Summer's going well. I'm writing a technical manual this summer for my job, and I'm enjoying it. I'm putting pictures in it.

Job hunting is going rather well. Except for the fact that I realized how much money I'm going to be paying out my ass in student loans. Lovely. Which means, rather than moving to DC it may be more financially safe for us to stay in Pittsburgh. However, I do have an interview with the Census Bureau next Wednesday. Statistician position. I'm looking forward to it.

Apparently, I'm also a shoe-in for a position here in Pittsburgh to be a Transportation Data Modelling Analyst. I would be working with people I already know, and I like that.

So, I'm gonna get going, my friend's coming into town.

So, I graduated. I have an MPA now. I'm a master. The ceremony was nice. I just went to the one specifically for my school. I got called up on stage for my award. I recieved the Gloria Fitzgibbon's Memorial Award for Scholastic Achievement and Leadership. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA. My last semester awarded me with a B+ in linear algebra, and A's in Time Series, Multivariate Analysis, and Program Evaluation. I'm super proud of myself.

Yesterday, I spoke with a woman from the GAO for an informational interview for an Entry Level Analyst position. My top field office was San Francisco. But I also put down DC and Boston to round out my top three. This job sounds like an unbelievable opportunity. The research that the Natural Resource and Environment team is conducting is exactly what I want to continue doing. I feel like a perfect fit... I just hope it pans out.

I had a preliminary phone interview yesterday afternoon with the National Automobile Dealer's Association for the Economic Analyst position. It sounds like a long shot because they want someone with work experience... not just the education. But the woman really wanted to send my resume through to the next person.

All of this is really exciting. If I can get a job doing research, I won't feel as bad not going back to school right away. In fact, I feel pretty burned out by the whole school thing right now. I went to preschool starting at age 3. So basically, I've been going to school for the past 22 years. That's a really long time. I absolutely know that I'm not done learning, and getting a job that would allow me to do some pragmatic, hands-on research wouldn't be a detriment to any future applications I would have for further education. And it would seriously be nice to make some money for once. And only work 40 hours a week... and little extra work on weekends.

So, that's what's going on here. Chris and I started road running last weekend. It's a weekend thing for a while. Once I get back on track and am rested (from school crap, I'm still working during the week) I'll workout throughout the week as well. Gorgeous weather right now... and through the weekend. Perfect time for anyone to visit Pittsburgh.

K... I'm gonna get to work.

On saturday, I'm graduating. I have a take home final to turn in by 3:50 today, and I may possibly be done with school forever.

And that bothers me.

I'll elaborate more on this later, but I should get back to fitting an ARMA model to my time series residuals.

The school thing isn't going as well as planned. Chris and I were not able to coordinate well enough to get into the same schools. Or even schools in the same city. I emailed Simon Fraser to see what was going on with my application so that Chris could make a definitive decision on their offer. I got an email back the next day (April 10th) saying that I was on the waiting list. Chris optimistically accepted their offer. I wrote an email back the next day saying, in a nut shell, that if any spots came up, I would gladly accept. That Saturday (April 14) I get a letter in the mail from Simon Fraser dated April 10: Admission - denied. Way to go communication. Needless to say, the woman that I emailed on April 11 never wrote me back.

So, I'm now on the waiting list at Queen's. Chris didn't get into Queen's simply because he was an international student. If he could somehow, get dual citizenship, or permanent residency status, they would accept him. Queen's for me, is a one year MA - and he would apply for permanent residency status in that time. And then get accepted. So, Queen's is still an option.

Plan B: I have begun applying for jobs. My application has been turned in for an entry level analyst at the GAO. I have to send them my transcripts. I've turned in an application for a data analyst position at the FTC. I have to send them a writing sample. I've found other analyst positions - most of which are in DC. I didn't want to move to DC, but there are good opportunities there for both of us. The main thing being money. So, after school's out, I'll be working very hard with job applications.

Plan C: Apparently, one of my professors seems to think that I have a good shot at getting into the PhD program at Heinz (which is the public policy school at Carnegie Mellon.) Plan C is to stay here and starting "networking" (god, I hate that word) to meet with professors over there and get my name out. I can even do this after I get a job, because they like people that have had jobs.

The thought of making money seems very appealing at this moment. We have severely struggled with money for the past two years. Being students and all. Having those extra few bucks to go out to a nice dinner, or buy a pair of shoes that I really want... or even to save it for the future would be exceptionally nice. I just think, that I don't want to grow up. And I damn sure don't want to stop learning things. I've been completely immersed in the academic arena for seven years now, and I'm afraid that I'm going to stop learning things. I don't like that.

