The End... But not really

The year’s come to a close and it’s time to reflect on our progress. At the start of this year, I hoped to advance my understanding of basic economics, but over the past 64 posts I have learned so much more. I don’t think any one or two posts exemplify my journey because my style truly has evolved over this year and so has my content. For one, I have become far better at utilizing the blog as a media outlet for quick, unrevised entries that expresses the purest thoughts in perhaps their least polished literary form. More importantly, I have gained a greater grasp of economics, been introduced to the voices of fiscal policy and integrated myself into an ongoing conversation. Best of all, along the way I’ve been able to pause and talk about YouTube, Harry Potter, music and other stuff that has mattered to me. I hope to continue to share my thoughts, discuss economics with you into the future and further pursue this growing interest.

20 Is Better Than 8! For Now At Least

            NPR’s Planet Money had an interesting brief post a few days ago titled “The G8 Still Exists!” The title portrays the situation fairly accurately; don’t forget the still powerful G8. To those who don’t know, the G8 is comprised of the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy, and was the go-to group for any large scale decision not too long ago. Off late, China alone has amassed an economy larger than that of nine of the G20 nations, and other countries such as Brazil and India have stepped to the fore front of international policy. Though the G8 continue to control major global institutions, the broadening spheres of influences have given rise to the more comprehensive G20 which includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the current G8. This group represents major players from across the globe, each wielding power unto their own, who in collaboration are in near total control of world affairs. Though some believe the G20 simply represents a transition group to a new G8 encompassing tomorrows superpowers, for now power rests in this large group.

I'm A Senior Now! (Pt.1)

            This last week has been very stressful. I have attempted to carefully balance hanging out with friends and going to grad parties with finishing our homework and studying for the upcoming SAT subject tests. This year I am taking the US history and Chemistry subject tests as I recently took those AP Exams. Nonetheless, I am still at least 350 pages away from being ready if not more. Homework appeared to be done as of this morning as our language portfolios and US projects were turned in last week and I put the finishing touches on our AP Psychology project yesterday night. But surely enough, as I walk into the computer lab for AP Lang, I find out that I accidentally missed a week of blogging. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy keeping up to date and discussing economics but at this point I was kind of hoping for some extra time free of school to study and relax. But enough bickering! I wanted to briefly talk about this term as a whole.

            Third term has definitely been far easier than second term which was seriously hindered by swim season. Though I do play tennis in the spring it is far less time consuming and generally stressing than swim season. Tennis is best described as my fun sport; that sport that you do because you have nothing better to do, it’s fun and your friends do it. I would like to be better at tennis but that’s probably not going to happen soon. In the mean time, I shall content myself with playing with friends over the weekends and slowly bettering myself. Otherwise, classes with the exception of French have come to a close as focus has shifted towards the AP exams. The AP exams took place in the first week of March and are in part the reason why I took such a long break in blogging. To broadly evaluate this year’s exams, I’d say United States history was a solid 3/4, Language and Composition was a bit uncertain at 3/4/5, AP Calculus was good at a 4/5, Psychology was generally easy and should be a 4/5 and Chemistry was… well it was chemistry and I’ll give it a 2/3/4 hopefully. If all turns out well, I’ll get a few fives and fours but no guarantees. The one benefit of all these AP exams shows up around finals; we don’t have finals. This week all I really have to study for is my French final. Otherwise, in US I get to watch people present projects (I’m done with mine which was about Rain Man. It was a great movie that you should watch if you haven’t already), LA I get to do this blog and a final one, Psych I present a movie and Chem we go to donut-land! Calculus has been the best of all; most of the class is comprised of seniors who have now graduated and as a result, I don’t even have to go to class and have a free third hour.

I'm A Senior Now! (Pt.2)

            Departed seniors bring up the topic of graduation. I am one of the few juniors who for some reason or another decided to go to graduation which was a lot better than I thought it would be. Though two speeches that I won’t identify were particularly boring, the remainder were exceptional. Sure they fit the mold of typical freedom in life and push your barriers themes but each had its own unique twist or conveyance that really moved the audience. The performing arts also did a great job and I really enjoyed hearing the band, orchestra and choir fuse into one. After the ceremony, everyone said their farewells and exchanged tears and hugs.

            With graduation, I am now officially a senior! One more year and then… I’m not really sure to be honest. Some college and then the rest will happen as it comes. Anyways, back to more current news. Summer swimming starts up Monday and I can’t say I’m too excited. I do want to get back in the pool and back in shape but I’m not a big fan of being waking up at 6:30 or of swimming 3 hours a day. I’m also hoping to start up running a bit to get a steady number of miles every day; hopefully this will help me stay in shape during the swimming off seasons and be somewhat fun at the same time. Speaking of fitness, Alli Koch’s Powered by the Heart (linked to the right) started just yesterday. After biking through over 70 miles of what I’ve heard was pretty crummy weather, she’s been at it again today for another 120+ miles. We all support her great cause, are very proud of her, and wish her luck on her long journey. If you would like to know more about what she’s doing or want to donate (which you should!), once again the link is to the right.

            Well that about does it for my random updates for the end of the year. I apologize for how unorganized this entry was but it should cover a lot of what’s been on my mind lately. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much with all this random non-economic stuff.