Blah, Blah, Blah, Trading, Blah, Blah, End Product, Blah, Blah ...

You know that glaze-eyed look that kids sometimes get when adults are talking to them about something totally not-fun? You know, the tilted-back head, half-lidded eyes that stare at the nothingness approximately one foot above and to the left of the adult's head, slack mouth partially open, shoulders slumped and hands useless at sides or in lap? The look that just screams "Uhhhhhh ... huhhhhhhh ..." You know the look I'm talking about?

That's about how my brain feels right now.

I will never use my degree to become an economist. Not even if they put a gun to my head and said, "Either your'e gonna be an economist and be paid one million dollars an hour for it, plus benefits, or we kill you."

Not. Ever.



...


Well, maybe for a million an hour, plus benefits. But they better be some damn nice benefits.

Wheee!

And the grade for that first Gloabl Econ assignment is in ... another A! Although, barley this time; 90 out of 100 points and a warning about run-on sentences. Ah well, he also said "good content," so I'm happy.

:D

Oh yeah, baby.

I'm good.

I submitted my first two assignments on Friday (one for each class: Global Managerial Economics and The Legal and Ethical Evironment of Business), and although I'm still awaiting a grade for Global Econ, the Biz Ethics grade is in. Guess what it is?

That's right. An A.

94 out of 100 points and positive comments by the professor with the only suggestion being that I take a look at proper APA formatting for in-text citations. I had thought I had it right with that assignment, but was wrong - no matter, though, as I've got it down now. Although I am slightly irked that what I had thought was the proper in-text formatting was the information that I got from the Student Guidebook to Proper Citation in APA Style sent to me by the college with the books for this first term ...

But- an A! On my first assignment! I'm thrilled!

Now, wallowing in ego, I'm going to dive into yet another assignment(I just turned in the second one for Global Econ, so now it's on to the second one for Biz Ethics). These second assignments are actual papers, not just discussion board posts, so they're tougher in that I have to include title page, abstract and references pages. The paper I just submitted for Global Econ was 8 pages total, with only three being the actual report. Well, ok, all in all it was actually 7 pages and one measly line on the 8th, the last Reference page (damn long URLs). The actual paper length needed to be 2 to 3 pages, so I'm right on there, but all the other pages make it seem, well, more intimidating at first. For Biz Ethics, the required length is 3 to 4 pages, and I'm hoping I won't need nearly as many references to figure this stuff out, so I might end up with a total of 6 or maybe 7 pages for that one.

In-text citing and keeping track of references is taking up half my time though. Damn the American Psychological Association. Have they nothing better to do than come up with ways to mess with college students? No, no- I know. There's a reason for it, as Mama Wren and I discussed at length. It's because of stupid people, basically. There are so many "students" out there who can't write worth a damn that someone had to come up with a system to keep all the papers uniform and neat, for the professors' sakes. I understand, but I hate it. I'm not stupid. I can write just fine on my own, thank you very much.

Damn stupid people. Sigh.

Well, wish me luck with the Biz Ethics paper- it's a whopper of a scenario, involving theft, wrongful death, and the laws of foreign countries as they apply to international cruise ships in their waters. Oh boy. The ethics of it is easy; the research into said laws, public and private, is gonna be the bitch of it.

A word to the wise: avoid cruises wher the ship is flying any flag other than U.S. If something goes wrong and the ship is flying the flag of another country, regaardless of which country's waters it's in, you may well be very, very screwed. A sneaky little thing called Admiralty or Maritime Law. Ah hell, with the obesity rate of Americans in relation to the shrinking swimwear sizes, just avoid cruise ships altogether. Your stomach will thank you for it.

Be vewy vewy qwiet!

Whispering: Come in quick and close the door! Turn out the lights and keep quiet and stay away from the windows - we don't want them to see that I'm not working, do we? I mean, I'm not even doing schoolwork right now; I'm so irresponsible! They'd scold me if they knew.

Shhhh! Quit giggling. They'll hear.

(Not whispering anymore)

Whew. That was close.