So, that's what's going on here. I finished my retail gasoline and oil paper. I didn't do everything I wanted to do with it... but then again, it was only allowed to be a ten page paper. It's a damn good writing sample though, I will say that. I'm going to go send my resume out to the FTC. And work on a time series final.

I graduate next Saturday. I'm getting a raise for one of my jobs in May... because I'll have a Masters degree. I'm special.

Today I learned many things. Many, many math things. I think I get it, too. I can finally start doing my paper. I have to take out taxes though.

Simon Fraser put me on there waiting list. Chris accepted his place in Simon Fraser. I hope they come through for me. If that's the case, we're moving across the continent again.

I don't think that people who can't spell "doctorate" should get one.

It's starting to get warmer.

Started reading a good book: Prisoner's Dilemma. It kind of goes into a biography of Jon von Neumann. Who apparently was the model for the character Dr. Strangelove. He also thought of climate warfare: Dying the ice caps in russia a dark color to screw with their climate - among other things. I'm enjoying the book... when I have time for it.

Going to eat sushi and play with data now.

Funny = Renuzit's Air Freshener Scent: "After the Rain."
I now have the Nelson song stuck in my head.
Funny.

Tuesday's High: 76
Current Weather: 29, light flurries.
Do April Snow-showers bring May flowers?

I saw a girl today, talking to a guy, trying to hide her Vagisil that was clearly visible in her see-through Rite-Aid bag. Funny.

You know what else is funny? Seeing people on the news complaining about the weather as if someone actually has control over it: "This is completely unacceptable." I'm surprise they also didn't say, "Someone needs to be held accountable for this."

The highest high that we will have in the next few days will be 45. The windchill last night put us in the teens. Funny. Cold-funny.

My stomach hurts. Gotta do linear algebra homework.

York has lost my entire application package: 3 rec. letters, 2 sets of transcripts, CV, writing sample, statement of purpose. I sent it in the beginning of January, and they've yet to recieve it. I'm nauseous.
I've heard from only two schools. It's April. Should I have had a plan B? Was I too optimistic?
I've told one of my professors who wrote a letter, and he's cool with writing another letter. I'm going to fax out a transcript request to UNLV today... This is just something completely unnecessary to deal with at the tail end of the semester.
I have an analysis paper due in two weeks, a final tomorrow, an evaluation paper due in two weeks, homework due on Friday for linear algebra, a Time Series final to freak out about, a Linear Algebra final to freak out about...

It will all be over in four weeks.

I graduate on April 28th.

Next Friday I'm being honored w/ seven other students for excellence in Public Administration. Woohoo! My April paycheck will include my award for academic excellence. Yay.

I've decided that I still want to take more math classes: I'm registering for Calc. III to take over the summer. I'm really excited about it.

So, this weekend I generated 40+ equations with varying lags to determine time asymmetry in retail gasoline's response to crude oil and spot gasoline prices. Asymmetry exists, but not in the way that I'd expected:
It takes retail gasoline 5 weeks to fully respond to an increase in crude oil.
It takes retail gasoline only 3 weeks to fully respond to a decrease in crude oil. Weird, huh?

I haven't tested for pricing or pattern symmetry yet. I will do that after I've analyzed my equations further. I'm enjoying my paper. I just have to make sure that my equations are right. I'll find that out tomorrow.

My meta-evaluation is on the effect of cap-and-trade programs for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I have to read that paper right now.

I'm gonna go.

And I'm back to school. But my first class was cancelled. We're supposed to have homework due on Wednesday... and a midterm on Monday (next Monday), but I just don't see that happening.
Things have been going well. It's finally starting to warm up a little bit. I think today is getting up to the 50's. Tomorrow it will be 63! Chris and I went for a walk yesterday, it was really nice. We walked to Blockbuster to return Borat. We didn't find anything else to watch. If anyone has recommendations, please pass them along to me.
So, March Madness begins on Thursday. I'll give you my predictions for the first round, probably later today, or tomorrow. I am so happy to see UNLV getting better, and actually finding themselves in the tournament this year. I really hope Pitt doesn't choke. Thinking ahead, I'd really like them to play Duke, and win. This is truly my most favorite time of the year.
There are things that need to be done... dummy tables, math, and data cleaning... I've got to get to work.

5 discs, Pride 12-16. More than 3 hours of fights on each disc. It was freakin' awesome. Still watching some. Loving it. Oh yeah... it was only 20 bucks.
Jon, lemme know if you want to borrow them (but I'm sure you've seen all of them) and copy them.
Still no letters.
Been watching a lot of movies:
School for Scoundrels - awful
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny - ok
Borat... - hilarious
Taxi Driver - good, yet depressing
Fight Club - seen it over and over... we bought it because we lost the last one

Spring break has been nice and relaxing... Spring Break in winter. We got about 2 inches of snow last night. It's supposed to go up to 52 this weekend. I'm breakin' out the shorts.
I'm at work now. I'll continue geocoding for a little bit... then go home and work out.

