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:: Saturday, October 30 2004 ::

Saturday morning, 5:30am. We're off to Bordeaux to see Lisa, and buy lots of tasty tasty wine. Apparently we're actually taking a wine tour almost as soon as we arrive, so there's no danger of missing out on the wine tour experience. Somehow I expected that Bordeaux would not be suffering from a lack of wine tours. Hopefully we'll also manage to visit some of the lovely places in the area as well, but at this point we have not planned a thing. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, we'll be back on Manday. Everyone have a great weekend!
:: David (23:34 in Michigan, 05:34 in Paris) - Comment
...

:: Friday, October 29 2004 ::

This week in history - modern Turkey's founding father became president, and, in a lighter note (sort of), in 1982 the 'dingo stole my baby' episode occurred.
:: David (16:25 in Michigan, 22:25 in Paris) - Comment
...

The Economist has weighed in on the American election in an article titled The incompetent or the incoherent?. They begin with an explanation of why they, a British magazine, are suggesting which way Americans should vote:

Whenever we express a view of that sort, some readers are bound to protest that we, as a publication based in London, should not be poking our noses in other people's politics. Translated, this invariably means that protesters disagree with our choice. It may also, however, reflect a lack of awareness about our readership. The Economist's weekly sales in the United States are about 450,000 copies, which is three times our British sale and roughly 45% of our worldwide total. All those American readers will now be pondering how to vote, or indeed whether to. Thus, as at every presidential election since 1980, we hope it may be useful for us to say how we would think about our vote — if we had one.
And they go on to lay out, point by point, why they think that, despite his faults, their readers should vote for John Kerry on November 2nd.
:: David (08:02 in Michigan, 14:02 in Paris) - Comment
...

:: Thursday, October 28 2004 ::

The Economist weighs in on the American election:

So, while volunteers fight the ground war over turnout, and campaign strategists fight the “air war” with television ads and interviews, the lawyers—call them the special forces—could prove decisive. They are trained in dark arts like psychological warfare, legal sabotage and courtroom counter-insurgency. Both sides are employing thousands of them for what will be a bitterly fought election. Six out of every ten Americans surveyed by the Associated Press doubt that there will be a clear winner by the morning of November 3rd. Exhausted voters and campaign workers on both sides desperately hope they are wrong.
I am of two minds. I have made clear to a number of people that what I hope for, or halfway expect, is a clear majority for Kerry - lots and lots and lots of people, uncounted but clearly unimpressed with the direction the country has taken since 2000, all turning out to eject Bush from office. However, whenever I read about the phalanxes of lawyers already mobilized to disenfranchise, et cetera, I move into the group that believes that come November 3rd, nothing will be decided.

I read today that the BBC will do all-night coverage from DC the morning of the 3rd, starting at 12:45am. I just can't decide if I care, or if I want to read about it in the papers. I suspect the New York Times will give me all the coverage I need, but there is something exciting about the whole 'as the votes come in' aspect to election day. I'll wait and see what's going on at work....
:: David (07:54 in Michigan, 13:54 in Paris) - Comment
...

Well, according to CNN I am just about as perfectly average as you can get, as far as height goes. I fear my weight may not be quite as well moderated, but I'm not certain - we don't have a scale in the new apartment....
:: David (01:22 in Michigan, 07:22 in Paris) - Comment
...

I have to admit, one of the things I think about, fairly often, is the question of revealing too much information, especially as it relates, for example, to my workplace. I tend to think if it were noticed, someone would invite me down for a chat with HR and say something along the lines of 'you mustn't mention us. Ever.' But, as this story from the BBC shows, perhaps they would simply fire me. Yikes!
:: David (01:17 in Michigan, 07:17 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Wednesday, October 27 2004 ::

There's an article in the NZ Herald about a project I had a (small) hand in. It has an amusing quote - "We have invited people in the OECD to come and live on a benefit here. I haven't actually seen any of them volunteer to do it yet". The Social Development Minister Steve Maharey said that. So I wrote a quick email to my boss, asking if I could do it. Still waiting on an answer....
:: David (17:33 in Michigan, 23:33 in Paris) - Comment
...

