Well, this week has been more eventful than I expected. This week was Reading Week. Some people spend the whole week getting plastered out of their minds in some exotic place. Some people use the time to make some extra cash by working some more hours. And some (*gasp*) actually use it for reading! I know, I know, it’s crazy. But I actually intended to do some heavy reading this week, some of which I got done, but not as much as I’d have liked.

To backtrack a little bit, I just finished reading a book by Tim Harford called “Undercover Economist.” It was a really interesting book about applying basic economic theory to things that people actually care about – you know, like the price of coffee and used cars. It’s easy to read, without employing a whole lot of economist-speak, so I’d certainly recommend it. The last couple chapters were especially interesting in light of the recent economic crisis – he talks about the immense benefits of free trade (and thus, I think he would be against this “Buy American” clause in the stimulus package), and also gives an insightful explanation as to how China has expanded its economy immensely in just a few short years, to the point of being poised to become the next world superpower. All in all, I thought it was a great book. If you are at all interested in what I said, you should check it out. But I’m not being paid…Continue Reading

I think I am officially the king of recycling. Not necessarily recycling in the cans-and-bottles kind of way. But the past few days, I have suddenly revived my addiction to Age of Empires II, a video game I got when I was a kid. Seriously, this thing was released in 1999 – that would make me about 11 when I got it. Man, was Y2K really that long ago? Wow.

Anyways, this isn’t the first time that this has happened. I’ve downloaded many of the old DOS games I used to play, like Commander Keen, Crystal Caves, Jill of the Jungle, and several others. And those go even further back. I have fond memories of playing those games, and watching my dad and sister play them as well. Yes, apparently we have a nerdy family. But at any rate, Age of Empires I think holds the record for me for the longest-running on-and-off addiction. That’s kind of a contradiction, I know, but basically I play it intensely for a few weeks to a month, and then I lose interest in it for a while, it sits on my shelf and gathers dust, and then years later I pick it up again and get totally immersed in it all over again. This is about the third or fourth time that’s happened over the years. There are plenty of newer, better games out there now. But none of them are quite the same. And I happen to like Age of Empires!

This…Continue Reading