Monday, November 23, 2009
Love Story Meets Viva La Vida
This is definitely worth a watch--amazing piano music, amazing songs, amazing musicians... can life get any better? I submit that it cannot!! (and yes, that was a Brian Regan reference). Anyhow, definitely watch the whole video; it's so cool to watch them really start getting into the music, and Jon Schmidt's explanation of how/why he wrote the song adds to the coolness factor.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Icicles and the Sunrise
The following pictures are some that I took this last week on one of the days when I was up early enough to see the sun rise. I was eating breakfast and looking out the windows of my house, and saw the colors of the sunrise reflecting off of the icicles, and it was pretty enough to motivate me to grab my camera and open the window and take the screen out so I could get a clear picture (brr!). They're not spectacular pictures, but they make me happy :)
The sun rising over my town :)
This one shows the colors really well :)
My favorite, just cuz it looks cool :)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Why Economics is Cool... seriously
The following is a quote by Adam Smith (considered to be the father of economics) in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, Section I, Chapter I, p. 9, para.1.:
"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."
I love this quote!! My second degree is in economics, and my first (agribusiness) focused heavily on economics. In most of my classes, my professors would talk about "incentives," and what motivates people to do what they do (this is important when you're trying to figure out how to get them to do something different).
Any economic models we looked at relied on the assumption that people act in ways that maximize their personal benefit, and in class, this was usually measured by monetary (or at least tangible) gains, mostly because it's hard to quantify the "utility" or happiness that someone gets from cheering for their favorite football team (go CATS--beat the griz!!!!), owning one more car, teaching a class, snowboarding, or whatever. The cool thing though, is that while the models we used in class might apply in generalities, they do not necessarily apply to individuals. The reason for this is that individuals take into consideration those things that are not tangible, or that cannot be measured quantitatively, such as the happiness (or sadness) that their actions bring to other people!!
Again:
"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."
Think about it--there's so many little things that people do that don't really bring them any benefits other than just seeing the happiness of those around them: stopping to ask someone if they're okay if they slipped on the ice, dropping off cookies to someone who has had a hard day, helping someone dig their car out of the snow, sharing their lunch with a friend who hasn't had time to eat all day... the list could go on and on. And that is cool :)
"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."
I love this quote!! My second degree is in economics, and my first (agribusiness) focused heavily on economics. In most of my classes, my professors would talk about "incentives," and what motivates people to do what they do (this is important when you're trying to figure out how to get them to do something different).
Any economic models we looked at relied on the assumption that people act in ways that maximize their personal benefit, and in class, this was usually measured by monetary (or at least tangible) gains, mostly because it's hard to quantify the "utility" or happiness that someone gets from cheering for their favorite football team (go CATS--beat the griz!!!!), owning one more car, teaching a class, snowboarding, or whatever. The cool thing though, is that while the models we used in class might apply in generalities, they do not necessarily apply to individuals. The reason for this is that individuals take into consideration those things that are not tangible, or that cannot be measured quantitatively, such as the happiness (or sadness) that their actions bring to other people!!
Again:
"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."
Think about it--there's so many little things that people do that don't really bring them any benefits other than just seeing the happiness of those around them: stopping to ask someone if they're okay if they slipped on the ice, dropping off cookies to someone who has had a hard day, helping someone dig their car out of the snow, sharing their lunch with a friend who hasn't had time to eat all day... the list could go on and on. And that is cool :)
Friday, November 13, 2009
Hope ya know, we had a hard time
Today I was looking for a quote that a good friend of mine gave me a couple years back and I accidentally came across this video, and it just seemed to fit the day. The town where I live just got about two feet of snow in about 24 hours, which isn't a huge amount, but it's definitely enough to cause problems getting from point A to point B. The cool thing about it is that all day long I've been seeing people whose cars are stuck in the snow... and every time, there always seems to be random people who have stopped to help. Yay for people!! :)
How this all ties together though, is that we really have no idea what another person is going through, whether it's the person who is stuck in the ditch, or whether it is the person who is helping to dig them out. So when it's been a hard day, and you see someone else who looks like they might be having a hard time too... take a moment to to help. Cuz guaranteed, you'll both feel better.
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