discussions with company X

Just off the phone with company X, which, according to my NDA, I can't disclose. But it was an interesting conversation. I am trying to convince them that they should share energy data with me, so that I can model their investment problem for my dissertation. I am interested in how, and why, companies invest in energy-saving technology. For example, should a company buy solar panels for their facility? At what price? What if electricity is cheap? What if customers see solar panels and buy more product? And so on. Hopefully I can devise a model which will help me look at that.

In this conversation, I was expecting a lot of questions on the model, how it worked, the nuances, the risks... but instead I was faced with much more mundane and operational questions: how do I justify it to my boss? It was a reminder that things operate much differently outside academia, and it also underscored just how difficult it may be to get this data. Once accomplished, I will then build said model and use it to claw my way out of grad school and into (I hope) a job.

Notes from the field

Happy Halloween. One of my favorite holidays, simply because it is so fun to dress up and so fun to see what other people dress up as. It always surprises me to see so many people that don't dress up. Walking the streets of DC last night, there were blocks at a time where we saw nobody else dressed up, or at a bar we went to, everybody downstairs was not dressed up, and everybody upstairs was in costume. I just don't get why you wouldn't throw on some goofy hat, or an ugly shirt, and call yourself 'laundry day', or 'just dumped', or something. I guess some people really just aren't creative.

Anyways, enough of that rant. After my elaborate David Hasselhoff Baywatch costume of last year, this year I went with the last minute inspiration: 'Future Man'. This is a great costume idea (thanks to my friend Jesse) which allows you to wear absolutely anything and just claim nonchalantly all evening that that is what everybody wears in the future, and that you don't blame everybody else for not getting it. It's actually really fun. We were 'remembering' what a good time we were going to have that night, and reminiscing about all those funny moments to come.

There were different interpretations of future: Future man #1, Robin, wanted to wear Lycra, so he was aerobics man/future man, and looked the oddest. The rest of us were less bizarre, but each had cool feature: Jesse had a fur cap and tobacco pipe with swimming goggles, Shivani had a vietnamese hat covered in foil, and I had ski goggles and pie plate belt with a cape. See the photos below...

A really creative costume we saw a party - the submarine and 'Team Zizou'
The Future Men (Robin, Jesse, Me L-R)
The Futurites in the house preparing for the big night...

late nights and early mornings

For the past little while, or two weeks to be exact, I've been participating in an auction experiment run by some professors at Maryland. Two of these guys are renowned auction experts, and they are advising the treasury department on how to structure the $700billion auction for mortgage-backed securities, sometimes known as the bail-out. Anyway, they devised a few different auction formats, gathered together 16-odd PhD students that have taken advanced game theory classes (and so understand the theory behind the auctions and act as 'sophisticated' bidders). NPR covered the story briefly, and the reporter even came to our auction training one day.

Unfortunately, as you can imagine with 18 students and 4 professors, scheduling is a little bit of a nightmare. That has meant the auctions, which are about 3 hours, are either late at night or early in the morning. After being on campus until 9 last night, we had to be here at 8 this morning. But, thankfully, today is the last day. Relatedly, I thought this article in the economist was very coherent on the financial crisis.

To make the auction interesting, and to motivate the students, they give us money based upon how we perform. Each of is a bank with securities. We know the value of our own securities, but nobody else does. They pool the securities into high quality and low quality, and conduct a reverse auction until the market clears. The 'treasury' buys only a quarter of the face value of all the assets, and the 'banks' (us bidders) offer securities for sale as the price descends in the reverse auction. Of course, if we have high value securities, we don't want to sell them at low prices, so there is an incentive to keep the good stuff and sell the bad stuff. However, we also have a 'liquidity constraint', which means that we make money based on how much we sell, and we don't make money by holding assets. It becomes a tradeoff between selling your stuff for more than it is worth, and selling anything to get the much needed cash. Of course, we are competing against eachother, so the prices have been getting pushed down to half the original value of the securities. There are plenty of other details for the interested reader.

fall weddings, and more.

In the past three weekends, Rebecca and I: 1)went camping, 2)hosted good friend Sid for the weekend, and 3)attended a wedding and two wedding receptions. Unfortunately, Rebecca took photos of the first two events, and she is notoriously S-L-O-W at downloading her photos, so I've none to share. Happily, I brought my camera to our friends Mary and Beat's wedding, so I have photos of that.

The camping trip was to Assateague, a barrier island off the coast of Virginia/Maryland that is famed for its wild horses. It was car camping, but it was near the beach, so it was fun. We got to spend some time playing in the still-warm water, reading, and just hanging out. We were surrounded by neighbors in RVs, who were much better kitted out, but we still had fun with our minimalist tent and cookstove. We brought kites, but 'we' (hint: not me) forgot the kite strings, so we didn't get to fly them. Oh well, next time. The 'wild' horses have long ago figured out how to get food handouts from campers, so I had to elbow a horse away from our dinner one night while Rebecca was taking photos and laughing. It was pretty fun.

Sid, a friend from college, visited for a quick weekend on the way to a business meeting. We didn't do much site seeing, because I had some school errands to do during the day. It was a good, but short visit. Again, no photos.

This past weekend was wedding time. The wedding was Friday afternoon at a local park and community center. Beat is Swiss, so I had spent the last few days meeting his friends at a stag night and golf outing. Mary is American, and her family came out from Wisconsin. Anyway, from the photos below, you can see it was a good time. Some background: apparently, chimneysweeps are good luck in Switzerland, so the ringbearers (Beat's nephews and niece) dressed up as chimneysweeps and blew bubbles during the ceremony. They also reenacted the proposal during the reception dinner, during which one of the posed as an octopus and the others as the scuba-diving couple. The whole script was in Swiss German, which made it all the more hilarious and incomprehensible. Anyway, the next day there was a barbeque reception for our friends Matt and Linda, who were married in Bermuda and just returned. Now, we're resting from all the merriment.

