As an economist, I kinda like Paul Krugman...I read his blog, I've enjoyed a few of his books, and despite being somewhat leftist for my tastes has opinions I respect and often agree with. However, his text book is fucking terrible. I'm trying to study for my International Trade final, and maybe I'm just retarded but it's kinda hard to pick-up on math when rather than numerical examples - or even ready formulas - all I'm given is a few graphs (none of which are explained on the same page, which leads to really annoying constant, distracting page-flipping) and hypotheticals that really don't explain how to solve any actual problem. This would be fine if my test was just on concepts, cause conceptually I know exactly how all these tariffs are supposed to behave and could knock that shit out - but no, we're expected to solve and model situations with rather specific numbers attached to them and to hell if I know how to do that.
Here's an example: from a practice problem we've been given, we're supposed to calculate the effect of a .5 tariff on home/foreign prices, and the change in trade. There is no example of how to do this in the book. Instead, we get a graph and this "The increase in the price in Home, from Pw to Pt, is less than the amount of the tariff..." well fuck me, there goes my idea of just adding .5 to Pw and recalculating the volume of trade with that, and with no example of how to find Pt anywhere in this rather hefty tome how the fuck do you propose I do this, Paul Krugman? Magic? Go fuck yourself.
For those of you saying "Sean, I'm sure if you had payed attention in lecture the teacher did an example blah blah blah" go die in a fire. The lectures consist of Bulut reading the slides - provided by the publisher - that are essentially just a summary of each chapter. No real math is given, which really hasn't been terribly detrimental until now. Even if there weren't real examples, usable formulas have at least been given in the past. But in regards to tariffs? I'm pretty sure this is some pinko-commie bullshit Krugman is pulling so no one new will be able to stand up and say "tariffs are bad, and here's the math to prove it!" to the inevitable douchebags in public office that don't understand economics because no one in government ever understands economics (or history, for that matter. WTB semi-strenuous civil service exams) so Krugman can write more books about how fucked up our foreign and domestic policies are. God damn neo-Keynesian and his God damn example-less book.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Taboo is SRS BUSNESS
So the other night many of us gathered at Rob/Tiji's apartment for a game night; a brutal competition of sorts that truly brings out the worst of us all. We started out with a jovial game of Taboo, one that rather quickly escalated into a still unresolved rules dispute regarding intent and homonyms. Here's the situation: the word was "lint," and to get to that Doug described the Catholic "holiday" season preceding Easter, and I shouted out "Lent" - but because I'm from Georgia where people don't talk right and grew up with something of a speech impediment and pronounce some things oddly Lent and lint might as well be the same damn word because I'm basically incapable of pronouncing them differently (see aforementioned speech impediment and southern living). Now, according to Rob and Tiji, it didn't count because despite sounding the same I couldn't have been intending to say the right word. Doug and I claim that shouter intent doesn't matter, and using homonyms is an integral part of the game.
The official rules (as quoted from the Hasbro page) read thus: "Each time a teammate shouts out the correct Guess Word, the Clue-giver's team scores a point." Now, this rule is rather vague in regards to our argument, but if a guesser's intent was to be taken into account, it should say that somewhere in the directions, which it doesn't. Similarly, if homonyms weren't allowed as clues and guesses, it would actively forbid their use, but the directions don't do that. Ultimately the clues being given are irrelevant to the guesses they generate, and so my saying lint/lent counted.
Now, this argument wasn't like a one-time deal...it first came up towards the middle of the game, and after spending many minutes literally shouting at each other - over a Taboo ruling - we opted to note that round with an asterisk and revisit it at the end should it matter. Naturally, it did and the argument broke out with renewed fury, and was unabated when Ellington and his friend we didn't know finally got there. I can imagine it was all a bit unsettling for the kid - he walked into an apartment he'd never seen before to find 4 reasonably grown men in a shouting match over a game of Taboo. He looked terribly confused, to say the least. Ellington ultimately sided with Doug and I, by the bye, but Rob and Tiji still refused to concede the point and we dropped it - for now - to play Life.
If you haven't played Life before I hate you and don't care to explain the premise, but it turned us all into assholes. And by "us all" I primarily mean Doug, Rob, and myself as the others didn't seem to have quite our competitive streak. Rob won for "dickhead move of the game," performing a rather baited screwing of Ellington early on: Rob started off with the 30k salary, but got lucky and hit the very first switch salary spot on the board - opting to grab the 90k salary from Doug. This may not seem like much - just part of the game - but it goes deeper. At that time Ellington was rolling large, having just drawn the 100k salary, and people were confused as to why Rob didn't take that...it was a shrewd move on his part, as Doug's career allowed him to pay 4 life tiles and steal the 100k salary whenever he wanted. Which was exactly what he did on his turn, grabbing the 100k for himself and leaving El the measly 30k.
