For some reason I walked into a discussion about circumcision...
Steve: "Maybe it's like when you lose a limb...you know, phantom arms and stuff. Maybe if you get circumcised when you are older you have a phantom foreskin."
As you can tell, we get some quality work done in the gradlab.
Just got a copy of The Affect Effect, a book about affect and it's role in political behavior. Most people who know me as a budding political scientist know that when it comes to political science, I am interested primarily in political behavior, rather than the political institutions we have created. More specifically, I'm interested in voting behavior: How and why do people make the decision to vote or not to vote? How do people decide who to vote for? Are these processes rationally driven? If not, what are the normative implications of their decision processes?
Affect is our gut reaction to something, either positive or negative. What causes affect and how it influences our decision-making processes are questions that I personally find very interesting. Responding to affect isn't always logical or rational and sometimes people aren't even aware that they are doing it. As a result, it can be a tricky thing to empirically study.
Anyways, I plan to read the book when I'm done with school in a few weeks during my month long hiatus from things academic dominating my time (along with a whole shelf-full of other books that I need to get to). I'll post a review, but I'm guessing it's going to be a good book. I love stuff that looks at decision-making, either from an affective or rational perspective (one of my favorite pieces of work in all of social science is Kahneman and Tversky's work on prospect theory. Read their original 1979 piece: "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk" here).
Read this! (from Overcoming Bias)
I'm tagging this with a poker tag because eventhough it's not explicitly about poker, it is about decision theory which is always applicable to poker. Political science tag because decision theory is also blatantly related to polisci (especially in the rational choice literature...regardless of your opinion of RCT, in polisci we are concerned with understanding and predicting how people behave politically speaking, so obviously decision theory is relevant). Religion tag because I love his characterization of his path to atheism. It mimics my own (side bar: Maybe people interested in promoting religion should stop giving such vapid answers to children who obviously are deep thinkers and in asking "why" want a real answer, not one that betrays a lack of understanding of the topic at hand).
I told one of Kevin's fraternity brothers that I would pass along info about a memorial service/fundraiser for Kevin's family that the fraternity is doing. It's going to be at the GW Lambda Chi Alpha house on 12/12 at 7pm. I have class that night, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it, but I wanted to spread the word, especially to all the former SA hack types...
I first met Kevin when I got involved with the Student Association my sophomore year in college. Kevin was Parliamentarian (aka chief rules and procedures guy) my first year on the Senate. The year I ran for SA Executive Vice President he was on the elections committee and often served as the voice of reason. Kevin was good people; the kind of guy you could ask the world of and he would do it for you. I remember a bunch of good times in college with Kevin...going to a Dave Matthews concert at Nissan Pavilion, hanging out with other members of FOCK, all the SA stuff, hanging out at the Lion...
I don't really believe in an afterlife, but Kevin did a lot of good things while he was on this earth, and will definitely be remembered by many.
Just passing through Philly on the train on my way home from Thanksgiving in Connecticut. One of the best things about taking the train is that I can get some work done. I just finished up my state and local notes for the week and decided to take a break before jumping back into more work.
One of the many blogs I have in my google feed reader is the Wired Science blog. They have a post today about how November 26th was the day in 1922 that King Tut's tomb was discovered...pretty cool.
Also, I don't know how many people I went to college with read this blog, but I just found out from Christian Berle that Kevin Burkett died on Thursday. RIP, friend. :(
I was recently trying to convince my mom that poker is a game of skill. However, given the way I've been running the past 24 hours, that might be increasingly difficult.
I played a lot of poker in the past 24 hours. I would guesstimate probably 16 out of the past 24 were spent at the table. During that time I did not get many big hands; I was actually pretty card dead. Sadly, the majority of the big hands I did get ended up with me shipping it when some stupid card hit that massively saved my opponent. I guess it's a win that I did not lose more than I did given the fact that I was card dead and running bad, but that is not much consolation. I guess it also reaffirms my faith in the fact that Foxwoods is the free money store, but again...little consolation.