The chimney sweeps blowing bubbles.
the scuba diving proposal
the octopus-boy
it's hard to see from this photo, but there is a 'USA' crown on the boy's head. Awesome.

A busy not-so busy weekend

It rained all weekend here, intermittent with hot, sticky sunshine. Nope, fall is not quite here, but according to the calendar it is: There were three big events this past week that we celebrated. Rebecca's birthday was on the 25th, and we celebrated by going out to dinner and walking home in the rain. Of course, I had been giving her a present a day since the previous week, so it wasn't exactly a big surprise for her. I had tried to arrange for her brother to come down and visit the previous weekend, which would've been a surprise, but he couldn't make it, so instead we went to Great Falls. For those unfamiliar to the area, the falls are really not so great, but their proximity to the DC area, and being on the east cost, the description more or less fits the context. Anyway, the falls are about a half hour drive from DC, and there are hiking trails and whatnot in the surrounds. Many people kayak or rock climb nearby, in addition to biking, so I guess Great Falls is the closest outdoor recreation opportunity to DC.

Anyway, since several or my gifts to Rebecca revolved around mushroom hunting, we decided to pack our guidebooks and give it a whirl. We found two mushrooms during our hike through the woods, and we identified three trees (an Ash, an oak, and a pine). The tree guide is necessary, because different species of mushroom are associated with different types of tree, so the tree identification can help narrow down the mushroom identification. As it turned out, that didn't help, and we couldn't id our two mushroom specimens (different types), but we've resolved to try again soon.

This past weekend was our block party, a birthday brunch for Rebecca, and Fiesta DC. Our block party happens once a year when we close the street down, everybody plays music and makes food, they setup a bouncy castle, there is a scooter race for kids, and general chaos ensues. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy this year, so things were as lively as normal. Rebecca and I ended up doing a bit of wedding planning stuff during the day, then going for a walk in the evening. Our good friend, Robin, just got a pet kitty, so we spent some time with them on Saturday. Sunday was a little more hectic. Fiesta DC, which is basically a huge latin party that shuts down our neighborhood, was going on, and we hosted a birthday brunch for Rebecca and a clothing swap. The hordes descended at 11, and as usual, our female friends were better participants than the males. The female portion of our clothing swap is very active, and all the girls brought stuff, I don't think anybody left empty handed. People sort of trickled in over the next two hours, so there was a steady stream of food, and a steady demand for coffee! After grabbing a quick bite, I retired to the kitchen to do dishes and make coffee, and then I left after a couple hours to play a soccer game with a friend, only to return after the game and attend the Fiesta, where I tried some tasty street food and watched all the chaos. Our friend Robin, who is an excellent photographer, captured some of the madness.

Other than that, we've had a few visitors in the last little bit, including Reb's great Aunt Bernadette (no photos), my good friend Katie (below), and we played visitors up to NYC at the beginning of September.

Katie and I enjoying Tex Mex cuisine. Look closely, those are frog legs that I'm eating. Yes, they were delicious.
Rebecca and roommate Meredith practicing juggling, which our other roommate, Adam, tried to teach us all on this night.
Rebecca on a hill overlooking the river near Great Falls. In the background are the rock climbers and river kayakers discussed.

Chinese married

Apologies for the grammar, but Rebecca and I are now Chinese married. At least that's what it seems. Having completed the tea ceremony, a traditional Chinese ceremony which usually precedes the actual wedding, we are having a hard time convincing some of her family why, on the one hand, we're not having a wedding that same day, and on the other hand, just what is going on in California in May. Hopefully, by then, they decide to come out for the celebration.

Confusion aside, the weekend was wonderful. The family's met, seemed to get along, and everybody had a grand time. We received many generous gifts which will allow us to defray the cost of the wedding and honeymoon, so that's good too. My dad, mom, sister Heidi and sister-in-law Kristin all came to join in the celebration. Early reports indicate that they liked Toronto and the new in-laws.

The weather was beautiful for almost the entire weekend. Friday, the day we arrived, Reb and I took our collective parents to dinner so that they could meet. The food was good, the conversation, hesistant though it ocassionally was, generally proceeded smoothly, and a favorable impression was had by both sides. Sat, when my sister and Kristin arrived, we went to the CN tower for lunch with the rest of Rebecca's immediate family. We were kind of a chaotic bunch, but it was a good time. We followed that up with some shopping and siteseeing.

Sunday morning was the tea ceremony at Reb's sister's house. It was beautifully decorated and well-attended. After serving tea and taking many photos, we went for dim sum lunch. Then, a several hour break/nap, then a banquet dinner. Basically, we were eating all day. The banquet itself was about 6 hours and at least as many courses. Monday, everybody scattered and Rebs and I drove back to Buffalo with the rental minivan, then flew home. Now, it's back to school for me, and time to plan the CA wedding!

The 'rents meet at dinner on Friday

The mop heads the CN tower elevators
The view from the restaurant window

Me and future father-in-law Rebecca and I serving tea to her parents.

Welcome Bojangles

At long last, the bike is rideable. Sometime at the beginning of the summer, Rebs and I acquired a couple new bikes to add to the stable. Our roommates, unnecessarily in my mind, chose to limit us to two bikes each, so we have to get rid of one each. The blue bike in the background, my Kona mtn bike from college, is going to a friend. Bojangles (pronounced Bo-Han-Glays, spanish style), the black bike in the foreground will be my primary commuter bike. Aside from some gearing changes, a possible a new brake cable, he's good to go.

