Thought for food

I am finding a certain sick schadenfreude(check it out, it's a sweet word) watching the markets tumble and surge. As of 10:27 a.m. central time the Dow is down 256 points. While oil, the Euro and most other commodities continue to tumble, the dollar is surging. It's nice to see that investors have so much confidence in the U.S. economy, but they are driving up the price of exports in doing so. While I know that trade deficits are not a competition, I would feel better seeing the gap shrink a bit.

I also can't wait to see the price of gold fall. It is obviously far to inflated and has been increasing in value due to speculation and market volatility. I never understood why it became so popular? If people wanted safer waters during the great recession, why not purchase bonds or t-bills with a guaranteed rate of return instead of a commodity highly susceptible to speculative price inflation.

I suppose what it comes down to is my view that markets, while rational in times of relative stability, are susceptible massive irrationality or behavior in times of economic uncertainty. Just as a herd of water buffalo will trample each other at the first sign of a lion, markets will over speculate prices causing massive bubbles and busts. Take for instance the Mandelbrot study of cotton prices over a period of time, he came up with fat tails. According to rationalists, markets should fall neatly into rational models.

On average, the market will move a little up, a little down, or stay about the same. Of course there will be days where the markets surges or plunges, but thats ok because this is a rarity and according to the law of large numbers, should only occur once in a blue moon. But to have consecutive days, weeks, months of massive drops is somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 standard deviations out of the bell curve. Imagine flipping a coin 5,000 times and getting heads every time. Now look at the model below, the top represents the fat tails that Mandelbrot warned us about and the bottom represents a rational market, which one looks more like the Dow?

If anything can be learned it's that prices will never continue to rise without speculation fueling a boom and bust. When the boom comes, people will trample each other to ride the surging prices for ever increasing profits and when prices began to come down the selling will rocket prices to artificially low levels.

Just some musing about the economy... thanks for sticking with me on this one.

Dutch Man

Really? I mean REALLY?

I usually don't get to fired up by what I hear on the punditry faux news hours, especially about domestic issues, but once in awhile they can get under my skin. Recently, Glenn Beck compared the Peace Corps, Americorps and the Foreign Service to..... drum roll please.... The Nazi SS.

Can we please stop comparing everything to Nazi Germany? The new AZ immigration law is not like Nazi Germany, Health Care Reform is not like Nazi Germany and the freaking PEACE CORPS is not like the SS.

While I can fall subject to hyperbole once in awhile, I mostly maintain an even keel (I leave the rants and raves to Red, she's much more adept at haranguing the pundits then I am). The problem here is using such unhinged comparisons. By juxtaposing every major new change to the Nazis, it is immediately impossible to make any kind of compromise. Simply put, it is divisive. As both parties paint themselves into corners, I find it harder to straddle the middle as I have done for so many years. When will cooler heads prevail?

Red recently spent Mother's Day and her Mother's Birthday up in North West Texas. Left to my own devices, I spent most of my time tidying up, researching OA online material and treating myself to a steak dinner. Apart from that I have been a bit of a gym rat, choosing to divide my time between cranking out the miles on a stationary bike or throwing around some weights. Finally, all the lactic acid has worked its way out of my muscles and I am slowly but surely adding minutes and pounds to each new work out.

Red's brother in law Roark (He's an architect and likes Ayn Rand, I'm sure you get the reference) is graduating this weekend so we are headed back out to east Texas for some R&R. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for a few days.

In some other sad news, Downtown just learned that she won't be leaving for Peace Corps until at least September. While it will be nice to have her around for awhile longer, I feel bad that she has to reorganize her life again. The upside is that her new host country will be one of the following: Azerbaijani, Macedonia, Morocco and Mongolia. Awesome possibilities and she even has the coveted holy grail of PC countries, Morocco.

All for now.

Dutch Man

On your mark, get set, WAIT!

