currency, howard dean, and amateur haircuts

The first week of 2007 has been about as unexciting as the last week of 2006 was. A little more quality time with DWE, a lot of sleeping, and a bit of productiveness. Today was the first day in at least a week that I didn't take a lengthy nap, so I'm hoping that my increasingly bizarre and inconvenient sleeping schedule will start to get back on track. I guess since I'm not in school it doesn't much matter when I sleep, but it's harder to get stuff done in the middle of the night, and when I sleep during the late afternoon and early evening it tends to isolate me from other people (which I haven't minded up until now, but am starting to mind more).

E, M, and I finalized the details for how the survey data should be entered and divied up the 350 or so remaining surveys, so I've started to work on that. At this point I'm just making the necessary changes and additions to the data that I entered last semester. I have one more chapter left in the increasingly boring financial markets book; for as many differences as there are between the markets for currency, money, bonds, equity, and derivatives, there are also quite a few similarities, so the book is starting to feel especially repetitive. (Yes, "currency" and "money" are different in this context--it's people trading one currency for another versus people engaging in short-term borrowing, which is sort of like buying and selling cash.)

I got together with school people on Thursday night, which was nice, especially since I hadn't seen several of them since before Christmas. I also managed to get a free cab ride home, since I shared a cab with this guy that insisted I didn't have to pay for my part of the ride because I'm a student. I met the guy at the bus stop, where JSOC and H were waiting with me (despite my repeated insistence that they should go home). I think maybe the guy who hailed the cab thought JSOC and H were some guys I'd picked up at a bar that were sort of harassing me, and that he was rescuing me from them, because when we got into the cab he said, "who were those guys?" I guess most of the intoxicated women he sees at bus stops late at night don't have a young Korean guy and a young Colombian guy with them (sucks to be those women...).

Okay, usually I try to be discreet about other people's business on this blog, but I just have to blab this one thing, because I'm all impressed and star-struck about it. Muffin's boyfriend-type-person took him to D.C. recently, where they had breakfast with Howard Dean! The boyfriend is total buds with Howard, and was his California campaign manager when Dean was running for President. Anyway, Muffin said Howard was really cool and nice and interesting to talk to.

While some people were meeting powerful politicians, I was at home watching The Simpsons and trimming my own hair. Yes, I know it sounds like a bad idea, but I think it worked out okay. I did the back by flipping my head upside down, and I even layered it a bit toward the front. I'm pretty broke until I get my student loan later this month, so I didn't want to pay for a haircut, but the split ends were making me crazy (it had been more than a year since my last cut, which is scandalous). I also dyed it a darker and more uniform brown. As far as I can tell it looks fine.

Okay, back to data entry.