I bought new wheels and tires for him, and put a new chain on, while taking off all the previous gearing to convert to a fixed gear. It's pretty fun to ride, I have to say. I'll try to get some better bike ride photos soon. The bike that you see poking out from the right is Rebecca's road bike, and the yellow kayak in the background is the landlords - just gives you a sense of some of the chaos we experience at the house.

Shocking reading

I read this article about shoddy electrical work in the NY times this morning. It details repeated incidents about dangerous living conditions for soldiers, including several fatalaties resulting directly from poor electrical work by Pentagon contractors. It is pretty appalling to read about this. The last thing that these guys should have to worry about is whether their base is going to catch fire from the electrical wiring while they sleep. Not surprisingly, the KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary responsible for the lion's share of contracting in Iraq (gee, how did they get those contracts?), figures prominently in the failures. For those keeping score, add this to a long list of failures by our esteemed vice president's business cronies, in their performance of many vital services for our soldiers in Iraq. But, politics aside, this story is infuriating because these are such simple things to identify and fix. Our billions of dollars should at least pay for proper wiring, notwithstanding arguments about why we are there and what we're doing. Most infuriating, a small amount of training is all that would be needed to fix this stuff. You could take a high school kid from shop class and he could do it right. sigh.

Drill our way to civil rights!

I read this article (see below) about a press conference in which the large domestic energy producers enlisted the help of a formerly well-known but now apparently disreputable civil rights organization to get their message across. The sound bytes struck me as confused, ignorant, but sad. Most analysis I've seen of domestic petroleum production is unequivocal in stating that, even if the floodgates are opened now, new capacity wouldn't come online for another 10ish years. Even optimistic scenarios don't presume that this increased capacity would substantially diminish our 'reliance on foreign oil', assuming continuing growth in consumption. So, then, what's all the fuss about? Why are these groups pushing so hard to allow drilling right now, if it won't affect us for years, and if, even then, it won't affect us that much? Good question... something doesn't smell quite right...especially if the business lobby is resorted to using moral arguments to push their case with the public. The tragedy is that expensive oil is hurting the working poor, and that there is no real engagement to solve the problem. Unfortunately, turning back the clock, or drilling the price back down, isn't going to do it here.

LOBBYING: Industry group uses civil-rights theme in bid for expanded drilling (Thursday, July 17, 2008) Jenny Mandel, Greenwire reporter

A rally on Capitol Hill on Tuesday revealed an unlikely alliance for energy extraction, as lobbyists, politicians and civil rights activists in black collars joined together in shouts of "Stop the War on the Poor!"
Organizers described the event, held in a park near the Senate office buildings, as the kick-off to a campaign spearheaded by the pro-drilling group Americans for American Energy, along with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the High Impact Leadership Coalition, a conservative group led by Bishop Harry Jackson with a mission to "protect the moral compass of America."
Ranged behind the podium in the park, some 20 speakers -- a group heavy with senators and representatives from Colorado and Utah, and led by Niger Innis, spokesman for CORE -- spoke on the need to expand domestic oil and gas production with the goal of reducing fuel costs for low-income households that feel a disproportionate pinch from rising energy prices.
A small crowd held picket signs with slogans like, "My family needs affordable energy," and "Environmental groups don't feed my family."
Some who showed up described the difficulties of budgeting around today's gasoline prices. Tyrane West, an African-American woman who said she is with the High Impact Leadership Coalition and lives in Brookeville, Md., said it is increasingly expensive to ferry her kids to their soccer and basketball practices in an SUV she bought a few years back. She said her mother, who lives in Washington, D.C., on a fixed income, has seen cutbacks from a nonprofit service provider that delivers meals to her home.
But others holding picket signs backed away from a reporter with a notebook, dialing on their BlackBerrys and looking like refugees from lobbyist offices. One woman, who declined to give her name, said she was demonstrating at her boss's behest.
Supporting the 'all of the above approach'
In an interview before the event, Innis said CORE was contacted by Americans for American Energy after his father Roy, chairman and chief executive of the group, wrote a book titled "Energy Keepers Energy Killers."
A description on the Amazon.com Web site said the book "exposes the wrongs done to the poor and minorities by environmental and political elites trying to eradicate fossil fuel production -- coal, oil, and gas -- supposedly to 'save the world from global warming.'"
Niger Innis cites a statistic that while the average median income family spends 5 cents on the dollar for energy, the bottom fifth of the economic ladder spends 20 cents on the dollar for energy and the poorest families spend up to half their budget on it.
Innis advocates government spending on oil shale, coal and drilling on the continental shelf and throughout Alaska. "Our argument is when these resources are developed and tapped into, that is going to have a direct impact on the price of fuel," he said.
Innis was vague on the extent or timeline over which energy costs would be affected by such changes, but cited job creation and increased national security as additional benefits of using domestic energy. "What we had first [during the civil rights movement] was the moral high ground," he said. "Here again ... we have the moral right on our side."
In an interview with E&ETV, Innis admitted that the organization has received funding from Exxon Mobil Corp., though he said the money had not gone to supporting the group's climate efforts.
Cody Stewart, director of government relations with Americans for American Energy, said his group supports an "all of the above approach" to energy development, backing production, conservation and innovation.
He said the group is not explicitly opposed to a cap-and-trade or tax system to regulate carbon but that it would oppose anything that would increase costs to rural or poor populations.
"For individuals to exercise their civil rights, they have to have a basic economic level," Steward said, adding that the group sees energy costs as "the civil rights issue of the day."
Stewart said he believed the three major sponsors of the "Stop the War on the Poor" campaign were making equal financial contributions. Innis said funding for the coalition's work is "spread far and wide," and that CORE has paid the majority of the costs associated with the rally.
Unclear effects
Energy has, of course, drawn strange bedfellows together before. The recent corn ethanol boom was fueled by a drawing-together of farm state politicians and environmentalists, with support from groups focused on energy security and foreign policy.
More recently, environmental and labor groups have come together in a "blue-green alliance" with promises of good jobs in the renewable energy and efficiency sectors, though the groups have struggled to bridge their differences on sticking with coal and expanding nuclear energy use (ClimateWire, March 17).
For now, it is unclear how other civil rights and social services groups will weigh in. An official with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which describes itself as "the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people," declined to comment on the rally, saying the group has just begun to look at the effect of climate change policies on low-income families.
An analysis by the liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities agreed that higher energy costs have a disproportionate effect on low-income populations.
But the group stressed that such an effect is not inherent to cap-and-trade legislation. "A well-designed bill can fully shield low-income consumers from the economic hardship that could otherwise result from higher energy-related prices," the center said, calling attention to tax adjustments, mass transit and efficiency investments, and "climate rebates" or utility payments as possible means to address the issue.
For his part, Innis is willing to take the downsides of fossil fuel use into consideration. "I think we have to be environmentally conscious; it is a concern where they would build particular plants," he said. But he noted that new plants bring new low-skilled and no-skilled jobs for Americans. "Let the people decide," he urged.