Red has been putting me to shame lately on posts (we are competitive... really competitive) so it is time to fill in the gaps. I passed the FSOT, hurray, and submitted my PNQs (5 essays about myself in relation to the 13 dimensions from which State evaluates candidates) and now I wait for the mercurial QEP (Qualification Evaluation Panel) to divine my fate. How long do I have to bide my time? A maddening 3-7 weeks, yet another nebulous amount of indeterminate time put forth by my future employer.

Passing the FSOT was a massive relief. I no longer feel as though I am dangling off the edge of a cliff. At least I have the confidence boost and validation that comes with realizing the first goal in a string of ever increasingly more difficult goals. If I had failed I would have had to retake the exam 11 months from now.

Next up is the OA (Oral Assessment) which is an all day interview, structured in three parts, GE (Group Exercise), SI (Structured Interview) and CM (Case Management). I will go more in-depth about each of these parts in later posts. The bottom line of the OA is the magic score of 5.25. This is the minimum score needed to pass along to the next ring of fire. Of course, all potential FSOs aim for a higher score in order to be quickly pulled of the register of qualified applicants and placed in the highly coveted a-100 class. A-100 is the goal of all of this, the name of original room as the FSI (Foreign Service Institute) where all future FSOs trained.

Now comes a level of strategy. There are ways to get bonus points added to your overall score. I can add .17 to my score by testing out of a foreign language (Romanian for me of course) but that comes with the caveat that I must serve in a country thats speaks said language (Romanian) in one of my first two tours. Because Romanian is only spoken in two countries (Romania and Moldova) I am some what limited in my choices. Luckily I can register for a foreign language test "after" my OA. So, if my score comes to an anemic 5.25-5.3, you can bet an additional .17 becomes a lot more attractive.

In other exciting news, I am no longer a banking shill. Saturday was my last day at the bank and I am off to the soul fulfilling work of grassroots community organizing. I've joined up with an environmental lobby working to pass new clean water legislation through government mandated take back laws of electronics. Old laptop? Don't know what to do with it? Soon you will be able to chuck it in with the rest of the glass bottles, old newspapers and empty milk jugs. That is if we don't get vetoed.

Red and I rocked out a massive top to bottom cleaning of the apartment today. The concrete is shinning, the ducts are dusted and the bed is made. Z watched us whiz around the apartment happily perched on her favorite couch cushion. The pure enjoyment I get from a clean apartment cannot be measured.

Fan Paparazzi Online Media on Facebook

Amber Hauptman is a fan of

Paparazzi Online Media

Create your Fan Badge

Why are Southerners so ignorant?

So I had an epiphany the other day, well it was a long time coming because I have always struggled with this, but I think I may have found a reason to our ignorance... and yes, I said "our", as in, I am including myself in this band of dignified Southern idiots...

I've always considered myself a smart girl, I love to learn and if my classes were engaging enough (which for the most part, tended to be) I performed pretty well in them. I was involved in after school programs, I took all Honors and AP classes, but when I moved North for college, I could not help but be slapped in the face, daily, with my clear lack of knowledge... And in the South, I was considered one of the smart ones in my class! Sure they knew VERY little about the Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto, and that there were in fact six flags that flew over Texas... But, I didn't even realize there was an "Upper Peninsula" to Michigan and my lack of worldly knowledge was flat-out embarrassing. I covered it up as much as possible, and tried to soak up as much knowledge as possible, but living day in and day out with a Yankee has forced me to re-evaluate the situation, and ponder if it was just me, or our whole Southern mentality.

I know what you are thinking, "Good 'ol W. Bush, cleared that up for us over the last 8 years Amber" and I agree, but it isn't the Fact that Southerners lack the worldly knowledge of Northern counterparts, it's the WHY.... Why, if I have put as much time into my education as he has, why am I still so far behind?

In a book I read recently, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, you can see my post on Outliers that provided a little insight into the education system and the differences in schooling for low income families versus higher income families... Basically it showed that due to the lower income families inability to involve their children in the after school and summer camp activities like higher income families, the lower income children lose a lot of their education over the summer. Meaning that students all learn at the same level, but due to the lack of stimulating activities, they fall behind. Well, I was from a middle class family and I did activities... So what the Heck?