That's what I'll try to focus on. I want my six pack to come back. I will start to focus on that this Spring Break.
No letters.
Got new crime data.
Six pack. Lose 10 pounds. Focus.
If we move to BC, I want to go to Alaska.

Still waiting.
I'm really hoping to get some new letters in the mail during Spring Break. Yeah, Spring Break is next week. I'll be doing linear algebra, time series, and program evaluation homework.... oh yeah. And I hope to get started (finally) on some of my analysis for my other class that I don't have homework for.
Throughout this whole waiting process, I've really tried to just stay in the moment, and focus on things that are occurring that day, or next week... like deadlines and assignments that I should focus 100% of my attention towards. But I can't. And I'm starting to get angry at myself for it. I mean, the majority of my time is spent religiously checking my email and school websites for some sort of change in status. At this point, it seems futile to continuously check like, but there's nothing else that I can think of. Nothing.
Today, a girl and I worked together to stuff 400 envelopes for a survey that I'm sending out for a research project that I'm assisting on. The Louisiana project. It took us four hours. 400 39 cent stamps to go onto the return envelope. 400 return address labels to put on the 9x12 envelope. 400 address labels for where their being sent to. 400 letters, surveys, and envelopes to stuff into the 9x12 envelope. Moist and seal - repeat 400 times.
Now, I'm going to my friend's house to do multivariate homework and watch American Idol.
Pray for letters people.

Chris got accepted to SFU, with competitive funding. Meaning that if he gets a better offer elsewhere, they will match it. It would be pretty awesome if schools funded moving costs.
I like SFU's econ program. It's funny, before Chris got the letter, I had told him that's where I wanted to go. Especially since they allow you to take classes at UBC as well.
Busy is an understatement of how I have been lately. I'm still at work, but working on a program evaluation right now. Next week is Spring Break, and I will be working on papers and drinking lots of wine. I'm hoping it will also be a time for my to catch up on movies.
Speaking of movies, The Departed was one of the best movies I've seen in a while. I appropriately watched it right before the Oscars. Congrats to Martin Scorcese... well-deserved.
Anyway, I thought I'd post about the exciting news.
I need to catch the bus and go home.
Oh yeah. I've been playing Rayman's Raving Rabbids on PS2. I love that game. I shoot rabbits with plungers.
G'night.

Albeit informal. Michigan State has considered me eligible for graduate study in their agricultural economics program. My research interests appear to dovetail with current projects underway. They have informally offered my assistantship positions in one of two projects that are being done. If I go to Michigan State, I will study the economic valuation of ecosystems. Both projects sound really cool.
Anxiety is now overwhelming me. People tell you how to apply and give you tips on things like the GRE, etc. But they don't tell you the proper etiquette and norms of what to do after you've gotten a response. I haven't recieved a response from the six other schools, and Chris hasn't recieved a response from any of the schools. I think the process after the applications may be harder than the application process.

I had a linear algebra midterm today. I think it went well.

I'm going to start working on the analysis portion of my time series paper... eventually... I have to do homework first. I'm taking the night off of class to "celebrate."

We left a case of beer in the car for two nights. See, in PA, you have to buy beer in the minimum of a 24 pack. So we only brought one case of 12 up for the Superbowl, and left the other 12 in the car. Well, Sunday and Monday nights had windchill temps of between 10 and 20 below zero. Needless to say, the beer kinda exploded and turned into ice.

But the porter defrosted well and still tasted good last night.

I am filled with mixed emotions right now. All I can say for certain is two things:
1) I like beer.
2) I am dominating my time series class. Booyakasha.

Today isn't so bad. But lemme fill you in on the last two days: Thursday night, it was 12 degrees, with a windchill factor of NEGATIVE 3. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's butt-ass cold.
Yesterday, the high was, I think in the 20's... at 9am yesterday it was 5. By ten, it was 12. And just a little bit of snow here and there.
Today, it will be in the 30's. But only to go back to a cold snap. Tomorrow, the high is like, 26. They were forecasting for next Thursday to have a high of 15 and a low of 0 (that's without the windchill.)
Needless to say... I laid out today by the pool.
I did, however, go snowboarding last weekend. That was a blast. The amenities and conditions, again, were wonderful. The Foggy Goggle was voted the 3rd best ski bar in the nation. Pretty neat. I just drink beer in there. They blow snow all day long. The lifts don't close until 10:30pm.
School: I graduate at the end of April. I am torturing myself this semester: Linear Algebra, Applied Time Series Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, and Program Evaluation. Granted, the last class I mentioned really isn't hard... but it's a lot of bullshit reading that I don't have time for. In my multivariate class, I'll be writing a paper that has to do with retail gasoline and crude oil prices - daily spot prices... rather than monthly. I told my time series professor - because it's more of a time series analysis than a multivariate - he's really interested in it, and he said that he would help me... My goal - if this turns out well - would be to publish it in a student journal. Keep your fingers crossed.
So, I'm at panera right now - about to start some times series homework. Later.