At work all day (and part of the evening), and then I am home, erased my registry, and re-installed windows. All in a day's work. I can't wait until this week is over and we can go back to normal nine-to-five type days!
:: David (17:28 in Michigan, 23:28 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Tuesday, October 26 2004 ::

So, in the random stuff department, I've been playing a whole bunch with my new Palm Zire 72, which is not the coolest thing in the world, but does make me quite happy, as it incorporates several things I like, including a camera and a video camera (as well as an MP3 player). So I've been shooting lots of random videos about Paris (and then accidentally erasing several of them - one of the 'features' I don't like). So, this evening on my way from work I stopped on a random corner about a block from where I work and just did a scan of the intersection (Video, about 1MB). There's a cute delivery truck that drives through near the end, if you want to see a Parisian delivery truck, and some buildings and somesuch. Strictly for amusement's sake.
:: David (13:58 in Michigan, 19:58 in Paris) - Comment
...

I can't believe it's the end of October already. We seemingly just moved out of the last apartment (at the end of August) and now it's two months later and we're still getting things together, finding our way, etc. We haven't even done any sort of proper walkaround of our little village. It's crazy how fast this year is going. And I really, really need to get on the application to U of M. Decision by default is not really what I want to have happen!
:: David (06:17 in Michigan, 12:17 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Monday, October 25 2004 ::

Posted my ballot today. They offered me the two day option, but since I've already got a ballot in for the presidential race, I just sent it air mail. I feel pretty confident none of the measures I consider important (read: constitutional amendment banning gay marriage) will pass, regardless of my vote. But I threw my two cents in just in case. Now it's back to the grindstone at work. We have a Friday deadline, and while things haven't gotten crazy just yet, I expect Thursday and Friday to be stupid busy.

In the furnished house department, we have purchased some of the necessary items for living here, such as a couch, and a chair, and things of that nature. Someday we will even have enough space for all our clothes. And when that day comes, it will be time to move back to the states. Thank goodness all this stuff comes with me!
:: David (13:27 in Michigan, 19:27 in Paris) - Comment
...

Well, there aren't any stories up yet, only pictures, but the pictures from Egypt are up.
:: David (01:35 in Michigan, 07:35 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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:: Sunday, October 24 2004 ::

How do I know my local government loves me? Because they spend $17 friggin dollars to get me my ballot!

I really, really hope they didn't have too many overseas voters, because that is some seriously expensive stuff for a community that isn't know for its wealth!

As you may have ascertained, I got my ballot. The toughest one on there was the Ypsi library trustees, and in the end I found a story which said some of them were for blocking the internet at the library and some weren't, so I voted on that. It took a while, finding the info for michigan. I suspect I wasn't looking in the right place. I'll send everything off tomorrow, and hope it gets there in time. It's ok, because I have voted for the pres race already, but I'd like to have my say on the state ballot initiatives.
:: David (16:58 in Michigan, 22:58 in Paris) - Comment
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Well, we went through the first set of photos from Egypt last night. I can't believe how many photos we (I) took. There must have been two dozen of the sphinx alone. Yikes! Hopefully we can finish the process today, and get a rough draft page up so Jason will stop bugging me!
:: David (03:44 in Michigan, 09:44 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Friday, October 22 2004 ::

I have internet at my house! Life is good!
:: David (15:57 in Michigan, 21:57 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]
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Friday night, seven p.m. Where am I? At the office, working on the tax and benefit system of the slovak republic. But fear not! I'll be headed off soon to visit my newly wired home. Yay!
:: David (12:58 in Michigan, 18:58 in Paris) - Comment
...

Here's a cute little article from the BBC:

President George W Bush is spending almost all his time on the campaign trail, travelling from rally to rally, swing state to swing state, in his bid for re-election. Which begs the question, who is running the United States?