Home sick

I traveled to the Gans' compound last weekend to see the family and to meet my nephew! My sister was in town from Norway, with kids in tow, and most of my mom's side of the family was also in attendance for a mini family reunion. I flew out Friday night, and due to a surprisingly expected, yet completely avoidable series of events and some poor judgement by our friends at US Airways, I didn't arrive from my already late flight until 2am, with my head hitting the pillow sometime around 2:30 (5:30 EDT).

Due to the high concentration of family in attendance, I was expelled from my old bedroom, and instead slept in the living room, an acoustic anomaly which, despite being distant from most other parts in the house, manages to capture the various sounds emanating therefrom, delivered in full clarity and volume to my temporary shelter. This was verified at quarter past 4, as sleep-deprived parents of the offending 2.5 yr-old noise-maker were able to confirm. My energetic niece was soon joined by an early morning golf crew consisting of my father and brother-in-law, who departed some time around 6. In concert, these events conspired to turn that Saturday into an arduous journey. I happily embraced coffee that fateful morning, but that was what ultimately led to my downfall. You see, prior to departing on Friday, I had spent the day at home from work, recovering from what had every indication of being a mild cold. Combined with two cross-country journeys, not much sleep, and doses of caffeine and adult beverages, I was apparently rather dehydrated. The friendly folks at the UMD health center insisted that I drink excessive fluids until I recover, which I am doing as I type, from my vantage at the kitchen table during a successive day of missed work. Fortunately/Unfortunately, my roommate Meredith is similarly disposed, so at least I have company.

All that aside, being home was very nice, and was a ready reminder of what a fantastic place the central coast of California is. I ate fresh plums from my grandmother's tree, avocados and apples were also ripe, and the weather was warm but not uncomfortable. It was altogether a very nice, if short, vacation.

The aforementioned fresh plums. As you can see, I got there a tad late.
Apples were also ripe at my Grandmother's bounteous orchard.

One-armed bandit

The toilet paper debate has been solved!!! This from treehugger: In terms of avoided wasting precious resources whilst in the WC, better to route the paper over, rather than under. The higher friction coefficient ensures a more accurate one-handed tear. I'm glad that somebody is analyzing the 'cottony bedrock on which enjoyment rests in the restrooms of many nations'. I guess.

Poisemanship?

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The Chinese have arranged to organize 200,000 cheerleaders for the Olympic games, according to this article. Fear no more, lonely competitors from obscure countries. A cheerleading troupe has been assembled on your behalf and outfitted with noise-making plastic sticks (known as 'thundersticks' in some parts). To make the cheerleaders more 'Chinese', some cheerers have even been given toy nunchucks (arguably Japanese in origin) to fuse the competitive spirit and cultural celebration into one! Oddly, there does not seem to be a criteria for cheerleader selection, arguably the one defining category of this heretofore American phenomenon, rather, some of the cheerleaders are reportedly retirees! But, rest assured, although new to cheer, these Beijing spirit corps are being well-trained by battle-tested, world-class veterans: the cheerleaders from the New England Patriots, who are apparently well-versed in 'poisemanship'. Sweet.

bike me out to the ballgame

Last Friday, in the midst of 90 degree temperatures and torrential afternoon thunderstorms, the Nationals of Washington played the Orioles of Baltimore in a baseball contest. In an attempt to take full advantage of the promised free bike valet, we rode to the game.

The original plan is below. Unfortunately, it poured rain during the ride, so we curtailed it to the stadium, valet parked and got some tacos, then watched the game, as it had stopped raining. All-in-all, a great time. I'm also in the process of building up a new bike, and I'm giving my mountain bike to a friend, so I'll keep you posted on that one.

All- For those who are interested, some of us are planning to utilize the complementary bike valet by riding our bicycles to the game. If you are willing, meet at Eastern Market metro (Pennsylvania and 7th St.SE) at 5:55pm.
1) The bikers will depart from there at 6pm and head east along Independence Ave towards the rising sun...and RFK, the former home of the nationals and the current home of DC United. This will provide an opportunity to see Ben's office, from a distance, and to breathe inthe same sacred air that will be breathed by David Beckham less than48 hours later.
2)From RFK, the bikers will depart via the southeast parking lot to an improvised Anacostia river trail tour. The actual trail sits just across the sparkling blue waters, but we don't have time for a swim,so we will content ourselves with a leisurely pedal along the Westernshore, past the congressional cemetery.
3)At the Congressional Cemetery, we may pause whilst some of our members scale the fence to pay their respects to notable interments J.Edgar Hoover or John Phillip Sousa(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Cemetery).
4) the ride will continue along the river to M st. SE, where we will turn off and head towards the nationals stadium. We will pass by 1st SE and ride down half St. SE in search of an elusive, but much-hyped Gourmet roach coach (kitchen on wheels) which is apparently parked in an alley there. From there is is a short ride to the Red Garage C at the corner of N & 1st Street, SE, where 'Access to the valet is on N Street just left of the entrance.'
5)We will hand our bikes dismissively to the attendant, instructing him/her that 'there may be something extra in it for you if you keep this pony fed and watered' followed by a wink.
6) we will assemble in front of the stadium Will-Call at 7pm.
To recap: for bikers - eastern market at 6pm. For metroers - Will-call at 7pm.See you tomorrow!