Hand 1: I have about $200. Get dealt 9d7d which is the best hand I have seen in quite awhile (I had been seeing variations on a theme of K2, Q3, J5, etc.). Better yet, I have position. I pray to hit the shit out of the flop...and I do, though not in the way expected. Flop comes 7x7s9s. Preflop there had been a $12 raise called multiple ways so the pot is already pretty big (standard mo at the Foxwoods 1/2 tables: someone will raise between $11-$15 preflop and get called by at least 4 people trying to suck out or not realizing how dominated they are...or what dominated even means). Original raiser bets about $50....and gets raised...folds around to me...I shove. Original raiser folds. Re-raiser calls and flips over Ts8s. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. I don't even remember which end of the straight flush hit. I just remember the dealer giving someone else the pot.
Hand 2: This was not a two outer, but it was me shipping it when I was pretty far ahead, so I'm including it. I get dealt JdTd in middle position (I'm sensing a pattern with all these suited connectors/gappers)... I have about $150 behind. Again, there is some kind of raise called multiple ways...the pot has about $50 in it. I flop a flush (don't remember the cards but they were all smaller than T). I bet slightly less than pot...fold, fold, fold, fold. Get called by the table calling station - big surprise. Turn is a blank. I push all in for my last ~$100. Get called again. At this point I am praying for no diamond. River is a diamond. Guy called me all the way down with Kd5c....not even the Ad!!! Nice hand, sir...no wonder I've seen you buy into this table for about $1000.
Hand 3: The last hand I played at Foxwoods this trip. 7c3c on the button (yes, I played that for $2). Have about $150 behind. Limped family pot. T73 rainbow on the flop. Table lucksack bets out...I raise. He calls. Turn is a blank. Check, bet, call. Oh look, a shiny Ts on the river. He checks to me and I just know he has a T. I stupidly decide to push my last $70 or so out of frustration. I certainly did not think he would fold if he had a T. People can't even lay down TPTK at a casino, let alone trips. He calls and turns over T9o. Nice hand...and no, the turn did not give him any kind of straight draw. He just played that good.
This sounds a little bitter and I suppose I am. How do I run so bad? Very frustrating.
As a fond mother, when the day is o’er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
And leave his broken playthings on the floor,
Still gazing at them through the open door,
Nor wholly reassured and comforted
By promises of others in their stead,
Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;
So nature deals with us, and takes away
Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest so gently, that we go
Scarce knowing if we wish to go or stay,
Being too full of sleep to understand
How far the unknown transcends the what we know.
So my parents got me a new digital camera for my birthday. I've been needing one for awhile since my old one was bulky and rather outdated. They got me the Canon Powershot SD1000 Digital Elph and I'm in love with it. Great pictures, great features and it's TINY.
Here are some pics I took playing around with it.
My dad eating giblets (gross).
View from the deck.
the house...
Sarah being obnoxious (status quo, LOL).
The table all set for Tgiving dinner.
The spread...
I spent most of Thanksgiving Day eating, sleeping, and watching football. My sister and her boyfriend left around 9pm, and I hopped in the shower, grabbed my Mom's keys, and headed out to the mecca of Ledyard, CT: Foxwoods. I started to get a little worried once I got of I-95 and there was absolutely no traffic on Rt. 2, a two lane country road that leads right to said mecca. Usually there is a line of cars headed to gamboool. No problems parking either (also not a good sign). "Maybe there won't be any fish in the poker room tonight," I thought.
Fortunately, I thought wrong.
I get seated almost immediately at a $1/2 that makes me very happy. Big stack in the four seat playing table captain and not doing a very good job at it. Lots of calling stations who think they are awesome but have no clue (e.g., do not understand when the guy with ATo gets the pot on a 8866x board against pocket fours). OK, give me a freaking hand and let me do something here. In the first hour I get JJ, QQ, and KK. Every single time there is an Ace on the flop and every single time I KNOW someone in the hand has it. They even get taken down to show down (fortunately not by me), so I can see they have it. OK, please let me hit a flop.
I take a bathroom break, pray for a hand, and end up flopping a straight the very first hand back at the table...and get paid. An hour later and my $200 buy in looks like a meatball sandwich. Sadly, the aforementioned table captain wannabe busts a few players when the nine seat's KK and six seat's QQ run into his AA and the table breaks around me when said "table captain" gets a couple empty racks and hits and runs immediately after that hand. Boo. I decide that I'm too tired to go to a new table and figure out what's what, so I take my sandwich and cash out.
Hopefully tomorrow I can lather, rinse, repeat.
Overheard Conversation 1:
Person A: "So, do you feel smarter now that you are in grad school?"