So.
Hanging out in the Public Health Building on Monday night, apparently, for my health. But it was really supposed to be for a Health Economics class - that apparently doesn't exist. Pitt is so absolutely archaic that we are still registering for classes by PAPER.
This mysteriously missing class left me scrambling for yet another class. Considering that all classes that seemed slightly okay were cancelled in my school... I ventured out. I decided on an Applied Time Series Analysis class. Yeehaw. This guy is hilarious.
So.
In order to register for a class, I have to fill out a form, have my advisor sign it - and since it's not a class from my grad school, I have to fill out another form for my advisor to sign saying that it will fulfill an elective requirement for my degree.
Here's the problem.
My advisor retired last semester.
I have to fill out another form to get a new advisor. But I'm not meeting with him until tomorrow.... my new advisor. It would be really shitty if I had to have my old advisor sign it - seeing that he lives in Santa Fe now.

Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that I go to a PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION school, and yet... the bureaucratic red tape that I'm experiencing is suffocating?! One of my professors was using a book called "Banishing Bureacracy" for a class. He should loan that to the administrators in our school. I mean... come on. Paper registration?!

I'm taking a lot of math this semester - Linear Algebra, Time Series, and Multivariate Analysis. I'm also taking some public program evaluation class.. but that's kind of irrelevant... I just need that to graduate.

Chris and I are almost completely done with our applications. I gotta move my ass on the last bit of statements... but I have homework to do also. Chris really likes Simon Fraser... I like it, but 1) It's far and 2) I like U of T better. I'm going to have 4 degrees when I'm completely done with school. That's crazy shit yo.

So that's it. I've gotta do some homework. It snowed a little today. That made me happy.

Some of this stuff has been said in my myspace journal. They're the same pictures, at least.
Let's start with the most recent things that I've done and work backwards.
1) Simon Fraser application has been submitted.
2) University of Toronto application has been submitted.
3) York University application has been submitted.
4) Tomorrow I will submit UBC, Queen's, and UWO (western ontario.)
5) Linear algebra rocks my socks. I'm having fun in the class, I can't wait to do my homework.
6) Went to the zoo with Chris. Here's the ugliest fish I've seen in my life:

7) First New Year's Eve off since I've been old enough to work. I did absolutely nothing! And it was wonderful. Chris and I watched football all day, drank a lot of champage, and said happy new year.
----
( Back to December, 2006 )

I'll be posting more updates later. I'm going home. I'm application-ed out.

This is going to sound horribly stupid...
Do they show NFL games in Canada? I know they have some CFL... so does that mean they don't show NFL games?
Just concerned for next season.
Sending all my transcripts out between today and tomorrow.
Freakin UBC's app fee is $128USD!!! That's ridiculous.

Me=Stressed.

...
You have to be some sort of science expert in the area that your researching. Case in point: Here I am, working on a presentation I have to give for my Environmental Mgt. and Policy class - on an alternative energy source. I have chosen to focus on Hydrogen Fuel Cells... for the purpose of transportation. I have an hour and a half, but if I went into both power generation and transportation it would be too much. So I'm sitting here reading these journal articles... and they're really scientific. I do not know what a GigaJule is (though, I'm sure I learned about it in high school.) I've read about electrolysis, but I still don't get it. All I want to do is find an article that proves that there are economies of scale in the industry... more specifically, increasing returns to scale ( - the cost of production decreases as the quantity produced increases.) Meh... I'm not a scientist. I don't want to get up there and explain some process that I don't fully understand... people will ask me questions, and I'll be unable to answer them.

On another frustrating note. I got my analytical writing score back from the GRE folk. Apparently, I'm not as good of a writer as I thought... or I just can't defend useless babble. I got a 3.5 on a scale up to 6. Last year I took it, wrote a shit story and got a 4. I was furious. It made me cry. I know I write well. I know I can defend an argument. I know I can write a paper. Meh... that's another stressor.

I am, however, enjoying my maps. Alright... I don't feel like writing anymore. I just wanted to get the whole science thing off my chest.

Quant: 720 Verbal: 490
I can apply to UBC. I've broken the 700 barrier. I am a middle school math GENIUS.

Gonna work on my statements of purpose. I'm sure I have some sort of purpose.

Time to do GIS homework.