:: David (11:09 in Michigan, 17:09 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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Now you can see all the pictures I've been taking since August, including (one hopes) the pictures from Egypt. Woo hoo!
:: David (09:15 in Michigan, 15:15 in Paris) - Comment
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Wow! In one mad, crazy day, Sasha came back, our internet was installed, our new phone was installed and I made it to work by 11am. Not bad at all. Of course, it's only 3pm and I'm already beaten up for the day, but whatever.
:: David (09:14 in Michigan, 15:14 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Thursday, October 21 2004 ::

Well, I'm off to try and get a TV. I forgot the whole PAL/NTSC thing when I came up with the brilliant idea of watching TV on my computer. So hopefully I can find a cheap nasty TV at one of the used stuff places in town (which might also be called the 'fell off a truck' places). Then home, to clean the place up and wait impatiently for Sasha to show up tomorrow morning.
:: David (12:13 in Michigan, 18:13 in Paris) - Comment
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Something new in my "20 Minutes" this morning - a roundup of the top five news stories reported in the French national papers. Numbers in parentheses are the number of stories that appeared this week.

  • Price of gas (105)
  • American elections (77)
  • Iraq (61)
  • Tahiti (56)
  • Camdessus report (46)
Obviously, the last one is internal news. The others are fairly straightforward, and not that different from anywhere else (Tahiti excluded).
:: David (03:23 in Michigan, 09:23 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Wednesday, October 20 2004 ::

Well, I got half the things I wanted to get done today done. I had two goals when I left work around 6:20. To get to BHV to buy some screw so I could finish putting our drawers together, and to hit the internet cafe so I could report my blue screen of death to microsoft, and hopefully get a fix. I got the screws, but the WiFi fooled me, and I sent before I was actually logged in. Sad. I have managed to find some drivers, so I'm hopeful that things will work out ok. And in the meantime, I have internet access....
:: David (14:17 in Michigan, 20:17 in Paris) - Comment
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Whups! Forgot to link to the 'best and worst of the debates' list!
:: David (03:25 in Michigan, 09:25 in Paris) - Comment
...

The Guardian, in addition to their 'write a letter to someone in Ohio' campaign (which has, as one might imagine, sparked controversy), also has a 'best and worst of the debates' list, which is divided into sections like 'worst rebuttal' and 'best name dropping'. But my personal favorite:

BEST CAMPAIGN AD FOR THE OTHER PARTY IN 2008

Bush: 'We're not going to have a draft, period.' (8 Oct)

Kerry: 'I am not going to raise taxes.' (8 Oct)

Not that one would even need to point out the draft thing, were it to occur - I like to think the people would rise up en masse were the draft to be reinstated....
:: David (03:23 in Michigan, 09:23 in Paris) - Comment
...

Good lord! Could the US get any more conservative if it tried? According to a story today on CNN, the new hit show 'housewives' is losing some big name advertisers due to it's 'risqué' themes.

For those who don't know, this show follows the exploits of bored suburban housewives. I think you can guess some of the major themes. I encountered it while I was back. I was somewhere between amused and horrified.
:: David (03:10 in Michigan, 09:10 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Tuesday, October 19 2004 ::

There is an ongoing battle here in France, led by 'Wal-Mart' type stores, to liberalize the market, to allow supermarkets to negotiate lower prices from their suppliers. The magazine '20 minutes' had an article on it this morning (it's actually fairly difficult to avoid seeing something about it at least once a week), and beside the article they had a little sidebar, which I translate below:

The Numbers:

400 meters squared: The minimum size of a 'hypermarket' or 'supermarket'.

66.1% : Percent of market for food held by supermarkets, versus 8.4% for small shops and frozen food stores.

520,000 : Number of people who worked in supermarkets in 2001, versus 186,000 in small shops.

174.8 billion euros : Sales of supermarkets in 2003, versus 15.1 billion euros for small shops.

