September 2006 Archives

Time for the Wednesday update. Had a roller coaster week in terms of research. Over the weekend, I discovered that the U.S. cell phone carriers had colluded to make part of our text message experiment not only cost prohibitive and technologically infeasible, but seemingly illegal as well. In any other country, our peer-to-peer idea would be possible, but no, not in the "land of the free."

In any case, the other part of our text messaging experiment is one "yes" email away from getting a full green light. We still need a funder for the optional, but useful, survey portion, so if you know anyone willing to pony up a few thousand dollars to examine young voter's reaction to text messaging, let me know!

And, in a completely unrelated project, I have data for my required second-year project! This research is one of the main reasons I ventured into grad school, so I'm glad to be able to find an answer (in about 4 months).

Even though my capitalist-obsessed country won't let us do cool things with technology, I'm very grateful to be a member of the nation that created "Gilmore Girls." Wow, what an emotional premiere. I couldn't even look at the TV when Lorelai told Luke you-know-what. And "scenes from the next" -- oy, so depressing. Except for all you L-C shippers!!! *cough*Rain*cough* Damn you all! GG is no replacement for West Wing, but it'll do.

Shana Tova to all my Tribal friends! Here's to a sweet and fulfilling new year :) And, to all of my readers, if I've wronged you in any way over the past year, please forgive me. (Do broadcast requests for forgiveness count? Probably not; oh well.)

I'm off to the O's / Yanks game tomorrow. Should be fun even though there's nothing to play for. And my next update should include some exciting pics of Chicklet's birthday present for me! (I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats... .) Until then, happy new year, and happy trails :)

QOTD: "In my day, we didn't have birthdays in grad school."

Just on Monday, Chicklet, Danny, and I were planning a winter break trip to Thailand. We had found tickets for under $1000 from LAX, had been discussing the required vaccinations, and had checked out which guide books to buy.

Then, on Tuesday, I flip on CNN, and what do I hear? "Thai tanks surround capital....coup rumors are flying around Bangkok." So I immediately text Chicklet, who is in class; by the time she gets out the picture is much clearer:

An honest-to-goodness coup d'état! Thankfully, no blood appears to have been shed. The current (now former?) Prime Minister was in New York at the UN conference (not a coincidence, I'm sure), and he's now flown/fled to London. Not sure he'll ever step foot in Thailand again. The coup leader has "welcomed" the ex-PM back into the country, but I'm pretty sure everyone involved knows that this offer is just bait for an arrest to be made. ("Come back home! We need to show you these nice gallows we built in your absence....").

Given how stable the country appears, our trip might not be in that much jeapordy. Maybe we'll even get lucky and the price of plane tickets will go down. Or, maybe the Baht will experience massive inflation and our dollars will be worth that much more....not that I'm hoping for economic ruin in Thailand or anything...

On the home front, I've now attended all my classes, and I seem to have a decent balance, but probably too much reading. I see much skimming in my future. I also sat in on the class I'm TAing (into math for poli sci); the students asked insightful questions, so I'm optomistic about the course. Now if I only had a dissertation topic.

Update: Chicklet says:

You should include in your post the PM's reaction: "I was prime minister when I came, and I was jobless on the way back." I guess you can take everything in stride when you're a billionaire.

Leave it to the MIT kids to outshine the Presidents speech:

Hat-tip to Chicklet for the story.

I've been off the blog lately because I've spend much of my time (too much time?) coding this neat tool for campaign staffers: TurfCutterGM. Basically, it let's you use Google Maps to create your walklist. Check it out -- geocoding should be up tonight.

But, instead of shameless plugs, I wanted to share with you my Labor Day trip. In the long, yet shallow tradition of women playing baseball, Gayle and I ventured over to south Philly for the championship of the Labor Day Eastern Women's Baseball Conference Tourney. That's right: baseball, not softball. It's what the girls of summer used to play:

The finals were between DC and Philly. The game was well-played and in almost all respects just like a minor league game. The only real difference was how shallow the outfielders played, thus making an 8-4 force out possible. You can kind of see below the positioning of everyone in this picture:

In the first few innings the game was tight, and the defense was excellent. Through three innings, the score was 4-4 and the defenses turned just as many double plays (2) as they committed errors. Washington pulled away in the end, and the defense play became sloppier, as the teams booting three plays in the final four innings. The final score was DC 10, Philly 5. After some celebrating, the DC team lined up for their championship photo:

I've always believed that if Major League Baseball ever removes its ban on women playing the game, odds are that the first female major leaguer will be a pitcher. This game only reinforced that view as none of the women batting came even remotely close to major league power. On the other hand, some of the pitchers' curveballs were just downright wicked. I just wonder who the next Ila Borders will be.