It's writin' time!

One paper down, one to go. The math-econ paper I turned in last night took over 4 hours of work per page on average. Macro-econ is not so hard, just I hadn't worked on it between last weekend and late last night because of the math paper. So just a couple more hours on macro, and the game should be finished.

One thing I have truly been surprised at this semester is how graduate (PhD) work/study is not just harder than undgrad work/study, but fundamentally different. I have been pleasently surprised that just being in this atmosphere (or something) caused me to approach both of my papers in a different way - somehow more serious, as if either of these could lead to future pieces of sholarship.

My younger brother is in the midst of his first college finals week right now. Boy do I remember. Compared to how "on the ball" I felt my sophomore year, freshman year (esp. finals time) seemed like I was a walking zombie or something like that. Glad that's over, but remembering my experiences in undergrad made me wonder if the same sort of thing will happen here. Will be interesting to see.

Gonna got write...

HoooooooAHH!!!!

I DID IT! After working on it all morning, wrapping my brain into endless pretzel-shaped knots, I finally discovered how to work a constraint into my Math-Econ paper! It was so simple, and yes, following the general advice from my professor helped. I simply had to combine Men and Technology into one catagory, re-term a few other things, an voila! Of course the paper isn't done yet, but now I feel like I can actually do some math on how a military officer maximizes utility.

Hmmmm... Emergence...

Working on a paper right now for my Macro-Economics Theory class. Dr. Wagner wants us to explore some area that has traditionally been viewed as a straightforward interaction between marco-economic variable, but that we believe should be explored from a perspective of emergent macro theory. What is emergent theory? Well, in a nutshell, it is a fairly new and small school of thought that proposes that all macro variables (aggregate demand, inflation, money supply, etc...) interact with each other through a series of micro-economic market processes.

My paper? I'm exploring the micro-economics of how government military spending impacts aggregate demand. Any of you who know me had better not be surprised.