I should put in parenthetically that there exist stores here devoted completely to frozen food products. I guess it makes sense...? Anyway, the sidebar seemed to be completely for the 'lower prices' plan, and the main story did as well. In fact, I haven't seen very many people against it, excluding small business owners, who seem to have much less power than you might have thought. Or perhaps it's just that Paris is a bubble, and the rest of France is up in arms....
:: David (08:13 in Michigan, 14:13 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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CNN gives you one good reason not to spend $10,000 on a new TV:

An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corporation flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.
I love the way the emergency services deal with it - they told him not to turn his TV on again.
:: David (08:10 in Michigan, 14:10 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Monday, October 18 2004 ::

Safely back and at work. I tried a new plan, pulling an all-nighter with George (it started out being an all-nighter with George and Tammy, but that went by the wayside at about three in the morning) in the assumption that, if I was simply tired enough, I could sleep on the plane. Special thanks go out to Jason for teaching me that rule, which I learned in the early days of my visit to Egypt. So Saturday morning I returned home, packed up, and drove out. I was able to fit a half hour visit to Lisa in en route to the car rental place, although I'm glad I didn't cut it too close, because I got lost looking for the place to return my car.

I did manage to sleep some on the flight, but not as much as I had hoped, so I crashed out when I got back and slept almost all of Sunday away. I went to bed at four this morning, caught three hours, and now seem to be back on schedule, in that I am tired but not dead on my feet this morning. In fact, I look like everyone else who just survived the weekend.
:: David (03:58 in Michigan, 09:58 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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:: Friday, October 15 2004 ::

Other things happening in the area, just around my house: several new housing developments have cut down acres and acres of trees just a couple of blocks from my house, and it looks like the village where I live (Vicksburg) is growing like a mad fool, with a new luxury home/golf course development and other horrible stuff like that. I'm not going to recognize the area if I stay away too much longer....
:: David (17:50 in Michigan, 23:50 in Paris) - Comment
...

Well, there are an awful lot of changes happening here in the Kalamazoo metropolitain region, and while I don't like most of them, some of them are at least interesting. For example, threads church, which has billboards all over the area. It's a church which is appealing to young people, and it seems fairly hip and 'with it'. The billboards drive you to their web site, which in turns tells you their mission and the location of their church. It looks like an interesting thing happening in the kalamazoo area. I especially like the little photo slide show, which seems to give a montage of how 20 and 30 somethings hang out in west Michigan.
:: David (17:48 in Michigan, 23:48 in Paris) - Comment
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Well, that was fast! It's Friday, the last day before I head back. It's been good - I'm glad I came home. Now I've just got to survive a week in Paris all by myself, and things will return to normal (I might even have internet before the month is out).

Coming home is always so weird in some ways - the ghosts of the past, and a sense of what might have been had I been a different person, or simply made slightly different choices. It's a weird mix of the claustrophobic and the comfortable. On the one hand, West Michigan is so small, and it almost seems you can feel opportunity drain away as you sit, like if you stayed too long you would simply have to get a job at a gas station or something. But on the other hand, everyone is so friendly, and you know everything there is to know about the area - over there used to be that store, that's now a parking lot, and the city looks good now that they've done this and that other thing. It's home, in all the good meanings of the term.

Coming back will be odd, and I don't think I could stay for too long, as much fun as Ann Arbor is. But on the other hand, it's comfortable, like your favorite pair of jeans.
:: David (11:46 in Michigan, 17:46 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[6]
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:: Thursday, October 14 2004 ::

According to the BBC, Eric Clapton has had his driving priviliges revoked in France, after being caught driving above 150 mph (240 kph). But, according to the story, there were no hard feelings on the ground:

After his suspension Clapton posed for photographs with French police.
Which is funny, but at the same time I'm not sure that it makes me feel safer on the road knowing that someone who drives like that isn't subject to some more serious penalties than having a license revoked.
:: David (10:59 in Michigan, 16:59 in Paris) - Comment
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Managed to clean up the blog finally, so now there's only the current month's postings, and the archive runs through September. I picked up a card reader today, which reads all of the various media cards (SmartMedia and SD, in my case), so finally, all of the photos from Egypt are in one place, on my computer. I'm now using the cards to swap data between my computer and this computer (my parents' computer, which is the only one connected to the internet). It's weird to be working 'from floppy' again, even if the 'floppy' has 32MB on it.

