Update

So, I haven't had much to say in a while. But maybe over a few minutes this afternoon on the first day of March I will have something on my mind, we'll see how this goes. I have three things I want to talk (probably to noone, lol) about today: 1) Lent, 2) Grad School, 3) the economy.

1) For lent, although I don't go to church and also I'm definitely not Catholic, I decided to give something up this year, starting after the amazing debauchery that was Mardi Gras on Ash Wednesday. I know what may be going through your mind. This guy is a sucker for pain, he just likes to give things up for no apparent reason. And you would be right. I don't know I just like to have something to think about and goals to strive for all the time it seems.

Regardless, this time I am actually giving up three things. Facebook, meat, and coffee.
Facebook is fun and it's a good way to keep in touch with your friends. But man is it a bad time waster, then again so is this.. Also, as time comes for me to get into grad school, I don't want anything that I wouldn't want people seeing to show up somewhere. In fact when I get back on Facebook (because all in all, I probably will, it IS useful in some capacity) I'm probably going to clean alot of pictures and things up for the future.
Yes, I gave up meat again. It will be harder this time since I went back to meat after the Cleanse, but I'm prepared. There will be alot more soy milk drinking and tuna fish eating and I'll probably get mercury poisoning but it's all good..
Coffee.. that was what I was going to originally give up.. all concentrated caffeine things. I mean it's not big deal but I do love coffee a couple of days a week.

2) Grad school. I have applied to six grad schools for a Master's in Civil Engineering (geotechnical): Virginia Tech, UT Austin, U of Missouri at Columbia, NC State, Texas A&M, and UC Davis. I'm not counting any schools completely out yet. However, suffice it to say that the consensus among some people that I know that I have talked to are that Virginia Tech, Texas, and Davis are among the best schools in the field. Thus far, I have been accepted to everywhere. However, I have only received hard offers from two schools, Virginia Tech and Texas. I won't go into details but I am waiting on everywhere to send me something before I may any decisions. I'm pretty happy with how it's looking so far and I haven't really come to any big decisions. I'll probably be waiting for a few more weeks (during which period I will be visiting at least those two schools and possibly a couple more) and will probably hold a press conference to announce my decision sometime in early April, no big deal. I'll keep update and announce to all my adoring fans when I figure something out.

3) The economy. Oh my. The economy has continued to go down the drain since my last dissertation on the subject. Since then, the recovery package has passed both houses and was signed into law by President Obama. Total pricetag: $787 bn. Hmm. What do I think about this?

I think there are alot of good things in this. Like I said before, I'm not sure that if the government doesn't at least put on a facade of doing something, the economy will come back. In fact, this is a very very bad economic cycle. It's not like anything before. Without government backing, alot of companies would have already fallen. Including the auto industry, but we'll get back to that later.. Some might say (thanks Noel Gallagher) that this could just be prolonging the death of the companies and the true collapse of the global economy. That's a possibility. It's also a possibility that we could actually see some rebound in the next year or so. I believe this will happen. How much of it was due to government intervention, I'm not sure. But I do believe that if we don't help the country, it will fall much faster.

However, there is alot of stuff that went through that I do not support, and I think is very wasteful. However, if certain red states don't want the money, don't take it. It's OK Haley Barber, let's let the schools deteriorate, and our roads pothole and bridges collapse. You were a Washington lobbyist originally anyways. Let's ignore the fact that our governor's old lobbying firm was the first or second most powerful in the nation and backed the tobacco industry in the 90's. No big deal.

So, what do I think will fix the economy? I'm not sure. I do know that letting the country fall after the big mistakes of the past 15 years of basically Laissez Faire is not the way to do it though. Some would argue, I invite them to.

We SHOULD however, let GM fall. Yes that would lose alot of jobs, but they are being propped up by the government right now. If they go down, maybe market space is opened for the competitors who could then fill that gap, but right now we are just throwing money in the fire by giving them these loans that will never be repayed.. a) they haven't been making money in several years of decent conditions. There is no effing way they are going to begin making the type of money needed to stay viable AND pay back the American people in an economy like this and gas prices eventually going back up, and their refusal to accept new transportation technologies. (see the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car").

AH, well that it for now. I'll post some more when I get more stuff to get off my chest. If you have any comments or questions, let them lose.