Bubble tea

Around noon I was doing some work in the computer lab when I got a text from Anne asking if I was on campus and if I wanted to hang out.  Usually I'm not on campus on Wednesdays til 3:30, but I had a GSA meeting this morning.

She suggested we go get bubble tea down at one of the places on Rt. 1.  We walked over there (and it is freezing and windy today) and I have to admit I was a little nervous.  I'd never had bubble tea before and I'm not a big fan of tapioca.  I had an early gray flavor (with milk) and it was actually pretty good...a little sweet, but good.  Plus, it was nice to catch up with Anne.

Overheard in the gradlab

*I rolled out of bed after a few hours of sleep this morning to get to a GSA meeting on campus and I threw on the first warm comfy thing I could find...my UConn sweatshirt.

Jesse: I can't help but notice that you are wearing a UConn sweatshirt but claim to be a Syracuse fan on your facebook profile.  What gives?

Katie: I have to do laundry.

Things that make me happy

1) freshly shaved legs against clean sheets, dress pants, or silk pajamas
2) not setting an alarm clock
3) someone else cooking for me - to quote my grandma, it always tastes better than your own
4) intellectual conversations with good friends
5) the smell of wood smoke on a winter night (reminds me of home)

I was trying to focus on positive things yesterday and realized I've experienced all of these things in the past month.  Life isn't so bad after all.

Schuessler's Logic of Expressive Choice

Been awhile since I've done a book review on here.  I love to read.  I used to plow through a book or two a week.  However, since I've been in school and have approximately 1000 pages of reading per week of political science stuff to get through, not to mention the written analyses of those readings that I have to write, I haven't been reading as much "for fun" as I used to, and most people that read this blog are probably not interested in the readings I have to do for school.

Anyways, I'm taking a class on voting behavior this semester.  It's the topic I hope to write my dissertation on, and I really like the professor and the other people in the class (it's a class of 7, including me).  I have already read many of the canonical books in this area, so I am glad that the professor is exposing me to other works I was not previously familiar with.

Today's class focuses on rational choice.  I don't really need to go into detail about what rational choice is because those reading this in the field have an intimate understanding of it (unless they have been living under a rock - it is one of the most dominant yet controversial theories in our field in the past 20 years...what Kuhn would refer to as a paradigm shift) and those not in the field probably don't care to know that much about it.  Suffice it to say that it is generally the borrowing of economic concepts such as cost, benefit, and utility to explain political behavior (in this case voter behavior).  According to the theory, voters make cost-benefit decisions that are rational based on their given preferences in determining whether to vote and for whom to vote.  There are problems with this theory empirically and theoretically, but it is also appealing in its parsimony.  It is certainly the most appealing to me out of any of the other theories I have been exposed to.

However, for today's class we were assigned a reading I had not yet read (or heard of): A Logic of Expressive Choice, by Alexander Schuessler.  This is the dissertation I wish I could have written.  He combines two of my all-time favorite political science books: two rational choice canons: Olson's Logic of Collective Action and Downs' Economic Theory of Democracy along with some of the more appealing parts of socio-psychological theories of vote choice.  His basic argument is that many people vote based on identity and that voting is an act of displaying one's identity much like making selections from a jukebox (that's why his theory is sometimes known as the jukebox theory of voting) or putting a bumpersticker on one's car. 

Anyways, if you are interested in this kind of stuff, I highly recommend his book.  I was surprised I have not been exposed to it yet.  It should definitely be on more syllabi.  And, as I noted in my reaction paper for today's class, it seems likely to me this theory could account for a lot of people's voting behavior in this year's election if Obama (or to a lesser extent Hillary) receives the Democratic nomination.

Happy Birthday Geo. Washington

I Am the Bar Trivia Queen

Muhahahahahahahaha!

There Will Be Blood

Just got back from seeing this at AFI.  It was a really good movie about greed, power, conning people....until the last few minutes of the film.  I won't spoil it but the ending was a little disappointing, I thought.  Of course, Daniel Day Lewis did a fabulous job.