I've been doing, in fact, an awful lot of shopping since I got home, for tech goods. I have a new Palm (with Wifi!) and a new camera, and all the goodies which go with both. It's very exciting. The camera is particularly impressive, although I'm fairly certain I won't be able to use it properly for at least six months.
:: David (02:17 in Michigan, 08:17 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]
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Posted some photos from our new apartment in Chatou. They aren't great, but they give you an idea of where we're living now that we have left the great metropole of Paris.
:: David (01:37 in Michigan, 07:37 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]
...

Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. And the trouble is, I can't decide if it's because I'm still jet lagged, or because I've been on the go since Saturday morning basically non-stop. Today I spent the whole day with my sister and her family, which is wonderful (if there is something better than having all three of the young girls crowded around me while I read to them, I don't know what it is) but also completely taxing. Yesterday I rolled into Vicksburg after a morning meeting in Ann Arbor with a student in the PhD program at U of M, renewing my driver's license, and an afternoon spent catching up with Martha, my former college professor. Monday was equally breakneck, as I visited around U of M to get more info on the PhD program, and in the evening went to Fin and Misty's to play cards, eat, and socialize. Sunday Ryan and Issa got married, in a really nice little ceremony up in Lansing which reunited almost every person I ever lived with in college (almost everyone who was ever in TOAD was there - it was crazy mad fun).

I can't even begin to guess how many miles I've put on the car, which is OK - it's a rental.
:: David (01:18 in Michigan, 07:18 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Monday, October 11 2004 ::

Safely in Ann Arbor. Meeting folks (hopefully) for lunch, and then killing time in the city. Fun. Off to Detroit this evening, assuming we stick to plans....
:: David (12:10 in Michigan, 18:10 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[3]
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:: Sunday, October 10 2004 ::

Well, we woke up at 7:45 this morning, wide awake, so jet lag is alive and kicking. We're shuffling around now getting things in order for the wedding which will happen shortly.
:: David (08:23 in Michigan, 14:23 in Paris) - Comment
...

Made it to the States. And the hotel room has internet. The plane ride took a while - we left the house at 7AM and got in at 10PM (Paris time). The there was a hour-plus drive to Lansing, Michigan, where the wedding is being held. I think we're going to try and find some food, and then perhaps drop off like stones.
:: David (19:55 in Michigan, 01:55 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Friday, October 8 2004 ::

Well, that's the end of another day for me. I'm off to the wild blue yonder. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of my lovely readers in my travels, and I suspect I shall continue to blog while in the United States. I am also hoping to post some photos, perhaps from all sorts of place. We'll see what happens when I get where I'm going.
:: David (11:22 in Michigan, 17:22 in Paris) - Comment
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Good news! If you've ever wanted to go 'whap!' up side the head of a baby seal, Norway may have the solution for you! For a very small amount of money, the BBC reports that tourists can take part in the annual seal culling.
:: David (06:30 in Michigan, 12:30 in Paris) - Comment
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This whole Boeing-Airbus trade dispute just keeps getting crazier. First it was the US and Europe, taking each other to the WTO over allegations of illegal subsidies. Now it looks like Japan may become involved for subsidizing Japanese companies involved in the production of the Boeing 7E7 'dreamliner'. I don't know how far this can go, but as the FT noted, it isn't good for anyone.
:: David (04:25 in Michigan, 10:25 in Paris) - Comment
...

