reminder

I think I really do love macro.

national longitudinal study 79

Until now I have been so ignorant and disinterested about the source of data used for all these academic papers. I just took it for granted - literally - rather than being inquisitive about where and how these data were processed.

Alas, that's why the experience counts, especially for economists. I realized unless I had an opportunity to write an empirical paper for my seminar, I would not know how to collect data, where I can best find it and arrange it for my use, and how to read it.

I also realized after more than 12 hours of downloading data sets from NLS79, which has not been completed yet, there's some problem with downloading them in my hard disk. Too long to think it's just a large size file, I guess.

basketball and marriage premium

I've always been interested in basketball the most among professional sports though I haven't played it seriously in my life. This semester I've tried taking a PE course but couldn't fit it into my schedule and ended up taking tennis, which I thought might be a better idea in any way.

But finally, I think I am seriously getting a step further into the world of basketball through a different channel - economics. Well, I've never imagined myself doing any analysis with sport statistics. Even when Professor Wang was giving out some fascinating statistical analysis with baseball data in his uniquely entertaining way, I was never drawn to regard sports as a subject of my statistical analysis.

This semester, however, I think I am going to write a long, in-depth paper using sport statistics on NBA players. I will mainly investigate whether there exists a marriage premium on the productivity of NBA players. Does marriage enhance a player's game performance (measured by scores per game divided by the number of attempts at goals)?

I am still at a very much beginning step to predict anything. But I'm hoping to see some positive effect of marriage on productivity to provide a more interesting result and convince myself there has got to be some reason other than the fact that marriage is a social norm if almost everyone gets married at least once in their life.

I'm excited for this project - it'd be fun - except that I'd have to devote so many nights and days, including my spring break, to struggle to find a good instrument, deal with Stata, and justify my methodology. Agh!

Smiley face

:) -> :)
:) -> :(

So the converse does not work between some people.

Love stories...Love Story (Segal, 1970) & Cinema Paradiso (Tonatore, 1988)

Love stories do not have to be mutually exclusively cheesy and touching.

If I were to ever look back at the last week as a special one out of my entire college career, I would call it a week of "back into classics" - whether it be for movies, modes of thinking, or experience.

Nurtured by Love by Suzuki

To merely "want" to do something is not enough (87).

One must be able to put things into practice (88).

It is only doing the thing that counts.. I shall acquire the habit of doing what I have in mind to do (88).

Even small tasks should not be neglected, but completed right away (89).

"If you try it, you can do it" (91).

"Unhappy are the thinkers" ... because thought is often just idle thought, and does not include self-correction. What is the use of pouring repentance on repentance? Too much thought makes thought meaningless, and finally we get so we reject thought altogether. Self-examination not accompanied by change isthe same as not putting into action what we think of doing (90). 

The sooner people realize their mistake, the better. The more the situation is changed, the nearer the human race will come to happiness (107).

"Talent is not inborn, it has to be created" (36).

Talent education (Talent Education Research Institute), Shinichi Suzuki

What would be there, in "Elizabethtown?"

Not a movie review, because I haven't seen the film.

But the snapshots alone are so fascinating enough!

Elizabethtown (Crowe, 2005)

*Picture source: Elizabethtown official movie site