Three not very good photos of the bike valet action:
Rebecca retrieves her bike.
Will retrieves his bike.

To Montreal...and back!

After the final not-so-fun week of school, I was finally done Friday afternoon. I celebrated by moving out of my office (no longer working at JGCRI), then playing a game of squash, then going to a bbq with some classmates. Then going home and packing for Montreal. We left early Saturday morning, staying through memorial day weekend, and returning Monday.

It was a great trip. After cabbing it to Rebecca's brother Gabe's house, we picked up some bikes to borrow, then zipped around town. The weather was great - 70s, not too hot or cold, so you didn't have to bundle up and you weren't sweating like you're wearing a gorilla suit - which is sometimes the way that I feel in humid weather (DC in the summer). Day one, we biked into the historic part of Montreal, the touristy waterfront. Highlights included a quebecois local in a pirate-esque shirt, vest, and bolo tie: sort of a french pirate meets southwestern motif. Apparently the pirate shirt and vest combo is in fashion in Montreal, and I saw a few more throughout the stay. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos. Likewise an old couple sitting by the water front with two huge steins of beer. It was a funny site, but the Montrealites are much more relaxed about beer consumption, often having it with lunch, for instance. While walking along the waterfront, we also saw three 'hotshots' zipping their jetskis in an out of an abandoned dock area. Once enough of a crowd had gathered, they started spraying water, doing tricks, and generally trying to look really cool. The funny part was, the water was really cold and nobody was all that impressed, so these guys just looked really silly. Again, sadly, no photos.

The next day, however, I was a little better with the camera. We hiked the 'mountain' which sits in the middle of town, and got some good photos looking south towards the St. Lawrence river. We then made our way to one of the many nice parks, played some bocce ball, and had some portugese chicken. The day before we'd had some poutine, which is french fries with gravy and cheese curds (better than it sounds) and beer in the same park and thrown the frisbee. Rebecca used to live just next to the park, and she liked spending time back there. We generally ate a lot of food, and 90% of it was really tasty and not that expensive. Montreal seems to combine some of the nicer parts of Paris (beautiful parks, good food and coffee) with a lot less of the attitude. Plus, everybody speaks English, so although you can practice your French to your heart's content, as most servers initially solicit orders in French, they quickly revert to a fluent English without batting an eye and you don't feel upset for feeling guilty that you're not a wonderful French speaker.

Monday Rebs and I capped off the visit with a trip to the downtown area, a little shopping, and then we hopped on our flight back to DC. With the US$ so weak, the trip was not as cheap as it used to be (apparently), but it was still a lot of fun. Montreal is truly a fun city to visit. Now, some photos...

Gabe and I riding down the streets of Montreal
Looking as touristy as possible in the historic old town
fries, cheese curds, gravy and beer. Delicious.
Gabe taking a nap after the long day riding and eating.
Rebecca and I on top of the mountain. Downtown Montreal, river in background.

nearly there!

I spent last weekend in semi-seclusion in the 'study' room upstairs at the house instead of in Toronto at a wedding with Rebs. The story starts on Saturday, when we were set to leave, and I dutifully packed a bag friday night, crawled from bed sat morning and drove to the airport with rebecca. On the way, though, I decided that I couldn't make the trip, so I cancelled my ticket, had breakfast at the airport diner with rebecca, then waved goodbye and headed back home. It was weird to come home and unpack after not having gone on a trip. I've never done anything so dramatic before. But, in the end, I think it was for the best. I was able to finish a paper and a take-home final and to start studying for an in-class final, and as of 3:30pm, to put that nightmare of a class safely behind me.

By this time on Friday, I'll be done with my College park entanglements until August. For the duration of the summer, as I hinted earlier, I'll be at USDA working on biofuels or some such thing. I find that out next tuesday. And, this weekend, I go to Montreal (for real this time) with Rebecca. yeay for summer!!!

almost...got it

Yes, once again, finals time. Ahh, the endless hours working on problem sets, papers, and studying for tests is drawing to a close. Today I sat through a thrilling 4 classes, and was lucky enough to hear yet another of my professor's anti-imperialist conspiratorial rants to finish off the day. If the final exam is on unsubstantiated unequivocal claims about evil corporate elites, I should do pretty well. But, in two weeks, it will all be over, I will be off to Toronto to see Rebecca's cousin get married, then to Montreal to visit her brother, then I start work at ERS (USDA) for the summer.

In the meantime I am trying to figure out how I am going to make progress on that seemingly intractable continuing problem: how to get an interesting dataset on which to base my dissertation research. The ideal candidate should have some environmental or resource content. Examples may include data on agricultural prices (which I am likely to get at ERS), data on building energy efficiency upgrades (which I am trying to get, but am unlikely to get), or data on investment in new technology (for instance, solar panels). Just keep your eyes out, that's all I'm saying. Anything with numbers and prices associated with them. I am learning, albeit rather late, that a key factor in an economist's success is access to good data, which they typically don't collect. In the physical sciences, anybody could build an apparatus and go and collect data - it was much more egalitarian. Here, good data is jealously guarded. Which makes one wonder how some data analyses are actually verified. But that, too is a topic for later.

