? Why, it's the way the aristocratic court would see Gareth in disguise, how they would judge and be biased against him. The stereotype isn't a large problem; it refers to his being an uppity kitchen knave, and that's clear when it's not in excerpt.
So how do I redo it?
"Lyonet responds to Gareth’s disguise by berating him as an aristocratic court might; her words address the kitchen knave stereotype and assume that the knave is incapable of defeating two knights even after that has been accomplished."
Clearer, I hope. I just had to rework a couple of words as I posted it. Whee, writing!
Good writers are the ones that have the sense of when to revise, and how, and that aren't afraid of making large changes.
Great writers do it better.
I'd say I'm pretty good. I'd say I'm pretty too, but that's off topic. ;)
Apr 7, 2008
Accepted!
To the program I've been waiting to hear from for a while. Not a moment too soon either. I'll have monetary details and such tomorrow, hopefully.
Strangely, though I have gotten in, I still want to see how my application in Information Sciences is doing. But assuming all goes well, I really want to pursue this.
Strangely, though I have gotten in, I still want to see how my application in Information Sciences is doing. But assuming all goes well, I really want to pursue this.
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