The Austrian Author Elfriede Jelinek won the Nober Prize for literature recently. I suspect she's a truly great author, because she sounds like one:

Jelinek's own reaction in Vienna was characteristically on the uncheerful side of exhilaration. She said she felt "more despair than peace" at becoming only the 10th woman to win the 103-year-old prize, still the most respected in any art form.

"It doesn't suit me as a person to be put on public display," she said. "I feel threatened by it, I hope it doesn't cost me too much. I hope I can enjoy the prize money, because one can live carefree with it. It is the biggest honour.

"I'm not going to Stockholm because I'm not in a mental shape to withstand such ceremonies. I unfortunately suffer from a social phobia."

Not exactly the most chipper of people, really. You can read the rest of the article in the Guardian.
:: David (03:56 in Michigan, 09:56 in Paris) - Comment
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OK, well, never mind - it looks like there was a bomb in the city I live in, as well. Apparently a bomb went off at the Indonesian embassy (here in the 16th) last night. Bombs, bombs, everywhere!
:: David (03:49 in Michigan, 09:49 in Paris) - Comment
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Here's a map of the Sinai peninsula. We were in Dahab. The next town up to the North is Nuweiba, which appears to be very near the southernmost bombing site. Yikes.
:: David (03:38 in Michigan, 09:38 in Paris) - Comment
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Well, if you have read the news today you know that Egypt was hit by bombers in three Sinai resort towns. I can't tell how far they were from the Sinai resort town we were in one month ago, but looking at the map in the New York Times story, I would say less than 50 miles. Scary.
:: David (03:18 in Michigan, 09:18 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Thursday, October 7 2004 ::

Here's a disturbing little thing from the economist: on their web page they have an 'infrequently asked questions' section. Today's question: "What percentage of black children in America attend predominantly minority schools?" The options are 35,57,70, and 94%. What's scary is that one of those options is right. What's shocking is which one - 70%.
:: David (11:09 in Michigan, 17:09 in Paris) - Comment
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Bother! I finally did it! A typo in my HTML. Now you're all going to have to look at weird blockquotes until I can fix it.... Hopefully soon!
:: David (04:19 in Michigan, 10:19 in Paris) - Comment
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You may or may not be aware that during the vice-presidential debates, Cheney referred to a website, factcheck.com. What he actually meant to say was factcheck.org. If you visit factcheck.com, it redirects you to George Soros' website - an anti-Bush site. But what's even more amusing is that, according to at least one person, it didn't do that until after the debates. Rebecca Blood stated in her blog:

I visited the site during the debate, expecting it to redirect to factcheck.org, the site Mr. Cheney meant to refer to. It didn't go to Soros' site; it went to some educational (software?) site that looked a bit like a portal. Beware the lefty webmaster, I suppose....
So there you have it - a little humour on the part of somebody with the right domain at the right time. Of course, a second possibility is that he had to change the domain so his webserver didn't get swamped....
:: David (04:18 in Michigan, 10:18 in Paris) - Comment
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Found it! The quote Arnie used at the Republican convention:

There is another way you can tell you're a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: "Don't be economic girlie men!"
So there you have it. Now I have to find the time to zip over to cafe press and make a t-shirt! Apropo, the quote was discovered on, of all places, about.com
:: David (04:06 in Michigan, 10:06 in Paris) - Comment
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I put together yet another piece of furniture last night. That's now one bookshelf (big), one bookshelf (little), one chest of drawers, one clothes hanger thing, and a dining table (some of these requiring more work than others). Last night was the chest of drawers, and it was the worst yet - Something like 60 screws to put into that beast. And my hand is telling me today that I shouldn't do that again. But it's really pretty. If I had a camera, and a way to post things to the web, I would post a picture. Not to worry - I'll have a camera soon enough (in fact, my parents may have already received it, much to their surprise - I forgot to tell them I was having a pile of goods shipped to their house). I'm still working on the net connection for my house. We'll see if I can get it running before Election day (I don't think I'll be able to - we won't even have a phone line until late October).