Campiones

That's right, you're reading from a member of the 2008 University of maryland at college park spring semester grad/faculty/staff men's outdoor intramural soccer champions!!! The game was played under the lights last night, starting at 9pm, against the team from the school of public policy, which features some very good players. We played them once during the regular season and tied them. The game last night was tooth and nail - tied 0-0 at the end of regulation, then to sudden death, then into penalty kicks. After the first round of 5 kicks, neither team had missed. Then we went into sudden death penalty kicks, and our rookie keeper blocked their first kick!...a sweet victory was ours! We had convinced a few of our classmates and girlfriends to show up and cheer us on, and the school of policy had done likewise, so the atmosphere was electric. A lot of yelling and screaming. It was a shame to end it in PKs, but we won! I made my kick, even though I missed a few opportunities during the game, so I was relieved about that. The game was followed by merrymaking into the wee hours.

We got cool championship shirts. The victors are pictured below:

Happy birthday to me

My birthday week is finally here! For the uninitiated, Rebecca and I, along with several of our friends/housemates, alot a full week to birthday celebrations. It is a relatively uncontroversial proposal, as we all agree that one day a year is not nearly enough, and none of our birthdays overlap that closely. I got lots of cards and well-wishes throughout the day, and we kicked things off Friday at happy hour, where I met a few friends and classmates, and then we returned to the house for some snacks and more socializing (we had to move to the backyard when a concerned neighbor, apparently upset she wasn't invited, told us to be quiet because of the 'kids'. This at 9:30pm on a Friday. What a party-pooper!)

Anyway, we had a good time. On the way home, I spied several of my friends surreptitiously emerging from the Dollar Star with gifts in tow. I was awarded
-a metallic-colored 'happy birthday' princess crown
-a plastic green frisbee with a picture of a cartoon dog and beach on the front
-a New Kids on The Block cd that I'd never heard of or would care to listen to again.
I also was awarded
-a bottle of super bubbles and a can of 'flarp' which is like wet play-doh that makes farting noises when you stick your fingers in it. Great! Needless to say, it was a fun night. Some of these great gifts might make their way into the rotation soon though, so beware.

Saturday morning, Rebs and I left earlyish to go camping at Cape Henlopen, at the northern tip of Delaware at the mouth of the Delaware river. It is a really pretty camping spot, actually a state park, and we hung out at the beach on Saturday and hiked and flew kites. We took photos, but their on Rebs' camera, so they will take forever to get to me. That night, it rained and thunderstormed, so we hunkered down in our tent, after going to the Blue Plate diner for the early bird special (6pm dinner!) and just relaxed while listening to the rain pelt our tent. The next day we packed up and headed back, stopping at a fruit stand and in Annapolis on the way home. It was a cool trip, for sure.

Rebecca promised me that she'd have a present for me every day this week, so I can't wait to see what's at home! I told her that it was okay if she wrapped up stuff that I already own, which I think is where we are at this point. I apparently depleted my other presents too quickly. 4 more days left!

Why Bother indeed?

Some of you may have received the following article email forwarded from me: ('Why Bother" by Michael Pollan)

The article discussed the difficulties of reconciling personal responsibility with the extreme uncertainty and disincentives embodied in climate change: The 'experts' tell us that the climate is changing, mean temperature is rising, extreme weather events are getting more common, habitats are changing, and a litany of other dire predictions and observations about the natural world. They say that this is because of accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They say that the climate is too complex a system to be able accurately and precisely measure or predict the effects, but the cause is all to clear: too much fossil fuel combustion.

What's worse, this story has all the makings of a disaster scenario, or perfect storm, or whatever extremely bad moniker you want to apply:
-as a global phenomenon, our individual actions are small to the point of insignificance relative to the effect. Thus we are completely dissociated from the effects of our actions, what economists call 'moral hazard', or 'agency problems'.
-The phenomenon itself is lagged, required concerted and extended period of study to understand, diagnose, and design systems for repair. This is beyond most people's attention span. The result is either a lot of faith in scientists to get it right, or cynicism that exacerbates the problem.
-Both of the above spell trouble for voluntary cooperative agreements amongst companies, countries or individuals, which are typically based on aligning incentives in order to come to a settlement. If the offer is- suffer individually now (through less consumption and reduced lifestyle choices) so that all may benefit later (probably, although we don't know how much later or how much benefit) - it is difficult to imagine that a happy consensus will emerge. Witness the past Kyoto targets being missed if you doubt this conclusion.

The article offers a number of steps that people can take, if they so choose, but makes the important point that people must act, independently and in addition to government action, in order to solve a problem of this nature. The point is made without appealing to guilt ('don't you love your children and grandchildren'), a sense of global equity ('do pacific islanders deserve to be flooded') or personal virtue ('give 'til it hurts'), but rather through rational argument. It's a bit pie-in-the-sky at times, but I really enjoyed reading it. Obviously, I'm interested in the subject (who isn't?). Tasks for this weekend: organize my garden, fix my compost.

Soapbox dismount.

up to speed

San Francisco does have nice weather...especially when you're engaged! After proposing to Rebecca in the midst of a rain storm in the city by the bay, we had to keep it under wraps for a whole month until she returned to DC!! So, as of the end of March, Rebecca and I are acknowleding our mutual desire to be wedded in holy matrimony, on the day of May 16, 2009 in Santa Barbara, CA. We just figured out the date and place last weekend on a trip to SB, so now we can start planning some of the details: in the works are a website with some photos and details, discussions of a karaoke lottery at the reception, and me trying to rent portable ear walkie-talkies and a golf cart for my own private security detail at the wedding. But, that's mostly a story for another posting.