Before that the game had actually been pretty friendly (we were only like 3 turns in, after all), but that definitely set off a pattern of degradation and things quickly spiraled out of control. It wasn't until the game was over that I noticed that the "white people" had effectively teamed up to screw over the "minorities;" Rob, Doug, and myself were all over a million at the end, while neither Tiji, El, nor El's friend had half that. The entire game we would steal their life tiles when able, ensure they had the lowest salaries, and do whatever we could to ensure they finished at the bottom of Life's socio-economic ladder with very little recourse. I don't think Milton Bradley intended the game of Life to be about class struggle, but that game certainly was. (Side note: I cruised to an easy victory...cashing out at almost 2 mil with a good 700k lead. Suck it, Rob)
I also discovered the worst movie ever made that night, Stay On Point. This film makes Battlefield Earth seem like a fucking masterpiece. It's so bad that I'm actually considering returning it, as owning it makes me feel dirty. Fuck, it's bad enough that IMDB doesn't even have a rating for it! Actually, I've been amazed at how little information there is about it, period. Neither IMDB, amazon, rottentomatos, or yahoomovies have ANY reviews for it, or any information beyond what's on the back of the case; which admittedly is pretty great: "Stay On Point is as real as hip-hop gets [with that stunning appraisal alone how could I not buy it?] when $1M in cash and Ecstasy [I wasn't aware ex was a proper noun...maybe that's why this film is hip-hop, and I'm not] goes missing and everyone in the ghetto is a suspect [that seems much more impressive until you learn the ghetto is just five people, and they spent most of the time in the same room so there really isn't that much mystery to it all]. Get ready to bet it all - nobody's taking any prisoners. When it's all said and done, death before lock up [I have no idea why that's a relevant statement, but I assume it lends the film street cred or something].
So after reading that, and seeing the cast list was "Ghetto Ratz, NBZ, Bella Maf, Goon Squad, and KGB" I felt rather inclined to buy this film. I'm still particularly tickled by the name "ghetto ratz" referring to a singular person. That's just fantastic. Anyways, some things this film does (beyond making one's life irrevocably less worth living):
1) Alternate between different tint filters for every damn scene. Beyond being edited by a 12 year old with ADD and an imac, there was really no reason to do this. It certainly didn't disguise the fact that every scene was shot in one of three rooms, and it certainly didn't make me think "ooooh, there's a blue tint! SIGNIFICANCE!" It just made me hate Leonardo Gonzalez (the writer/director/producer who shockingly has done NOTHING ELSE. Seriously, even the Bloodz vs Wolvez homie got to make multiple movies...that should tell you how bad this movie is)
2) Have every character repeat the title. A lot. I swear every other line was "stay on point!" They just yelled it at each other like a fucking mantra, but it didn't seem to mean anything. A sample of dialogue: "Hey, n*gger, how's it going?" "Not bad, friend, stay on point!" I think one of them even yelled it at a fat stripper at one point. Subtle innuendo? Probably not.
3) Use a window-wipe transition. I've watched some pretty bad movies in my life, many using very cheap and cheezy wipe transitions, but I have NEVER seen the window-wipe used in a serious production. Stay On Point utilized it at *least* three times, as well as every other transition that exists in cheap editing software; you know, all the crazy obvious ones you figure out suck by like 8th grade? Yea...
4) Break into a rap video sporadically throughout the movie. Yep, at random intervals this "film" would literally become a rap video...complete with dancing hoes, random borders of flying money, and repeating the same shots like 4 times for no reason. The sequences didn't even make sense; it'd be something like "hey, I'm walking into the bathroom...RAP-STAR MODE ACTIVATE!"
5) Had characters named Cognac and Swoop Murder. Cognac? Really? How did that seem like a good idea?
6) Pointless cross-dressing. So in what I assume is the "climax" you see random guy (I couldn't really be bothered to keep track of who's-who's) put on a blonde wig, lipstick, and then walk into a building and shoot a bunch of people. Now, I'm sure you're thinking he was just in disguise, except the way it all played out a disguise was irrelevant. He walked into the building unmolested - no guards or anything, and came up behind his targets in a stairwell - so they couldn't even see him coming; they were just walking up the stairs - pulls out a few guns and starts shooting them all. The wig/makeup served no purpose! Did he just want to feel pretty while he murdered random people?
