Bleep.

Two days ago the weather was lovely. Today it is slated to be twenty degrees colder and much drearier. In about thirty minutes from the dispatch of these words, I have to take the free-response part of an economics exam. I kicked the first half's ass up and down the weird scantron that we were using. Unfortunately, I finished up at about the same time as the fellow who inspired me to write my post about jackholes, and he joined up with me as we walked out of class. He doesn't seem like too terrible a fellow, really; just annoying in his speech and mannerisms. But that reminds me of this fellow in my Globalization class.

In a class of maybe 100 students, the professor knows this kid's name. The first time she called him by name, I was hit with a deep pang of regret for our poor instructor. This guy really did seem to be a true and proper jackhole. He always wanted to share something--more than even the other jackhole-types in that class--and it was never very insightful. Plus, he has tried to strike up conversations with myself and David, the fellow I sit next to (who lives at Pearl Street as well). Neither one of us wants to talk to him. Ever. But he still does it. David usually shoots him down, but I can never do that sort of thing to pathetic wretches, much as I want to. So it's awkward and unpleasant and I wish that that kid would just shut up. And it really pisses me off that he'll probably be getting three points added to his final grade for participating in class discussions, as per the syllabus. What absurdity.

I've noticed, though, that I seem to be a bit more of an asshole now that I'm here. I don't participate in any class discussions except for the rare comment or two, which leaves me lots of time to think about what douchebags everyone else must be. I'm pretty sure that's a bad thing. Granted, I don't actively think any of this except in the cases of truly egregious douchebaggery, but I worry that I am becoming a smug son of a bitch, and I wonder what exactly has allowed for this to happen. I miss the happy-go-lucky, in-your-face Cantay who was the intelligent class clown, but I bet I could coax him out again, and I bet I could coax out the latent cool-personas of the others in my classes who just need an opportunity to break free. Maybe I should raise my hand in Globalization even if I don't have something cutting to say about anti-free-trade policies--I think I need to, since David, as cool as he may be, probably disagrees with me on most issues. Maybe I should speak up more in microeconomics even though I've already taken the equivalent at GW. Whatever I do, I had better do something, just because I feel like I may be settling into a bad equilibrium. And as every economist knows, bad equilibria are hell.

Now it is time for that test. Or at least some cereal so that I don't have any rumblies in my tumbly. I wish you well, fair viewers.

But Damian, would you really call a teacher's work flexible or relatively low-stress? I would contend that curricula leave little room for flexibility and that teaching is perhaps one of the most high-stress jobs to be had. And the fact that teacher's wages have remained unchanged despite the increase in demand for their labor seems to indicate more of a market failure than market-clearing. Then again, I couldn't find the article that you mentioned in your blog because WSJ is evil. But it sure is good to see you here, welcome to the show.

And hasta la byebye.