After returning from SF, I took the opportunity at the end of March (spring break time in this part of the world) to head north and see friends Katie and Laura in NYC, then up to Maine to see aunts Carol and Jackie. The trip began okay, and New York was as crazy and fun as always, but by the second night I was starting to slow down, and by Sunday (I took the bus up Friday morning), I was wiped out. Friday afternoon had been a trip to Brooklyn brewery for happy hour and then to a Slovak beer garden with Laura and Peter, Saturday saw Katie and I in Soho and the village, and Sunday saw me passed out on Laura and Peter's couch. Unfortunately, Monday required me to make a 4hr bus journey to Boston, then another 2hr bus ride to Portland, then catch the ferry to the island. It was no fun with the flu, I can tell you that much, but it was great to arrive on Peaks Island and be pampered and cooked for. I slept a lot for the first few days, but a take home midterm forced me to speed up my recuperation and I spent Wed-Sat working on that. (it didn't seem to help much, I later learned :( )

I returned from Maine on Saturday and Rebecca met me at the airport, having just arrived from Asia. We set about formalizing our engagement the next day, calling parents via skype and sending messages to friends, etc. April just seems to have slipped away so far. It's busy season at school, with midterms just ending and final projects beginning, and I've also been trying to figure out my summer plans: I turned down an internship in Austria in favor of staying in DC with fiance, so I have to find a way to get paid to do it. And, oh, there's the wedding to plan. We will actually be going to Toronto in August to do a Chinese ceremony/wedding party, so that will be nice to look forward too.

And next weekend I'm going camping at the beach (I think, Rebs is keeping me in the dark).
Some photos of the waves on Peak's Island (Cape Elizabeth lighthouse in background)
It looks cold for a reason, it was hovering around 35F that day
On a recent Saturday, friend Annie celebrated her birthday with a scavenger hunt. We were the winning team, here are two of the winning photos... (this one required taking a photo with 3 Chinese people in Chinatown)
This photo required going under the Chinatown arch

Holdin' down the fort

San Francisco has really nice weather during the winter. I am able to say this because I verified it last weekend for myself, although not in the way one would expect. The weather reports advertised rain and high winds - prospective power outages, and generally miserable weather. I prepared for the worst.... and.... it wasn't that bad at all. Rebecca and I flew out Friday night, stayed at Sid's house, where we were given the royal treatment. On Saturday, we spent the day in Berkeley, got to see Dave and Tara's new house, a convenient block from Peet's coffee, and did some walking around. It rained off and on most of the day, but we had rain jackets and waterproof shoes, so it wasn't half bad!

Saturday night we stayed at a hotel right down town, got to see part of the Chinese New Year's parade, met up with more friends on Saturday night, and then got up early the next day to get some delicious dim sum with Amanda and Salvatore. Sunday was sunny with a nice breeze, and we walked around downtown and Chinatown to explore, because Rebecca had never really been to SF before. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and by the time Rebecca, Sid and I met Heidi and friends for her birthday dinner, the weekend had been an enjoyable success. I left on the redeye Sunday night, made it to school in time for class Monday at 8, and have been reminiscing ever since.

Until next time, California. (and next time, I'll take pictures!)
In other news, my financial aid problems were fixed after my constant pestering final persuaded the powers that be to look into the situation and rectify it. In other other news, I bought a ticket for spring break! It's going to be a DC-NY-Boston-Maine-DC trip, around March 14-22. I can't wait!

arrgghh!!

I don't know if you've been able to sense my silent frustration, but it is acutely evident if you've been around me these last several days. Like the weather in Washington, oscillating between mild and comfortable, and tempestuous and chilly, the maidens at the financial aid office are an unpredictable lot wielding enormous influence over my future plans and present disposition.

We had an ice storm last week. It was my first one of those. Last tuesday, with the weather hovering around freezing, a steady misty rain fail, coating the sidewalks and stairs with an invisible layer of (extremely slippery) ice. Upon exiting a building after class and walking back to my office with two colleagues, all three of us lost our footing on the stairs at the same time - an indication of how dangerous it was to walk about. On my way home, even though I was looking out for the ice, I slipped on a different set of stairs and both legs flew up in the air! My ego and forearm were severely bruised. It was treacherous walking, to be sure.

As if a premonition, I received a billing statement on Friday in which the University sought to charge me an extra $2000 for enrolling in a course which, from all indications, should be covered under my graduate assistantship. The details are many and confusing, so I'll spare them, but suffice to say the tuition saga has been like a series of icy stairs. An unexpected and unwelcome reminder of my own tenuous financial position and of the blindingly frustrating maze that is the University financial aid system. It's almost enough to make me want to join the real world.

Things took a turn for the better this weekend with the visit of Katie and her roommate Devon. We were able to walk around the mall on Sunday and go to the zoo on President's day, but the tuition saga seemingly kept pulling me back in. I've been trying to get some studying done, but this has been mightily distracting. I am hopeful that it will get resolved soon, and that my next report will be a happy one.

Despite the uncertainty, I bought a ticket for spring break! Anticipating the need to get out of DC, I decided on a northeast corridor trip. I'll be taking the bus to NY, then to Boston, then to Portland Maine, from whence I will will return at the end of the week (march 22). It should be entertaining and adventurous, not least because I get to travel close to 1000 miles by bus! So, look out: March 17-22. Will, coming to a town near you.