7) Start the film in medias res, then taking 10 minutes to show a bunch of random characters and describe who they are (half of which are already dead), flashing forward to a later event, then back to the normal time-line that's actually a flashback describing why the narrator is actually already dead but still narrating the ENTIRE FILM and then forgetting that it all is supposed to be a flashback, forgetting about the dead guy in the trunk at the start of the film, and continuing on it's merry fucking way. Confused? Yea, me too.
8) Starting out by saying "Based on true Ghetto Storiez" and then only telling one really shitty one. How bad were these "storiez" that combined they equaled this? Am I supposed to think better of your film because one time, in the hood, someone got shot over drugs? Fuck you, Leonardo Gonzalez.
9) Not knowing how fucking long you are. The box clearly says "Approx 71 mins." However, the movie is actually 84 minutes long...How the fuck do you screw that up? 71 is not a good approximation for 84, theta-hat does not equal theta, you lose.
10) Saying the DVD has special features, and then not actually having special features. That one is kinda self-explanatory.
Conclusion: DON'T BUY THIS MOVIE!!
Oh, and I didn't post this song on Nolan's Christmas song list as I didn't think of it, but it's pretty great in a weird way. It's done by a now non-existent Athens band called Porn Orchard, but they're doing pretty good impressions of Peter Murphy and Tom Waits. 99X plays it every year at Christmas; good stuff. Link since I don't feel like trying to get mp3's to play on my blog right now.
The official rules (as quoted from the Hasbro page) read thus: "Each time a teammate shouts out the correct Guess Word, the Clue-giver's team scores a point." Now, this rule is rather vague in regards to our argument, but if a guesser's intent was to be taken into account, it should say that somewhere in the directions, which it doesn't. Similarly, if homonyms weren't allowed as clues and guesses, it would actively forbid their use, but the directions don't do that. Ultimately the clues being given are irrelevant to the guesses they generate, and so my saying lint/lent counted.
Now, this argument wasn't like a one-time deal...it first came up towards the middle of the game, and after spending many minutes literally shouting at each other - over a Taboo ruling - we opted to note that round with an asterisk and revisit it at the end should it matter. Naturally, it did and the argument broke out with renewed fury, and was unabated when Ellington and his friend we didn't know finally got there. I can imagine it was all a bit unsettling for the kid - he walked into an apartment he'd never seen before to find 4 reasonably grown men in a shouting match over a game of Taboo. He looked terribly confused, to say the least. Ellington ultimately sided with Doug and I, by the bye, but Rob and Tiji still refused to concede the point and we dropped it - for now - to play Life.
If you haven't played Life before I hate you and don't care to explain the premise, but it turned us all into assholes. And by "us all" I primarily mean Doug, Rob, and myself as the others didn't seem to have quite our competitive streak. Rob won for "dickhead move of the game," performing a rather baited screwing of Ellington early on: Rob started off with the 30k salary, but got lucky and hit the very first switch salary spot on the board - opting to grab the 90k salary from Doug. This may not seem like much - just part of the game - but it goes deeper. At that time Ellington was rolling large, having just drawn the 100k salary, and people were confused as to why Rob didn't take that...it was a shrewd move on his part, as Doug's career allowed him to pay 4 life tiles and steal the 100k salary whenever he wanted. Which was exactly what he did on his turn, grabbing the 100k for himself and leaving El the measly 30k.
Before that the game had actually been pretty friendly (we were only like 3 turns in, after all), but that definitely set off a pattern of degradation and things quickly spiraled out of control. It wasn't until the game was over that I noticed that the "white people" had effectively teamed up to screw over the "minorities;" Rob, Doug, and myself were all over a million at the end, while neither Tiji, El, nor El's friend had half that. The entire game we would steal their life tiles when able, ensure they had the lowest salaries, and do whatever we could to ensure they finished at the bottom of Life's socio-economic ladder with very little recourse. I don't think Milton Bradley intended the game of Life to be about class struggle, but that game certainly was. (Side note: I cruised to an easy victory...cashing out at almost 2 mil with a good 700k lead. Suck it, Rob)
I also discovered the worst movie ever made that night, Stay On Point. This film makes Battlefield Earth seem like a fucking masterpiece. It's so bad that I'm actually considering returning it, as owning it makes me feel dirty. Fuck, it's bad enough that IMDB doesn't even have a rating for it! Actually, I've been amazed at how little information there is about it, period. Neither IMDB, amazon, rottentomatos, or yahoomovies have ANY reviews for it, or any information beyond what's on the back of the case; which admittedly is pretty great: "Stay On Point is as real as hip-hop gets [with that stunning appraisal alone how could I not buy it?] when $1M in cash and Ecstasy [I wasn't aware ex was a proper noun...maybe that's why this film is hip-hop, and I'm not] goes missing and everyone in the ghetto is a suspect [that seems much more impressive until you learn the ghetto is just five people, and they spent most of the time in the same room so there really isn't that much mystery to it all]. Get ready to bet it all - nobody's taking any prisoners. When it's all said and done, death before lock up [I have no idea why that's a relevant statement, but I assume it lends the film street cred or something].
