Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. But hopefully not a merry woodland critter Christmas... that would be disturbing. Feliz navidad.

Rest in Peace, Jim

Growing up in Northeastern Oklahoma, I could not help, like any other child of mild competence, but to idolize the weathermen. The Wild Weather show, the rock star greeting these fifty to eighty year old men get at elementary and middle schools around the region, and the smart suits they wear and the confidence with which they accurately predict the weather (and tell you when to get into a basement for an incoming tornado)... I just couldn't help but want to be a meteorologist.
A lot of kids talk about wanting to be firemen or police men... I wanted to be a weather man. I'm a nerd. I know. I got over it a long time ago.
I gave up my dream of meteorology sometime in high school when I realized that I just plain did not like Chemistry or Physics which... let's face it, those are pretty much the basics of meteorology. Also, going to Kansas for meteorology would be like going to Oklahoma for anything but meteorology... it would just be a waste. But I always still idolized the weathermen, especially the man... the legend: Jim Giles.

I actually met Jim Giles in elementary when I was in fourth grade, and had the same reaction most kids get when meeting Barney or Big Bird. It remains as one of the best memories of my young life when this nice old man showed us how he did the weather every evening; the green screen, and the televisions on the side of the screen so he could see where he was pointing on the map (if he looked back, all he would see would be the empty screen). Know why the movie Twister was so lame? They didn't have Jim Giles in it. They had some other Tulsa meteorologist who will remain nameless.

This morning I got the news that Jim Giles passed away. Very sad day indeed. It's the end of an era when one of your childhood heroes dies. The reaction in OK here seems to be on par to Diana's death, as my dad is describing it. Sounds pretty accurate.

At least I will still look up at the skies every now and then and dream of being a meteorologist. At least I'll still have noaa.gov and The Weather Channel.

More or less done

So my MA paper is done and turned in, and I am back in T-town.

For those who were interested, here is a brief summary of the paper:
Emigrants that are intermediately or positively selected create a drain on the economy due to the absence of moderately to highly skilled labor. Real wage gains for those who remain behind tend not to make up for this loss. Remittances, while inducing quite a bit of development in investment by small businesses and educational development, are found to not make up for the GDP loss in the case of Mexico. However the loss is found to be insignificant. In certain Caribbean countries, remittances more than make up for the loss in workers. There is no literature on if remittances in Caribbean countries are used for investment in small business and education as they are in Mexico and El Salvador.
Legal and illegal emigrants are not differentiated.
Familial Networks are found to play a key role in emigration, but are largely ignored in the literature (to the detriment of the literature).
The models could be generalized for studying other cases (Africa/EU, West/East Europe, etc.)

Nothing big. Just a review of what economists have done with the effects of emigration since Borjas in 1987 (not much). That is the sum of it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can provide any papers (Mishra, Borjas, Cox) that I think are a good read if you're interested. I can provide interpretation for the unreadable (seriously, some of these took me days to translate... and they were in English...) papers with interesting results (Hanson, Woodruff and Zenteno, Borjas). Side note: Mexico is a good place for sexy data. Or at least so say the professors...

Speaking of emigration, I've got all application materials in for grad schools with the exceptions of my transcripts for this semester. Who knows where I'll be next year? Colorado, Texas, Maryland, Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, Arizona, Massachusetts, or Oklahoma. Place your bets now. You can rank them in order of top three most probable. Closest one gets a prize. Results in May (hopefully).

Happy holidays (this blog is losing the war on Christmas).

Done with Presentations

So I am still alive, and still vertical at this point. I have finished my trade and econometrics presentations which I think went well. I actually somehow got an apology from my Trade instructor for having put such a difficult paper on the presentation list without realizing it (one other student got this apology. We both figure that's good), as well as, "But given the time you had to make and present the paper, you did well". Nice.
The metrics presentation went well until halfway through I realized I had made a mistake in the computer program and got the exact opposite result of what was supposed to happen. But during the presentation I was able to go back to the point I made the mistake and at least demonstrate the way the program is supposed to work and the result that is supposed to be reached. So... not bad, not bad.
I have now locked myself in my apartment with a Papa John's pizza and I'm working on my MA paper. Saturday I'll be at the department working on that last Labor assignment due monday, and I should be done with the MA paper for this semester by next week. Since I have a few other errands I have to run down here in Dallas, and a few friends I have to see to make sure they're still alive as well, I should be down in T-town by the 10th or the 11th. Then I'm back down to Dallas for la Ardilla's friend's wedding on the 16th (I get to be arm candy... nice), then she's back in Juarez and I'm back in T-town for Christmas.
So yes. I am still alive. Just have a few last things to finish up down here.

I recall while doing honors Spanish back at KU, I had to attend MA level literature classes with the grad students. One class the teacher wanted us to see the ending of this Spanish movie adaptation of a Galdos novel, so we were setting up a time to watch the last hour of it. Two male students raised their hands and requested we meet thirty minutes after the suggested time. "Why?" the professor asked. "Sorry, we're going to be watching Scrubs." "And this is absolutely necessary?" The two students looked at each other shocked and said, "Claro."
Yes. It is necessary. For sanity's sake. So yes. MA paper, and Scrubs re-runs on Comedy Central. That's the plan for the week.