Adventures in Onionism

To be completely honest, I very much enjoy teaching, and the possibility of teaching smart college kids undergrad econ in the future is about 90% of my motivation to finish grad school (feeling like I'm DONE and the freedom to think about whatever the heck I want all day--the NFL draft-- make up the other 10%. Oh yeah, plus inertia and fear of getting a real job.) I don't think I ever posted about how bad my student reviews were after teaching a semester at my undergrad school, but they were pretty bad. (Favorite phrase: "The most arrogant and heartless teacher I've had in my life.") I scored lower on every single question than the university average, the Econ average, and the Econ 110 average. I got over it (it has been a year and a half) but I just discovered a new source of ratings when I googled myself that made me sad all over again, especially because I'm just starting a new teaching (TA) job. Oh well. I'll just keep reminding myself that (a)...

Apparently the Bush administration lied only 935 times in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Ran maybe 20 miles in the rain today, then ran a bunch of errands, also in the rain. I was hoping to have something interesting to say today since school is starting tomorrow, but going to IKEA doesn't lend itself to meaningful pronouncements (although you would totally love my new POS bookshelf) and I haven't finished either of the books I'm reading (Dawkins--The God Delusion, Pollan--Omnivore's Dilemma) so I won't say anything about them yet. But, yep, school starts tomorrow. I've been out for three semesters. Anybody think it'll go any better this time? I'd like to say "yeah, me neither" here, but I am sort of actually thinking it might. It seems like I might actually be able to handle the Law & Economics field, and that I might actually enjoy it. Pigs might also fly, but we'll have to see.

These sentences are cool. Probably even cooler than palindromes, and possibly even cooler than funny limericks.

Today at work I learned that the Don't Tase Me, Bro kid was tased not because he was being obnoxious, and not because police are sometimes big jerks, but because he was trying to expose the truth about a massive conspiracy in which John Kerry colluded with George Bush in order to get Bush re-elected. I also learned that 9/11 was an inside job, but the biggest lesson of the day was that I much prefer it when people base their beliefs on facts and evidence as opposed to, well, nothing. Also, using Occam's Razor and common sense are pretty cool.

Virginia Tech got blown out, then the Redskins got blown out, then Ohio State got blown out again , and now Joe Gibbs is retiring. I suppose Cal did win their bowl game, but going 7-6 isn't much to get excited about. Now with the possible exception of March, I suppose I'll just be bored until September. I'll try to keep it in perspective that it also really sucks that two of the foreign countries I've been to most recently (Pakistan, Kenya) seem to be falling apart. Perhaps I should also focus on the positive--when I visited my brother in North Carolina, I discovered the three Christensen brothers actually do have something in common: we all love football. On a much happier note, Pacence , a friend of mine from the Appalachian Trail, stopped by on Sunday. I hadn't seen him since the trail in '02, so we had a lot of catching up to do. He's been traveling almost non-stop since then, and it was really nice to be able to talk to someone with the same sen...

I finally put up photos and video from my CDT hike. Pictures and video from the CDT hike itself are here , and photos from the road-trip home can be found on my Picasa page .

Here's what my beard and my new hat look like. Occasionally people ask when I started the beard, and I say August 9. Then sometimes they ask " This August?" I'm pretty happy that I can produce such awesome bushiness, but it's not that bushy. Here's a few pics from my Christmas Day run from the Embarcadero to the top of Mt. Tamalpais and back. I think it was about 42 miles. Me and my friend John that ran the part through the city with me Yes, even 3 years after the election, I'm still wearing the same running shirt. The top of Tamalpais The view from the top The day after Christmas I rode Amtrak to Utah. It was pleasant enough. It would be better in summer with longer daylight hours so you could see more. I had fun in Utah, except for when the missionaries randomly knocked on my friend Paul's door, refused to engage in idle non-religious chit-chat, preferred to discuss my past in detail, said things like "how long has it been since yo...