So, frazzled brain demanding, I'm taking the time before any work comes back to enjoy just doing nothing right now. Well, you know, except for blogging. I haven't had much time to just do nothing and relax for the past week, ad I feel like snarling. Or something. Ok, it's not that bad; it's more a desperate feeling than snippish, but still. I need time to stop thinking. I need down time between work and school, or in this case, school and work and then school again.

So, in the approximately half hour or so that I have before the first few pages cme back to be built, I'm indulging. I have a (sigh) Starbucks frappucino from the snack machine at hand and aside from blog-stuff, I've greatly enjoyed doing nothing more mentally challenging than watching my googley-eyed goldfish swim around in their tank. It's soothing. It's (relatively) quiet. It's cold, but I grabbed the boy's Pink Floyd hoodie from my car a little bit ago and I'm warming up again.

- Lazy stretch -

I'm not going to think about school today. Not till I'm done with work. I'm not.

(So what exactly has Mexico's economic experience been since the passing of NAFTA 13 years ago?)

Damnit. Screw Mexico (for the moment) and screw NAFTA (for the moment) too. And screw the Lowells in the scenario for the other class (though what happened to Mr Lowell was pretty awful and honestly I'd be siding with Mrs. Lowell on this one)—

No! I won't. And you can't make me.

- Turns and pokes her finger into the water to see if the black googley-eyed goldfish will prove it's adorable dumbness and try to nibble on the finger again -

(Pause)

Stupid goldfish.

Grin

Well. I feel smart. See student-professor e-mail communications below, re: questions for phase one, task one.


Tuesday, July 10:

Hello Mr. (Professor-Dude)!

I'm having a bit of trouble with the Discussion Board task in that I cannot seem to find a definition of international sovereignty as opposed to sovereignty in a nation. I have been able to find information about internal versus external sovereignty, however - is external sovereignty the same as international sovereignty, or am I supposed to determine how the sovereignty of Mexico (or the U.S.) works and is affected on an international scale, more specifically in relation to the scenario given of Acme Automaker?

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely
(Student Chick)


Wednesday, July 11:

What definition do you have for external sovereignty? I'd advise that you consider external and internal implications.

(Professor-Dude)


Wednesday, July 11, later and feeling a bit irked at the lack of real help from Professor-Dude:

What I've been able to learn of external sovereignty is that it is the aspect of sovereignty that deals with international law, which is what made me think that maybe it's what you're asking for. It is the aspect that ensures the authority of a state or entity is free from outside influences on it's basic prerogatives, that it is in fact it's own authority. The website I learned this from is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, found here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sovereignty/. This site explains as well internal sovereignty as another aspect, more along the lines of what exactly makes the authority of a sovereign legitimate, or upheld by the people or workings of that state. It also made mention of the fact that although states and entities may hold their own authority in some matters, they do not always hold it in all matters, that their sovereignty is non-absolute, meaning that those states or entities may well be required to conform to the authority of other sovereigns, with examples of the EU and UN given, which furthers for me the international aspect of it.

From everything else I've read so far and based on the scenario given, I think this is the international sovereignty asked about, but I'm just not sure, as nowhere have I been able to find a solid definition of the term 'international' sovereignty, only internal, externa, absolute and non-absolute.

Does the definition above of external sovereignty sound like what you're asking for, or am I way off?



Now, today is the 13th, the day that the assignment I needed this information for is due. I recieved no response to my long musing on what international sovereignty might be (external sovereignty), and was further irked. However I went ahead and completed the assignment using the info I'd aqqcuired from the above-mentioned website (thanks mom!!!) and felt I'd done an ok job.

About an hour after posting the assignment I finally received a reply from Professor-Dude. It's short and simple and still doesn't tell me for certain whether I am correct in my assumption that external sovereignty is basically international sovereignty, but I'm thinking I am correct. Checkit out!:

Friday, July 13:

"It is the aspect that ensures the authority of a state or entity is free from outside influences on it's basic prerogatives, that it is in fact it's own authority." - I like this statement.

You're a thinker. I like that.

(Professor-Dude)



-Big grin-

Too bad I didn't actually use that statement in the assignment ...