Thoughts on Year 3, Week 1

Apologies for not updating more regularly.  Fact is, I haven't really had much going on recently.  Played some poker (up over all thanks to a few nice hits at pink and a few nice trips to AC), bought a new car (still need to take pics), and gone out drinking with friends several times.  Plus I took my comp and I think prep for that and the aftermath have had me less interested in writing and more interested in sitting around and doing nothing.

School has started and I've had 2/3 classes and the first lecture of the class I am TAing for.  So far so good.

1) Watching the freshman walk around campus with confused looks and maps is priceless.

2) Freshmen look younger every year.  I swear I saw some 12 year olds.  These kids were born in 1990.  That's really scary.  90's babies in college.

3) I'm going to lose at least 10 pounds in the next month.  I forgot how much walking and stairs there are.  (Stairs in RDG garage, stairs in Tydings, walk across hilly campus from RDG to Tydings...)

4) I'm really excited about my cognitive survey response class.  It's basically a class all about the cognitive reasons for bias in answering surveys, and it's taught through University of Michigan which has some of the best survey methodologists in the world.  This stuff is probably interesting to like 5 people in the world, but I love it.  I'm the only polisci person, because it's not in my department so I was kind of worried, but the prof was awesome and we had an interesting short conversation about how the cognitive processes of vote choice were actually a lot like the cognitive processes of taking a survey.

5) Hope I can keep my head above water in my theory class.  I felt a little lost on the first day.  At least I am taking this class with Jason who also seemed a bit lost.  We are all required to take a theory class in this program, but I haven't had to take theory since like 1998, so I am a bit out of it when it comes to remembering certain philosophers and their main points. 

6) I can hardly wait for my formal theory class tomorrow (game theory, social choice theory, rational choice, etc).  I think that class is really going to be fun - and I'm taking it with Jim and Jill.