So I thought a little more about my summer school and a majority of my after school activities, (which most of my Southern friends also involved in), and came to a realization.....

Most of my stimulating activity involved the church... Could it be? The church, which taught me many things about how to behave in life, taught me so little about worldly knowledge, or to question authority and "look it up myself". Could we be dumbing down our Southern generations with Jesus?

I am not going to get into a religious debate, but I am sure I could tell you the books of the New Testament, quote a parable for a troubling life issue, and go through the 10 commandments without hesitation. But ask me about the Bill of Rights and I am going to struggle, ask me to name all of the continents and I may be able to sweat them out, but it comes with a very strong maybe. Heck, ask me about to point out Iran and Iraq on a world map and I am lost.

If the church is the main place we (Southerners) turn to to raise our children with the proper values and life lessons, shouldn't we be equally as concerned about their knowledgeability in worldly lessons? Shouldn't we be instilling in them past historical lessons or worldly values. If we really want our children to succeed in world that is becoming increasingly smaller and increasingly flatter, why do we not ensure their success with education. We've seen what happens when someone that lacks this worldly knowledge comes into power... I've already named one, but I am sure we could all rattle of a bit more. How can we, the South keep going back!?!? Have you seen Texas's newest additions to our children's textbooks? It's pathetic. And even today we keep pushing more religion! Really?! My family was not even that religious and I assure you in my adult life, more religion was not what I needed. And now, we are closing schools, I believe 55 schools in this area due to lack of funds, but yet I swear I see a new mega church monthly, if not weekly.

I think it's way past time for a priority change Texas! I know Jesus said the meek would inherit the earth, but let's not make idiots out of our children to ensure the "South rises again".

Red's First Entry

Well I'm finally doing it, adding the "Red" to The Adventures of Dutch and Red... You know it's funny, I have been writing blog posts for my clients for years but when it comes down to writing one for myself, I just really don't know where to start. Introductions sound silly, because chances are if you're reading this, you already know who "Red" is and living like I do with my emotions and opinions right on my sleeve, I am pretty sure you know well... And personally, I feel a little more comfortable saying my opinions, rather than writing them... they change too often to be able to be held that accountable :)

Nonetheless, I'll try to keep some focus to these, maybe cover specific topics, but that's not normally how things go, so bare with me...

As you know, a lot of things have been going on in the world of Dutch and Red... well since it's became a "world of Dutch and Red" a lot of things keep going on, and more seems to keep coming. Which by the way, is wonderful to me... I am sure I will get to a point where I yearn for quiet, stability and routine, but that's not where I am now... now I love all the ideas of new and exciting things to come .. not knowing exactly what or where things are going, but just working hard to try to make the most of the opportunities that come by. That's not to say that everything going on right now is where we want to be, but we are working to get to where we want to be, while understanding that the certain aspects of our life we would like to change, are helping us learn and grow in other ways we never thought we needed.

Actually, I believe that'll be "Red's" focus for these things (I need a point, otherwise I will just end up rambling nonsensically until not even I know what I was talking about anymore). Trying to gain experience or knowledge from the happenings of our life. That way, if Dutch and I are the only ones reading this, at least some knowledge or good with come from this blog :)

If It's Sunday, Then It Must Be Meet The Dutch

There is something truly amazing about Sundays. I'm not sure if its the brunch mentality, the morning political talk shows or the anticipation for the week to come. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoy a good Sunday.

I've spent the last week working and trying to bolster a few lagging areas I have for the FSOT. Mainly its been writing out "talking points" for different essay topics, coming up with examples for the Bio section and reviewing some grammar. I plan on taking a practice test, start to finish, at some point before the test, more to gauge the time then anything else.

My studying is starting to pay dividends. My history and trade policy knowledge is much broader now, which were my weakest points a month ago. Also, my knowledge of the constitution is pretty solid but I fret over the fact that I may have spent too much time memorizing the articles and amendments and should have spent more time on congressional history e.g. bills, major decision etc... I guess its back to the books for now.

Wish me luck!

Dutch Man