I'm a dice fetishist.

I'm taking two classes in my first semester back at school in six years. Elements of Statistics and Data Analysis (that's one) and Advanced Topics: Social Policy and Gender (that's the other). Did you know that although the US has a relatively low percent of GDP dedicated to public social welfare expenditures compared to other westernized economies (i.e. Australia's, Canada's, Sweden's, Italy's) it also has a remarkably high percent of GDP going towards private social welfare expenditures? Comparable countries don't show a significant burden on private employers to provide health insurance. When you factor in the private expenditures, the percent of US GDP going to health care and insurance is just as high as in Denmark and the Netherlands, and greater than in Australia and Canada.

Suddenly I have an increased respect for Jacob Hacker. I've been reading his book The Divided Welfare State and complaining about how he can't just write simply about his ideas. His writing style has been giving me a headache. But trying to communicate the same ideas, I see partly why that is.

Maybe I need to learn more about it before I try to talk about it.

I want lemonade.


Sophie

Dude. I have tried 4th ed. And I have loved it. I am fully ready to become a traveling salesgirl for this amazing game.

Also, I love love love The Venture Brothers. I have three of the t-shirts, and I'm about to buy a fourth. I flippin' loved the twain/crowley/wilde episode, and I FREAKIN' love when Brock goes to the strip club. She's so cute they way she says "cretin" and "tsetse fly".

Can you guess when character I play in 4th ed?

Did you enjoy GenCon as much as I did? Dude, Comic-Con is too bloated. GenCon is where it's at.


Soph

Thank you to life, the universe, and everything, for the following:

cklarock
feminism
none more black
pretty dresses
dead to me
glasses with switchy arms
WALL-E


Sophie

I have a new love. A love I hold so dearly. A love that I hope will last forever. One that will perhaps grow to be a worldwide concern. I love Eco-Tech. I love the show. I love all the ideas that get profiled. I love imagining a world where our trash becomes a useful resource. I love that somehow people are finding funding for all these great environmentally sound technologies.

And basically I love that I'll live long enough to see the the world become a significantly more environmentally conscious place.

Now.

If I could just live long enough to see an end to racism, sexism, classism, and the World Bank...


Sophie

OH MY GOD.

OH MY GOD.

KU IS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.....


OHMYGOD>

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(photos later... yes!!!!!)

DUDE!

Did you see the game today? Did you see any of the games today? How's your bracket doing playa?

Oh, it's sooo fun. Sooooo fun!!! I watch these games and I can barely keep breathing!!!

I'm reading such good things right now. Game Logs. The Wisdom of Crowds. And Hellfire Nation. I recommend them all. I cannot say enough about all of these lovely publications.

Does it surprise you that our household likes Jay Bilas?

Also, do you, or do you not agree, Season 8 is the BEST season of The Simpsons ever.

Also, I am having the hardest time keeping my New Year's Resolution. it's positively shocking I've even made it this far.

I'm pretty proud that our kitten is socialized enough to go play with three of our next door neighbors, three different households. I didn't realize I could even raise a kitten to be this well-adjusted. Lord knows I'm not!



Sophie

It's snowing. Overnight the world has been bathed in white. Which is... too much. I just want the bad weather to be over. Snow is a pain to walk in, a pain to drive in, it's too damn cold, and... yeah.

Well, I need to be inside anyways, because I'm studying to take the GRE again. I totally wish your scores just lasted forever. My scores from 2000 were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. But no, after five years your scores basically expire. It's horrible.

I don't know. I got nothing, other than those two things. How are you folks?

Sophie