Hi all. Can't believe it's only 4 days until my last semester at Berkeley. This winter break has sure gone by fast. And in a few short months, I'll be an unemployed college graduate. Shudder at the thought.

During the boredom that was econometrics last semester (I got out of Duncan's class with a B; I'm still pondering on how I managed to do that with the horrible final I took), I started to make a list of things I learned through my 4 years of experiences at Berkeley. I'm up to 59, so if you have some worthwhile, smart-alecky remarks, drop a line. I'll publish sometime toward May.

I went up to Berkeley this past Tuesday to check on the apartment and see how much the books are (crazy/expensive). My friend though convinced me to join him in applying for this tutoring job in Oakland. There were only a few openings yet from what the lady in charge told me, more than a hundred apps. Since it was some dinky after-school program that paid $20 an hour for like 10 hours work, I didn't expect the competition to be fierce but we showed up and there were credentialed teachers, a psychologist, and some retired folks among others. Suffice it to say, we were rejected.

And BART! Poor BART is really poor. I found that they raised the fares by 10%. Too late for me without any extra spare change so I had to resort to putting my credit card in the dumb machine to get a large enough ticket. Going to Union City now sets me back 3.35.

While Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday, in terms of presidential politics, it's the kickoff of the campaign season with the Iowa caucus. A caucus is a meeting of the members of a political party where they listen to the merits of each candidate, side with one of them, leave themselves open to change their minds while they get beaten up physically or verbally (or hey, it might be civil), count again, then assign delegates for the convention. Heading up into the caucus, former Vermont governor Howard Dean was the runaway leader by winning the invisible primary and leading in all major nationwide, Iowa, and New Hampshire polls. Just three days away though, all the challenges to Dean's leadership seem to be taking its toll. General Wesley Clark's entry into the race has tightened the race nationally and in New Hampshire while a three-man attack from Senators John Kerry and John Edwards as well as Congressman Dick Gephardt has made the Iowa caucus a close 4-man race. Dean and Gephardt have the highest of expectations since Dean is the front-runner and Gephardt is from next door Missouri. Winning the expectations game is key to any election; look at Bush in the 2000 debates: he did merely better that expected with Gore could not meet his high expectations, portraying Bush as the winner and Gore the loser. A second place finish by Kerry and even a third place finish by Edwards will go a long way toward winning the nomination. However, the Bush machine will be tough to beat with its $200 million war chest, an improving Iraq, and an improving economy.