Poker is stupid

Hey mom, don't read this post.  You are going to be sick.  ;)

Over the past two sessions of NLHE:

AA (me) vs. KK.  I lose.  (-~$500) (~80/20 in favor)
AA (me) vs. QT.  I lose.  (-~$400) (~80/20 in favor)
AA (me) vs. AK and an unknown hand.  I win.  (+~$300) (~80/20 in favor, including the random hand)
AA (me) vs. unknown hands.  I win the blinds.  (+~$10)  (no callers)
AJc (me) vs. TT.  I get odds to see a turn.  Get my money in with a J high straight (second nuts) against a set of T's.  I lose to a board pair on the river. (-~$200) (~70/30 in favor)

Well...at least I made some Sklansky dollars this past week.  Can I claim to be running bad when I get dealt AA four times over the course of about 12 hours of play?  (The odds of being dealt AA are 221 to 1 and I probably see somewhere around 20 hands/hour).

And I played all of them as well as I think I could have.  I could have maybe saved $100 on the AA vs. QT hand...

Later in the second session I ship half of my rebuy when I turn a big top two heads up against what turns out to be an OE and a flush draw.  Straight comes on the river and I somehow manage to make a good fold with the best hand I've seen in hours and half of my stack in the middle when I'm stuck.  I called out his hand exactly on the river.  I guess it's a good thing he made his hand obvious, but it's kinda cold comfort making good folds sometimes.

The previous week I have $400 profit in front of me that I've worked hard for.  Four handed, the last hand of the game, I get 77 vs. QQ on a Q76 board.  I cash out +$85.

Award for most frustrating hand of the week doesn't even go to any of the above either. 

I'm badly in need of a double up (triple up really, but who is being greedy?).  Get QQ in the small blind at a table that has folded pf to my last few pf raises...about an hour ago I wanted to cry when my KK took down about $5.  Haven't won any big pot since, but I've been winning enough of the small ones to stay about even.

Decide that since I need a double up(triple, but who is counting), I will limp and take my chances rather than pf raise and have everyone fold (again).  3 limpers, including several people who like to take stabs at pots to the flop.  Q37 rainbow flop.  Beautiful.  I check.  It checks around.  Ummmmmmmm...  hmmmmm.....

6 of meaningless suit on the turn.  I check.  It checks around.   Really???

Board pairing 3 on the river.  OK, OK, I bet a whole $5 ($1 less than a pot sized bet).  Get one caller.  I want to punch something as I take down the $16 pot.  I show my hand to gasps of "Did you limp with those!?!?" 

And for the first time in what is literally about a year and a half I decide to cash out while I'm really stuck...still owing the board even...  I have about half of my board and slightly less than a third of what I'm in the game for in front of me.

Still unsure whether this cash out was a good thing or not.  Game went for two hours after that...but the action was surprisingly pretty dead and I was REALLY frustrated and tired.  I guess it was a good thing, but I startled myself when I got up from the table.

I've been playing such solid poker the past week and a half...some of the best consistent playing I've played in awhile.  So how am I stuck ~$800 for that same period?

the perfect sunday

1) sleep late
2) cook myself breakfast and eat it in bed while watching a movie
3) cook dinner for the week
4) have pizza and beer for dinner while playing tonk for 6 hours watching Platoon, Annie Hall, and Dirty Dancing

hooray for lamb...and not the fluffy variety...the eating variety.

I have been cooking more and I made this for dinner last night.  Wow....very very good.  And pretty easy.  I love cumin, lamb, and couscous.

Lamb:

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

8 (4-ounce) lamb loin chops, trimmed

Cooking spray

    

 

Couscous:
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

    

      

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

To
prepare lamb, combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl. Brush honey evenly
over both sides of lamb; sprinkle evenly with spice mixture. Arrange
lamb in a single layer on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray;
broil 4 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.

To
prepare couscous, heat a nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat
pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in
cranberries and next 4 ingredients (through 1/4 teaspoon salt); bring
to a boil. Remove from heat; stir in couscous. Cover and let stand 5
minutes. Add cilantro; fluff with a fork.