Melissa: "Actually, I've never felt dumber in my whole life. They break you down here. You can't have any kind of self-esteem in grad school."
Overheard Conversation 2:
Jim: "Did someone just print the 'Walker' article?"
Steve: "Johnny Walker?"
Me: "I could use some Johnny Walker." (followed by general laughter from the rest of the lab.)
I'm going to be TA-ing GVPT 170 (Intro to American Government) again, but with a different Prof. It's also going to be a huge class. More than 400 kids and 5 TA's. Plus, one of the other TA's is Melissa. :)
In poker news, it's deadly to be running bad when you're playing good and playing bad when you're card dead. Boo. Hopefully I can turn some of this past week around at Foxwoods later this week. I have class tonight til 6:30, then Jeff and I are getting on Amtrak tomorrow at 5:30 am. Won't be back til late Sunday, so I hope to get out to the tables at least a few times.
I'm officially registered for all but one class, and hopefully that will be taken care of soon. Still waiting to hear what my funding assignment is going to be next semester, but I'm guessing I'll be TA-ing 170 again - hopefully on Thursday instead of Friday this year.
So far, Monday looks like it's gonna be my busy day.
Monday: 11:00am-11:50am Calculus (Yes, I'm taking a calculus class. No, I'm not majoring in math.)
12:30pm- 3:15pm Participation and Voting Behavior
3:30pm- 6:15pm Religion and Politics
Tuesday: 9:30am-10:45am Calculus
Wednesday: day off
Thursday: 9:30am-10:45am Calculus
hopefully TA 170 from 2pm-5pm
Friday: hopefully another day off - if I can get out of TA-ing on Friday and do it on Thursday instead.
I'm really looking forward to the Voting class - that is what I am most interested in and I'm hoping to get a dissertation topic out of it.
I saw Julie Taymor's film, Across the Universe, a little while back and I never wrote a review. I had been eagerly anticipating this movie, but was a little wary too. Last year, Jeff and I went to go see Love, the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show in Vegas. It was OK, but I had built it up in my head so much that I ended up being rather disappointed. I cringed when I read early reviews of the film that mentioned they had some pretty cheesy references like a girl coming through the bathroom window.
Some parts of it definitely were cheesy and cringe-inducing, but I really liked some of their covers of songs (though I certainly would not include Flying or Blue Jay Way in my list of 30 must have Beatles songs), and overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been (ringing endorsement, there). Guess the key is to go into it with low expectations. I will note that several of the plot points seemed directly ripped from the mini series on the 60s with Julia Stiles that was on tv back in the late 90's. Overall, I was glad I saw it, but it certainly won't end up in my personal list of top movie musicals. I'm still waiting for a "modern" movie musical to match up to some of the classics, like West Side Story, Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, etc. The more time that passes with continued movie musical flops (like the movie version of Rent), the more I wonder if the day of the good movie musical is just over.
I like to do work in the grad lab at school. Inevitably there's also other people working on the same assignment and it's also the de facto meeting place for GVPT grad students. Frequently this doesn't really contribute to productivity, but it's always a good time and there's always bound to be some interesting conversation.
This morning I was printing stuff in the lab before I ran off to a meeting with the prof I'm TA-ing for. Someone was commenting that next week was Thanksgiving (really already?!?) and there was the inevitable chorus of "woe is me, I still have to do (fill in the blank)." Then Alex, our resident optimist, says to me: "Try this one on for size...the end of the semester is only four weeks away." Thanks, Alex. As excited as I am to have a month off for winter break, I still have a million things to finish before the semester ends. Tempus fugit...and not in a good way. Silver lining: at least I don't have any exams this semester, just lots and lots of papers. I hope I can get through the next few weeks with my sanity as in tact as possible.
Went out for Keenan's birthday last night: dinner at Morton's and bowling at Strike Bethesda. Dinner was great although the service was bad. I had oysters to start, filet Oskar (filet mignon with asparagus, hollandaise, and crab meat) and we got the standard sides (potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, green beans...). We were too stuffed for dessert, but they brought out a chocolate lava cake for Keenan's birthday anyways. I've actually never been to Morton's before, but although the food was really good, I don't know that I'd be back. Things were, imho, overpriced and we got really bad service.
Bowling at Strike Bethesda was, as always, entertaining. Sadly, my bowling skills sucked and the highest round I bowled was a 92. Still had a good time though.
