Drunkenness and moderation

I sincerely hope that I haven't destroyed too much of my brain while consuming ridiculous amounts of alcohol on certain occasions throughout my college career. I recently had an unfortunate episode (Friday) - one of the infrequent instances during which my alcohol usage brings me more costs than it does benefits. It's a crazy story, and best told over a pint, but I believe it suffices to recount that my entire brotherhood have nicknamed me "The Fugitive" for the time left for me at Penn.

Unbelievable.

I am, however, a lucky man, if the only consequence of this incident is that my PennCard (student ID) must be replaced. I have a horrible feeling that there is worse to come. Only time will tell.

I need to moderate. I need a system, or a sort of guideline, with which I can work towards moderating my lifestyle. Hopefully joining the workforce will be a contributing factor. Only pray that my interview tomorrow goes well. I am going to be spending the rest of the day preparing for it.

No summer of ridiculousness

It was going to be amazing, enlightening, awe-inspiring, insane. And now it's not going to happen. The other two guys living right down the hall from me are going to Japan and Greece once all of us seniors have graduated. I, however, don't get to go to Spain with Matt. I get to do financial controlling in Calgary instead of embarking upon a spiritual and intellectual quest of unprecedented magnitude (at least, that's how I imagine it would have been).

This is depressing.

I already owe my parents so much for everything they have done for me - I felt horrible asking them for anything more. Yet I did. I really wanted to do this, so much so that I risked losing their respect; the respect of those I honor most in my life.

And even though I am now not going, because I don't have any money, I still feel like I am living out the Catch 22 in which I inexplicably found myself locked. Go, and piss off your parents. Don't go, and piss off your best friend. Well, my parents are pissed off, regardless, and so is my best friend, with good reason. And I'm stuck in the middle.

Sometimes you really can't win.

I still intend on doing the St. Jacques de Compostela pilgrimage - I'm just not totally sure when. Maybe Matt would consider it for the summer after he graduates - his parents might give him a graduation present, and I would actually have some cash of my own. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Habemus Papam

I honestly don't know what to make of Ratzinger. I believe there were two predominant issues to consider with his appointment: (i) trying to stem the liberalisation and "corruption" of Catholic doctrine (which is arguably either good OR bad) and (ii) trying to maintain sufficient levels of Catholic church membership. I think that, at least in most regards (but not in all) I agree with his values and interpretation of the Catholic faith, but selecting such a conservative figure at this juncture (did you know that for 23 years he was head of the organisation formerly known as the inquisition?) may have been strategically retarded on behalf of the Cardinals. This morning's FT cited worries about Catholic Church membership in Europe as one of this papacy's main concerns: with the polarisation of world politics into conservative imperialists (like the US) and liberal pansies (like much of Europe), could there not have been a better choice in response to this problem?

I have to start preparing my economy of Thailand presentation. Just a note: heard back from the IFC yesterday, and apparently I will be interviewing with them in DC from 9:45am through 6:30pm. I personally judge over 8 hours of interviews to be intimidating and insane. I hope I get the job.

Codependent addiction - America and the World

As I procrastinate in avoidance of my finance research program on Thailand, the Economist is an easy and at least somewhat educational distraction. A cool article: Americans are addicted to spending (which most likely means that Canadians, the relentless cultural replica of our southern neighbour, have the same problem.) This, however, is not new. Check out:

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=3834261

What is new is that the World is making it worse. Damn, stupid World. Whatever possessed them to fuel our desire for more, faster, and more again even faster? I honestly don't know where people get the courage to spend this much. If I get a job for after the summer, I intend to save as much as I possibly can in the hope of staving off homelessness and hunger.

Maybe 4 months of constant pressure and fear of being unemployed has finally started to break me.

Happy thought: almost all fo the data I am (potentially) using for my Thai research project (not in Thai) is from World bank data sources. How cool would it be if I got that job? If God is out there, listening patiently to the chaotic internet ether, I hope he hears me.

Economic Development blog

This is just a reminder to myself that I think, perhaps after the summer, I should start a new blog that has for its subject international development - I think that this blog format is potentially more useful if one has more direction to begin with, and intl dev't is a subject I am impassioned about.

This is amazing, I have posted three posts in 2 days.

IFC, McGill, beer, girlfriend

International Finance Corporation - IFC Home

This is where I want to work next year - I owe Reid for first letting me know about recruiting ops, now I just hope the interview goes well on the Tuesday after next. A perfect marriage between my finance education and my desire to do good for the world (and not fall into the evil domain of i-banking fat cat wealth).

McGill law are bastards, I can't put my life on hold anymore, and at this point I think I would probably refuse an offer to matriculate simply out of spite. What would be cool is if I got the IFC job, also got accepted to McGill, and then got to postpone my matriculation until 2007, when my IFC contract would theoretically run out.

Of course, I may not get either. That would suck.

What DOES suck is the way I feel today. Spring Fling = beer = Sunday hangover, and my stomach just doesn't feel right.

My girlfriend doesn't read this blog, so I can openly lament in anonymity about her being pissed off at me. I think it has something to do with all the beer I drank this weekend. I love her, but this 'mood' thing with girls I will never understand. Mars and Venus I guess.

My girlfriend may not read this blog, but I obviously post with only a marginally higher frequency. My bad.