Running around like chickens without heads today and tomorrow, trying to get the last of the many things we need to do done before we leave. One of the biggies is getting our ballots and sending them - hooray for voting against the crazy man! Too bad about voting for the other guy....
:: David (04:01 in Michigan, 10:01 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Wednesday, October 6 2004 ::

In the Vice-Presidential debate last night, John Edwards stated:

I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and so does John Kerry. I also believe there should be partnership benefits for gay and lesbian couples in long-term committed relationships.
Now, I will grant that this is the politically expedient course to take. But doesn't it sound an awful lot like 'separate but equal' to you? There will come a day, and I suspect (and hope) it will be in my lifetime, when people will wonder how we could ever have been so blind.

The quote, by the way, comes from the New York Times, which has a transcript of the debate.
:: David (03:40 in Michigan, 09:40 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Tuesday, October 5 2004 ::

A friend asked me about the apartment. I replied:

We don't have any storage yet, so the spare room is just a box and junk holding area, but we're talking about getting some shelves today, which will allow us to clear it up some. Then, hopefully, we can get some chairs, a couch, stuff like that. Right now we only have a kitchen table, which isn't the best place to pass an evening.

But Chatou is quite pleasant, and I've found the neighbours friendly, which is much better than our last apartment was - you couldn't get the neighbours to talk to you if you paid them...


:: David (03:41 in Michigan, 09:41 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Monday, October 4 2004 ::

Lots of busy-ness this week. I finally managed to get my Caution Bancaire for my apartment, although given that I have the apartment I'm not certain how necessary it was. Oh well - it's €4000 invested at 4% so I can't complain too much, even if the fees eat any interest the first year. I had planned to write my application to the University of Michigan this week, to their Public Policy program. I hate the idea of going to U of M - it's so cliché - but the fact is they appear to have a solid program, with some big names, and a fair chance of being interesting, so there you are.
:: David (13:28 in Michigan, 19:28 in Paris) - Comment
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Well, it was a crazy weekend, it's going to be a crazy week, and on Saturday, I'm going to be in the states for a week. Yikes. The plan is as follows, and I apologize for those of you reading this here, rather than my telling you, but in fact I don't have a phone, so I can't call people (my mobile had a dead battery this weekend - silly me left the charger at work)

Saturday we'll be at the airport, and then up to Lansing. Sunday is Ryan and Issa's wedding, after which we will escape to Ann Arbor (sorry, Northville). Monday in Ann Arbor. Tuesday morning I'll be on the road for Kalamazoo, and unless amazing schedule changes happen (and they often do) I'll be on the west side until Saturday. On Saturday afternoon I fly out for France.

People wanting to reach me can call me at my folks' house, which is listed here (under my dad, James Britton).
:: David (03:50 in Michigan, 09:50 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Friday, October 1 2004 ::

Japan's newest phenomenon - the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). Read all about it on the BBC.
:: David (08:44 in Michigan, 14:44 in Paris) - Comment
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IZA has a new discussion paper out called What Does the Public Know About Economic Policy, and how does it know it? Written by Alan S. Blinder and Alan B. Krueger, it discusses their work using a phone survey conducted recently which asked people various questions about their thoughts on economic policy, some fact based questions, and questions about where they got their information on economic topics. The results, outlined in the first part of the paper, make for interesting reading:

On average, conservatives thought that the federal budget deficit was much larger ($333 billion vs. $177 billion), that Social Security benefits were a bit more generous ($873 vs. $766 per month), and that a lower share of the U.S. population lacked health insurance (32% vs. 40%)—all as compared to liberals. Conservatives were also more likely than liberals to report being aware that the Social Security trust fund is projected to run a deficit in about a decade (82% vs. 74%) and less likely to say that Medicare already provided coverage for prescription drugs (23% vs. 34%).
Note that the use of 'conservative' and 'liberal' is a self-reported label, i.e. the people were asked where they felt they fit in the political spectrum.