The Squid and the Whale

Been watching quite a few movies recently.  Just saw The Squid and the Whale, which I've wanted to see for quite awhile.  What a great movie.  It's one of those movies that is just real.  You could picture everything that happens and everything that is said really happening.  It's funny and sad at the same time.  Good soundtrack too. 

A goodly controversy

Sometimes it's hard to leave the drama behind...especially when you do things that engender said drama...

I woke up this morning to a huge storm of emails from a bunch of my college friends that were in student government with me at GW.  Seems that one of our least favorite administrators got himself the boot at his most recent job.  There was a bunch of speculation about whether he conducted himself the same way at UMass as he did at GW.  It's hard to change what you are, says I.  And on that note, good luck to the undergrads at LSU where he is headed to next.

Linky one.  Linky two.

Philly

Had a good impromptu trip to Philly last night with Anne.  I met up with her at our hotel and then we cabbed over to Tattooed Mom, a really awesome bar with friendly people and great ambiance.  It reminded me a lot of a coffee shop on Syracuse's campus that I used to hang out at in high school when we were not in the mood to hang out in someone's basement or the local diners...lots of couches and comfy places to just chill and have a beer.  Anne also introduced me to blueberry flavored vodka, which is definitely something I'm going to have to pick up the next time I'm at a liquor store.  I bet it would be really good with Red Bull.

After we closed down the bar, we had an interesting walk back to our hotel which included conversations with three random groups of people...something that probably would not happen in DC...unless you were on the last metro train home. 

When we finally woke up and checked out around noon, we headed to a brick-oven pizza place around the corner and had some really great pizza.  In my opinion, good pizza starts with a good crust, and the crust on this pizza was perfect.  Crispy and chewy all at once.  As we people watched and ate our pizza, I was again reminded of how un-city like DC is in so many respects.  It's hard to find good pizza around here and there certainly aren't any Mom and Pop pizza places where you could show up on a Sunday after a night of drinking.

After pizza, Anne took me to Monk's, a bar known for it's Belgian beers, and I had a pint of their own Belgian sour ale which was really unlike anything I'd ever tasted before.  Kinda sweet and sour beer.  Interesting.  After that, we called it a day.  I ended up getting home around 3, popping in a few of the dvds I had from Netflix, and getting some school work done. 

One of my friends from college is from Philly and he is always talking off someone's ear about how great his hometown is.  Every time I go to Philly I am reminded that he is right.

Hooray for furniture Part 4

Billy made fun of me for ordering blue furniture, but I think it goes well with the brown walls.  Brown or neutral colored furniture and brown walls would have been too much, I think.  It's more or less the same color as the sofa that Jeff took, but it's microsuede instead of fabric.  And both the couch and the chaise are very comfy.  Now I can finally have people over...house is fully furnished with the exception of the vacant bedroom.  I think I'm gonna try to have a dinner party towards the beginning of March.

Bumping one of my own posts

A little less than a year ago, I posted about a new poker movie, The Grand.  Since I couldn't go to its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Fest, I mused that I hoped it would open in semi-wide release soon.  Well, it's almost a year later and the trailer has been posted on yahoo and the release date set: March 21.  Definitely must get a group of the degenerates together to see this.  Poker movies that do not take themselves too seriously = the nuts.

Question of the day

Why is it that some days (like today) I can be uber-productive...doing schoolwork, cleaning, doing laundry, doing dishes, setting up my new furniture, running out to home depot, doing projects around the house etc. in a few hours and other days I can barely accomplish one thing the whole day?  If only I could be this productive every day. 

Finally saw the Assassination of Jesse James...

Starts out a wee bit slow, but the cinematography is excellent/stunning/beautiful.  I wish I had been able to see it on the big screen (though my 52" tv did it about as much justice as a tv could).  A little long, but worth it in my opinion.  However, the last time I waxed poetic about a movie's beautiful cinematography and it was a little long, I think I was one of two non-critics to like the film.  (Sarah et al, you have been forewarned). 

In short, I recommend it, but only if you want to sit through a slightly (ok, at 2' 40", probably more than slightly) too long movie and can appreciate beautiful cinematography.  Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck's performances were none too shabby either (and James Carville (that's right, the Ragin' Cajun) has a cameo). 