So after reading that, and seeing the cast list was "Ghetto Ratz, NBZ, Bella Maf, Goon Squad, and KGB" I felt rather inclined to buy this film. I'm still particularly tickled by the name "ghetto ratz" referring to a singular person. That's just fantastic. Anyways, some things this film does (beyond making one's life irrevocably less worth living):
1) Alternate between different tint filters for every damn scene. Beyond being edited by a 12 year old with ADD and an imac, there was really no reason to do this. It certainly didn't disguise the fact that every scene was shot in one of three rooms, and it certainly didn't make me think "ooooh, there's a blue tint! SIGNIFICANCE!" It just made me hate Leonardo Gonzalez (the writer/director/producer who shockingly has done NOTHING ELSE. Seriously, even the Bloodz vs Wolvez homie got to make multiple movies...that should tell you how bad this movie is)
2) Have every character repeat the title. A lot. I swear every other line was "stay on point!" They just yelled it at each other like a fucking mantra, but it didn't seem to mean anything. A sample of dialogue: "Hey, n*gger, how's it going?" "Not bad, friend, stay on point!" I think one of them even yelled it at a fat stripper at one point. Subtle innuendo? Probably not.
3) Use a window-wipe transition. I've watched some pretty bad movies in my life, many using very cheap and cheezy wipe transitions, but I have NEVER seen the window-wipe used in a serious production. Stay On Point utilized it at *least* three times, as well as every other transition that exists in cheap editing software; you know, all the crazy obvious ones you figure out suck by like 8th grade? Yea...
4) Break into a rap video sporadically throughout the movie. Yep, at random intervals this "film" would literally become a rap video...complete with dancing hoes, random borders of flying money, and repeating the same shots like 4 times for no reason. The sequences didn't even make sense; it'd be something like "hey, I'm walking into the bathroom...RAP-STAR MODE ACTIVATE!"
5) Had characters named Cognac and Swoop Murder. Cognac? Really? How did that seem like a good idea?
6) Pointless cross-dressing. So in what I assume is the "climax" you see random guy (I couldn't really be bothered to keep track of who's-who's) put on a blonde wig, lipstick, and then walk into a building and shoot a bunch of people. Now, I'm sure you're thinking he was just in disguise, except the way it all played out a disguise was irrelevant. He walked into the building unmolested - no guards or anything, and came up behind his targets in a stairwell - so they couldn't even see him coming; they were just walking up the stairs - pulls out a few guns and starts shooting them all. The wig/makeup served no purpose! Did he just want to feel pretty while he murdered random people?
7) Start the film in medias res, then taking 10 minutes to show a bunch of random characters and describe who they are (half of which are already dead), flashing forward to a later event, then back to the normal time-line that's actually a flashback describing why the narrator is actually already dead but still narrating the ENTIRE FILM and then forgetting that it all is supposed to be a flashback, forgetting about the dead guy in the trunk at the start of the film, and continuing on it's merry fucking way. Confused? Yea, me too.
8) Starting out by saying "Based on true Ghetto Storiez" and then only telling one really shitty one. How bad were these "storiez" that combined they equaled this? Am I supposed to think better of your film because one time, in the hood, someone got shot over drugs? Fuck you, Leonardo Gonzalez.
9) Not knowing how fucking long you are. The box clearly says "Approx 71 mins." However, the movie is actually 84 minutes long...How the fuck do you screw that up? 71 is not a good approximation for 84, theta-hat does not equal theta, you lose.
10) Saying the DVD has special features, and then not actually having special features. That one is kinda self-explanatory.
Conclusion: DON'T BUY THIS MOVIE!!
Oh, and I didn't post this song on Nolan's Christmas song list as I didn't think of it, but it's pretty great in a weird way. It's done by a now non-existent Athens band called Porn Orchard, but they're doing pretty good impressions of Peter Murphy and Tom Waits. 99X plays it every year at Christmas; good stuff. Link since I don't feel like trying to get mp3's to play on my blog right now.
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