Jacqueline Gets Her Geek On

End-of-semester death march status report

• April 29: Turn in written marketing plan: DONE!
• May 8: Marketing plan in-class presentation
• May 13: Marketing final exam
• May 14: Accounting project due

The written plan was the biggest hurdle, although I think the marketing final exam will be nasty, too.  (I don't have to take the accounting final because I did so well on the other tests.) 

I finally have time to resume work on my distance learning accounting classes now, too.  I need to finish my management accounting class ASAP because it's a prerequisite for a summer semester class I want to take at UNLV, and I need to try to complete all of my distance learning classes by the end of August.

Ding dong, the project's dead!

Which class project?  The marketing project!
Ding dong, the marketing project's dead!

...

Unfortunately, although the paper is finally done, the project isn't really over yet.  It's only sleeping -- regenerating -- waiting to pounce again next week as an in-class presentation. :(  SHOULD HAVE USED FIRE OR ACID.

Ron Paul supporters took over the Nevada state Republican Party convention!

Contrary to popular misconception, Nevada hasn't actually determined its Republican Presidential nomination delegates yet.  Our caucus on January 19 was just to nominate our delegates to the county convention (the numbers they reported from Nevada for each candidate were just the result of a "preference poll" of caucus-goers, and weren't necessarily representative final delegate support, as I show below).  Delegates to the county convention nominated delegates to the state convention, at which they were supposed to finally nominate the delegates to the national Presidential nominating convention... that is, until the Ron Paul supporters took over. :)

I'm a couple days late on this, but I don't know how much national play it's getting.  I just caught wind of it via the Drudge Report.  I need to keep this short and get back to working on my marketing project, but here are some news links for y'all to read and discuss:

Reno Gazette-Journal: Chaos over Paul cuts short gathering:

"After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention."

Las Vegas Review-Journal: NEVADA POLITICS: GOP convention cut short: Some supporters of Ron Paul riled after time runs out at state party event

Las Vegas Review-Journal:  STATE CONVENTION: Official: GOP probably continuing in Reno: Beers rebuts conspiracy theorists

I am amused.  Hubby and I caucused for Ron Paul, not because we thought that he had a realistic chance of winning (or because we agreed with all of his sometimes-kooky positions), but to fuck with the Republicans a bit and remind them that there are still people who would like one of the two major parties to stand for small government.  It looks like our goals are being accomplished in Nevada, at least.

Although the percentage of Ron Paul supporters in our precinct was lower than we would have needed if the delegate election been proportional, it wasn't proportional and we were better at math and voting strategy than the Mormons.  We got our delegate elected, and he seemed genuinely delighted and honored to serve[1].  I hope that he made it all the way to the state convention and was one of the people helping to stir shit up this weekend. :)

[1] Whereas I'd reluctantly agreed to register Republican and caucus, but there was NO WAY IN HELL that I was going to allow myself to get sucked in any further than that.

All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.

All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl.  All work and no play sleep makes Jackie a dull crabby girl. 

MRACK

mrack!

Time-shifting NPR Morning Edition?

I love Morning Edition but I don't love mornings and thus I haven't been able to listen to it for months.  I would like to download it as a podcast to my iPod, but that option doesn't seem to be offered in iTunes or on their website.  (Or maybe it is and I'm just dumb -- is it?)  There seems to be an option to listen to streaming audio later in the day, but that would require sitting at the computer and I want to listen to it while I walk around and do other things.  (If I wanted to be stuck sitting at the computer to get my news, I would read the newspapers instead.)

Any suggestions?  I haven't renewed my NPR membership yet this pledge drive because I almost never listen anymore (the only show that ever seems to be on when I have the radio on these days is -- barf -- Fresh Air, and I usually change the station because Terry Gross's voice and speaking manner make me want to stab things).

Unorthodox poker tournament strategies

Whenever Hubby plays in a live tournament (which isn't often, he's primarily a cash games player), he eats a lot of fiber-filled foods beforehand.  Then he can fart on his tablemates and make them want to bust sooner. :)

NOT recommended: The Forbidden Kingdom

Hubby and I went to go see it last night and it was so dumb that we walked out in the middle.  I was very disappointed.  I usually really enjoy Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies, so the thought of the two of them together sounded awesome.  Unfortunately, they were together in a movie with a stupid plot (very obviously ripped off from several other popular movies) and worse dialog.  The only thing the movie had going for it was that it was visually very pretty.

We hadn't been the movies in a while (there's been nothing out we wanted to see for months) so seeing all the previews and in-store ads for upcoming movies was very exciting.  I am looking forward to Ironman, Narnia: Prince Caspian, X-Files, Indiana Jones, and Sex and the City.  Yay, the summer movie season is here!!!

Battlestar Galactica as told by LOLcats

Puntabulous: Battlestar Galactica LOL Cats and Battlestar Galactica LOL Cats Redux.  (WARNING: LOLCATS CONTAIN SPOILERS) 

Thanks to Andrew for the link!

Assigned a group project? Check your classmates' work for plagiarism!

We are approaching the end of the semester and many students are working on completing various group projects for our classes.

My advice: Check all your group members' work for plagiarism before you turn in your final project.  Do this even if you aren't the person responsible for the final draft!  I've heard of at least two (possibly three) instances of plagiarism on group project contributions by students in UNLV's MBA program this year[1].  Fortunately in each of the cases I know of, the person responsible for compiling, editing, and submitting the final paper was able to recognize and rewrite/cite (or require the guilty party to rewrite/cite) the plagiarized parts before they turned it in to the professor.  If they had been more trusting (or the plagiarizer less obvious) and just turned it in, chances are that the professor (much more experienced in recognizing and verifying plagiarism) would have caught it and the whole group would have received failing grades.