Overheard in the gradlab: Your mom edition

Alma: Hey, Alex, I really like your pants.  Where did you get them?
Alex: (deadpan) Your mom.
Alma: What?
Alex: You just have to treat her right.

5 minutes later...
Chris: Who brought in all this Christmas chocolate?
Alex: Your mom.

In Syracuse, where there aren't that many Democrats to begin with...

From Syracuse.com:

In the city of Syracuse, the strangest thing happened in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary.

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama received the exact same
number of votes, according to unofficial Board of Election results.

Clinton: 6,001.

Obama: 6,001.

"Wow, that is odd," said Jay Biba, Clinton's Central New York campaign coordinator. "I never heard of that in my life."

The
odds of Clinton and Obama tying were less than one in 1 million, said
Syracuse University mathematics Professor Hyune-Ju Kim.

"It's almost impossible," said Kim, who analyzed the statewide and citywide votes.

Lisa Daly, Obama's Syracuse campaign coordinator, said she thought a
mistake had been made when she was first told the tally by the Board of
Elections.

What are the chances of it happening?

"Good thing it wasn't a mayor's race," quipped Grant Reeher, a
political science professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs.

A total of 12,346 votes were cast for Democrats in the city. Four
other Democrats also received votes: John Edwards, 114; Dennis
Kucinich, 113; Bill Richardson, 90; and Joe Biden, 27.

The tie is likely to be broken when elections officials recanvass
the voting machines and add in the absentee and affidavit votes.

But for now, it's all even.

Looks like Hillary hasn't kept up the same positive impression among CNY Democrats that she had years ago when she decided to carpetbag...

Calculus class homework

I posted previously about having to submit our Calc homework online.  I just finished the first homework assignment and I kind of like it.  You can submit the homework question by question so you can work on it and come back.  You also get three tries to get the answer right and it tells you if you got it right or wrong immediately.  I am a fan.

I'm also a fan of the professor for this class.  He is a hilarious 30-something British guy who teaches in a way that is really straightforward and understandable.  I never took a math class other than statistics in college, and I have to admit I was kind of worried about this class.  I had some, shall we say, interesting math teachers in high school.

Hooray for furniture Part 3

Finally - my living room furniture is coming on Friday morning!  No more empty living room...now I can finally have that dinner party I've been planning to have.

Juno, Waitress, and Religion and Politics

Went to see Juno last night at AFI.  Definitely a good movie - funny, but also touching, and Ellen Page does a really good job.  I'm sure she'll be in some other movies soon.  Also, I love Allison Janney and she was hilarious in this movie.  I highly recommend going to see it if you haven't already.  Oh - it also had a fabulous soundtrack with Belle and Sebastian on it.

After the movie we went to McGinty's and had a few beers.  We started talking about politics since CNN was on covering the Super Tuesday returns.  I told Keenan that I thought a McCain/Huckabee ticket was all but unstoppable...and that HRC probably has the best chance against them, but it would still be an uphill battle.  Somehow after that we all started talking about religion and our personal views on it...even Billy got in on the conversation after being largely quiet.  It's been a long time since I've had a real talk about religion with people and it was nice.

When I got home it was still pretty early - around midnight, so I decided to pop in one of the dvds I currently have from Netflix: Waitress.  This movie got really good reviews and I was looking forward to it, but in the end I didn't think it was that good of a movie.  Basically, Keri Russell plays a waitress who makes pies who is in an unhappy marriage and gets pregnant.  She starts having an affair with her doctor, and she has all kinds of inane conversations with the other waitresses at work.  Anyways, I thought it was overrated.  I wonder if I would have liked it more if I hadn't seen it immediately after Juno.  Whereas Juno was a movie that was about strong and empowered women, Waitress seemed to me to have a lot of codependent female characters...even the ending which I think is supposed to be the strong female ending did not seem to be that way to me. 

Number one sign that we have truly hit a recession?

Starbucks is closing stores.  *gasp*

Overheard in the gradlab

*Eabs bought Ozan a key chain that says "stud muffin" in New Orleans.

Ozan: What does this mean?  The only kind of muffin I know is muffin with raisins.