Winter Camping

Rebecca and I thought we would spend our MLK day weekend the same way we did last year - by going camping in the mountains. Whereas last year we were greeted by unseasonably warm temperatures - in the 50s and 60s, this year we overlapped with the coldest weather of the year - temperatures below freezing and wind chill taking it down to the low teens. But, confident in our gear and abilities, we decided to go anyways. Our original camping location, 'Rocky Top' in the southern section of Shenandoah, was aborted because the Southern section was closed due to snow, so we settled for a hike leaving from Bootens Gap in the central section. It was a lasso hike. We hiked a couple miles out from the trailhead, set up camp at a confluence of two trails which marked the start and end of an additional 5 mile hike. You can see the loop we did off mile marker 55 (on the East side of the Appalachian trail near Hazeltop) on the map: http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/whole_park.pdf

It seemed like a reasonable plan. Hit the trail by noon, set up camp, do some hiking, sleep, hike some more, then pack up and drive to Charlottesville for dinner (we anticipated not camping for 2 nights since it was so cold). The hiking was slow going due to the 2 inch layer of ice that had developed on top of the snow. Apparently, the past week had been pretty cold and every step we took meant breaking through that hard top layer. It made the hiking a bit tiring, especially coming uphill, but it was cool to see broken bit of ice sliding down the hill in front of us (video).

Anywho, we did part 1 of the plan: set up tent and hike, making it back just before nightfall. We quickly organized our beds and started to cook dinner - realizing too late that the lentil dish we brought called for 30 mins of simmer time. We ate hard lentils as the wind was picking up and the temperature dropping, then climbed into our cocoon. Despite having a sturdy 4 season tent, it was COLD that night. We were both wearing every layer we owned, sleeping bag liners, and I was even sporting a balaclava. I broke out the foil emergency blanket to try to keep a bit warmer. Nothing really seemed to work, however, and neither of us got much more than a few winks. Ice coated the inside of our tent in the morning (from our breath), and our water was frozen. We were just happy to be able to pack our crap and head to the car. As we recapped the trip over coffee and breakfast in Charlottesville (there was no way we were cooking outside in the morning!), we decided to invest in some warmer gear before we try that again, as apparently my 15F bag, reb's -10C bag, and our various sleepwear wasn't enough to keep warm. At least we earned the respect of our friends. We returned to DC and recounted our camping tale to their collective amazement, as most of them hadn't even left their houses due to the cold weather!

Skyline drive and the trailhead, view from near our campsite.
Rebecca hiking the trail.
One of the ice-covered limbs overhead
First thing in the morning.
This video, although hard to see, shows the ice trickling down the trail in front of us as we were walking.

Oaxacan Ouch

Greetings, gentle reader. I'm settling into a routine again, enjoying the calm before school starts next week. I've been finding time to do some reading, I'm trying to exercise every day, and I get the evenings off, like normal people do! On a recent night, Rebecca and I went to try a Mexican restaurant that had recently opened: Casa Oaxaca. I thought the food was kinda blah, probably wouldn't go back because it was not super cheap. Rebecca, meanwhile, got Oaxacan revenge and had to call in sick the next day. I guess I can thank my California heritage for giving me immunity against such ravages. This photo was taken before the food arrived, and I thought it was funny how color-coordinated Rebecca was.

back in the saddle

Our baggage was delayed by 4 days, but we did finally receive it on the 2nd. We arrived back from Toronto last night. Our original flight was cancelled, but we were put on a direct flight 4 hours later, so we played speed scrabble (thanks for the present mom) and hung out in the airport. Toronto has a pretty nice airport, so this wasn't too bad of a way to kill a few hours. A short metro ride and we were home, unpacking and eating dinner with our housemates by 8pm. the 'Seasonal trees' episode from Planet Earth and some homemade popcorn proved the perfect way to end the evening.

Parting thoughts about Toronto... Rebecca's family really celebrates food. Much time is devoted to seeking out great restaurants, the preparation of the perfect dish, and meals lasting several hours. This squares nicely with my own philosophy on food, so we got along pretty well. The trip was enjoyable, and her family is absolutely lovely. Toronto also does municipal garbage collection right - there is mandatory separation into trash, recyclable (paper and plastic), and wet (food and compostable) categories, which makes sense and makes it easy to economize on landfill space. They even have these categories in the public bins! It makes for clean subways, streets and airports, too. Another thing: biking culture. Every block has 4 or 5 bike parking spots downtown, and it was routine to see bikers weaving through traffic even though it was 20F outside. Part of this has to do with the layout of the city (interspersed low/high density buildings), but it was pretty cool nevertheless.

I also learned a bit about myself - I need regular play time. As great as Rebecca's family is, by the 4th day of indoor fun, I was ready to burn some calories, posthaste! Following a short if slightly argumentative discussion, I convinced Rebecca to take me to the pool to swim. I was much happier after that. Our cross-country ski plans were sabotaged by a period of warm weather and rain (which also cancelled our departure flight), so we played squash and swam again before we left. A fun, fun visit.

Back at school, things are a bit slow because school doesn't start for a few weeks - a good time to devote myself to picking a dissertation topic and making summer research plans. But, as pippy longstocking noted, 'the lazybones said not today, tomorrow I'll work for you'.

Canadia is cold

It snowed last night in Toronto. Somewheres between 3 and 4 inches to ring in the new year. I arrived on the morning of the 30th with Rebecca, via a redeye from Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, and Philadelphia. Not the best itinerary, but it got us here. Turns out, it got us here without bags. Day 3 now, and we're still waiting for our luggage. US Airways hasn't exactly been a pleasure to deal with, and we are making many mental notes for our next travel experience.

The weather has been hovering around freezing here, which is pretty mild, so it's been nice to walk around and go shopping. The strong Canadian Dollar makes that an expensive proposition, however, so it's been a lot of window shopping so far. Toronto is like a smaller, colder, and cleaner version of LA (with better transportation), so there is a lot to do and a lot of different neighborhoods to visit. Highlights included passing through chinatown and seeing an old man sitting in the entryway of a shop and literally drumming up business- beating on a drum and haranguing passersby to view the wares inside. Mind you, it's below freezing outside and this man is there all day. Talk about a tough way to earn a living.

Hopefully we'll get our luggage and clothes today, and I can write a real update in my own clothes. We're staying at REbecca's sister's house for the trip. Bye for now!