End of fall term

I took my last final Tuesday night. Now I have 3 1/2 weeks to relax and do whatever. Most likely I'll spend a lot of time being lazy. I am going to try and make another batch of salsa. I've been going through 1 to 2 jars every week. I'm going to try an make it a little hotter this time.

I haven't gotten any final grades yet, but I will go ahead and predict 2 B's and 1 A. My final paper (there were no exams at all in this class - 2 papers, 1 oral presentation, and attendance/participation) for Environmental Ethics could have been a lot stronger and will probably drag my overall grade down to a B. I mostly enjoyed the class and it gave me an expanded view of a lot of environmental issues. I really need to put more effort into not procrastinating so much with papers. This class should have been a relatively easy A. If I end up with an A I will be suitably disappointed because I don't really deserve it.

My favorite class (with my favorite professor of all time!) was highly informative and interesting. I did really well on the mid-term (one of 3 A's for the class) and I'm pretty sure I'll get an A on the final. I knew the material pretty well and took lots of notes. He spent the last two classes letting us know what we needed to know for the final. Studying for an exam with 6 pages of notes is much easier than with 50 pages. I learned a lot about how regulation of industry works, particularly the energy production/transmission industry. I had to give up some of the preconceptions about this subject. This is the kind of stuff I'm really interested in. I'm looking forward to his other class during the winter term.

I just wasn't very happy with the instructor of my Microeconomic Theory class. He was a nice enough guy but I had a lot of issues with his methods and work style. I've complained plenty to my housemates, so enough of that. I expect a B from this class also. One of my midterms was less than stellar (79%) and one was pretty good (90%). I got just under 92% on the homework. I did pretty well on the in-class graded problems, but still don't know the overall grade for those. I think I did pretty well on the short final paper (Price Discrimination: On-Peak and Off-Peak Pricing). I think I only did so-so on the final exam. There were a couple of the multiple part questions that I wasn't very familiar with. And I still don't really get how to figure out a couple of seemingly fairly important things. I blame the teacher. Mostly. Anyway, I think I probably got a score somewhere in the low 80's. At least I hope so. That would give me a solid B. Even a score in the 70's would probably still leave me with a B overall. I wish I had had a lot more time for this class. 10 weeks seemed too short for all of the information that we were expected to learn. Maybe I'm just getting old and it takes longer to learn new things. Maybe I should just try harder. No matter what that seems like a smart thing to do, but hard to pull off sometimes. I was glad to get this class over with. I think the way my schedule was arranged this term was less than ideal.

I registered for classes a couple of weeks ago. I went for the 5-days per week option that allows me to be home by lunch time every day.

My first class is Behavioral Economics (EC410U). I think this class is going to be a challenge. If it can hold my interest it shouldn't be too hard to be motivated. It only meets twice a week for an hour each time. The syllabus indicates a group project with grad students leading each group, a lot on online time, a need for a laptop in class, and two papers. I've heard the instructor is interesting but a bit wacky. I hope that's what my opinion of him is. This is the only class that I'm a bit unsure of, but I think it could be interesting and valuable. I've pretty much decided the same about Econometrics, but I'm not very confident in my math skills.

Next is Energy Economics (strangely, this class is also EC410U). I expect this to be my favorite class of the term. Same professor as my Regulation class. How can it be bad?

The third class is Economics of Green Power (EC444). This should also be a very interesting class. The instructor uses a textbook that he wrote. I don't much like the idea of this, but I have no personal proof that it is a bad thing. I'm excited to learn more about this subject.

So it's ALL economics this coming term. Hooray! I think I only have to buy two textbooks this time and both of them are relatively inexpensive. I should probably buy a new raincoat though. I'm still walking a lot as part of my commute and its only going to getting wetter in the next few months. Classes start on Monday, January 2.

Mon.  9-10 Behavioral Econ
          10:15-11:20 Green Power
Tues.  10-11:50 Energy Econ
Wed.  9-10 Behavioral Econ
           10:15-11:20 Green Power
Thurs. 10-11:50 Energy Econ
Fri.    10:15-11:20 Green Power

I'm going to have to get used to getting up an hour earlier this term. Can I handle it? It will be a horrible trying experience, I'm sure. Oh the horror!