The results they draw, although tentative, are summarized quite nicely in the conclusion:

As a broad generalization — to which many exceptions have been noted in this paper — ideology seems to play a stronger role in shaping opinion on economic policy issues than either self-interest or knowledge, although specific (as opposed to general) knowledge does influence opinion on a number of matters.

[...]

The contrast with homo economicus — who is well-informed, non-ideological, and extremely self-interested—could hardly be more stark. Instead, our findings seem more consistent with an idea expressed in the political science literature: that people often use ideology as a short-cut heuristic for deciding what position to take, when properly informing oneself is difficult.

I found the paper gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies for two reasons - one, the idea that people make their decisions based on "ideology" (although I in fact take issue with the authors' use of that word, given that they themselves note that it is political parties, rather than ideology, driving things - for example, on page 27 of the PDF - "In a sign of these unusual times, liberals were far more likely to rate the budget deficit a serious problem (72%) than either conservatives (44%) or non-politicals (56%)."). The other thing which scared me was their findings that "In a word, television tops the list of how Americans get their economic information; everything else lags well behind."
:: David (05:01 in Michigan, 11:01 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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This made me laugh - it's the Kerry Haters For Kerry website. It's not that we like him - it's just that we have to vote for him.
:: David (02:55 in Michigan, 08:55 in Paris) - Comment
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So we halfway moved in to our new apartment (finally) yesterday. I say 'halfway' because the guy we had hired to bring a truck and help us move didn't show up on time, which meant we couldn't get our things out of storage, so all we really ended up moving into the apartment was a lamp, a bed, and a vacuum cleaner, plus some clothes. The lamp, bed, and vacuum were all purchased last night from a guy who advertised on the internal bulletin boards at work. It was a touch pricey, but it was worth it just to meet him and his wife. We ended up spending like two hours with him, talking politics and current events and somesuch (in French - when's the last time you tried to figure out how to say 'the politics of fear' in a second language? Towards the end my brain caught fire, I think). So, when the moving guy called and said he would be late (his truck was apparently broke down) we had a few anxious moments, and then returned to our house. Whereupon he called again to say he could be to the storage place in ten minutes. Which was a shame, because we had just left the storage place, and were now 45 minutes away, which meant it would close before we could get there. So he met us in the south of town, we headed down to get the bed (we had to wait for the guy to meet us at the metro, because we couldn't find his house), and then we drove over to Chatou with our stuff in the back. I'm actually really glad we didn't have everything last night, in a way, because by the time we finally, finally arrived (he had to keep stopping to check the water level in the truck, and I wasn't always certain it was going to make it up some of the inclines we encountered en-route), it was 11pm and I, for one, was ready to turn in. But it was so nice sleeping in our own bed, in our own apartment, instead of in the little itty-bitty place we've been in the past two weeks. Don't get me wrong - it was a lifesaver, since we had nowhere else to stay, but the bed that wasn't quite as long as I was, nor wide enough to accomodate one, let alone two, was starting to get on my nerves.

Of course, now Sasha is off loading boxes into a truck while I'm at work, for which I feel bad, but she wanted to have the whole thing done before our delivery arrived this afternoon (the bar we purchased, which, now that I've seen our apartment, may be a bit too large for the room it was intended for). Hopefully all of that will go well, no sudden surprises will occur, and all will be done before noon. We had discussed, if everything goes as planned, going downtown today and watching the American presidential debates, which are being shown by the Democrats Abroad or somesuch thing like that. It sounds like it was a good debate, so we might just go see it.
:: David (02:32 in Michigan, 08:32 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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On the front page of Metro today is a story about how the United States now requires photos and fingerprints from all travellers arriving from abroad. The New York Times has a story about it as well (in English, which is probably better for most of you). When we informed someonehere in Paris that this was occuring he was shocked, but it hadn't occurred to me that it would be the lead story for the day.
:: David (02:19 in Michigan, 08:19 in Paris) - Comment
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