OK, so now that you know you should check, how do you do it?  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of advice beyond the obvious strategy of entering suspicious phrases into Google and seeing what comes up.  There are paid plagiarism-checking tools, but I doubt that very many students would be willing to invest in those.

I know a few professors read this blog -- do you have any suggestions for free tools and strategies students can use to check their classmates' work for plagiarism?

[1] Futher evidence that MBA students really are the most unethical group of students.  See "Survey Finds Widespread Cheating in MBA Programs", "Wily MBA students lead the cheating pack", and "MBA: The devil's degree?"

Update: So, the possible third instance of plagiarism I mentioned was someone in one of my own group projects and it turns out that she did indeed plagiarize everything.

HOORAY FOOD!

I had to come to campus today for a meeting with my Marketing project group, and to my great delight, as walked back to my car from the library I discovered that there was an international food festival being held in the middle of campus!

The food is being provided by the various student ethnic associations, and is good but not spectacular (most of it is the junk/snack foods of the world).  The prices are extremely reasonable -- $1 to $3 for most items.  I've been grazing on baklava, Chinese candies and cookies, samosa, coconut juice, agua fresca, Arabic coffee, and a burger flavored with Middle Eastern spices.  I think for my next round I'll for for a kebab, some Thai mango sticky rice, and whatever those dumplings are that they're cooking over at the Japanese table.

I hope that this is an annual event.

Update: oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  I ate too much.

Dance party on the roof of the bank in Orgrimmar!

Battlestar Galactica 406: Escape Velocity open thread (COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS)

What did you think of tonight's episode?  Please discuss in the comments!

The public library isn't actually "free"

They just have a three week introductory trial for each book, after which they rent it to you for only 25 cents per day!

(I've been accumulating excessive overdue fines again... :( )

How to create a Blood Elf or Draeni character in World of Warcraft

Several people have Googled their way to my blog looking for this information -- and I was initially confused myself -- so for future Googlers, here are the answers you seek!

The Blood Elves and Draeni are the two new World of Warcraft character races included in the Burning Crusade expansion pack.  They initially appear grayed out on the character creation screen and you must upgrade your account before you can select them.  Here are the steps to do that:

1. Install the Burning Crusade expansion pack.  You can download the expansion from Blizzard's site.

Note: If you don't have a World of Warcraft account yet, you need to install the original World of Warcraft game and create an account before installing the Burning Crusade expansion.  (If you are brand new to World of Warcraft, the World of Warcraft Battlechest is a good deal: it includes both games, two strategy guides, and one month of play time.)  You can also download the game from the World of Warcraft website, but the 10 day free trial does not include the expansion or new races.

2. Find your Burning Crusade Authentication Key.  Mine was on the cardboard sleeve the Burning Crusade CD came in.

Note: The Burning Crusade Authentication Key is one per ACCOUNT not one per computer.  Your key has to have never been used to work for your account.  So, if your friend has Burning Crusade, you *can't* just play it on his computer without first upgrading your own account too.  But, you *can* install and play the game on multiple computers without having to purchase multiple copies of the game.

3. Go to https://upgrade.worldofwarcraft.com/expansion/, read or scroll past the Terms of Agreement, and click "I Agree".

4. Enter your existing World of Warcraft account name and password and your Burning Crusade Authentication Key, then click Upgrade My Account.

5. Open the World of Warcraft game, log in, and create a new character.  The Blood Elf and Draeni races should now be available.

On a related note, I found Almost Gaming's Blood Elf Leveling Guide to be very helpful for finding my way around the Blood Elf beginning area with my first character (before my husband installed Quest Helper on my computer).  They also have a Draeni Leveling Guide.

Bleg: gun control laws: demographics & history?

I'm curious. 

I know that a lot of econometric work has been done on gun control laws and crime in the U.S. (John Lott etc.), surely some has also been done on gun control laws and race?  Specifically, I'm interested in knowing whether gun control laws are significantly more prevalent in areas where there was a large population of minorities-in-general and/or blacks-in-specific at the time the laws were passed?  And if so, what was the racial composition of the legislative body that passed these laws?

I've heard people say that present day U.S. gun control laws were originally motivated (and perhaps still are) by scared whites not wanting to live near armed blacks.  Looking at today's demographics of cities with gun control it's a plausible explanation, but I have no idea if it's historically true of when the laws were passed.

If you have written (or write in the future) about this topic, please feel free to trackback or comment a link to your work on this post so future readers can find it.  I don't want to research or write about this topic myself, I just want to know for my own curiosity!  Thanks!

I did write you a nice long blog post...

...about my experience with the UNLV MBA program, but on second thought I should save it until AFTER my semester grades are posted.  So, look for it in about a month.

Sneak preview/Cliff Notes version: I am glad that I am transferring out of here.

Edit: I really should have dropped this semester's MBA classes as a sunk cost while I still could.  But the deadline for that has passed, and thus I am stuck with three more weeks of motivation-sucking bullshit to deal with.  Ugh... back to work now on happy fun project joy.

I've been playing too much World of Warcraft :(

Plus real life stuff (school projects, dogs, etc.).  Post about dogs soon.

I have also been sad/thinking about about this a lot: Cult Poker Personality Brandi Hawbaker found Dead

Battlestar Galactica 405: The Ties That Bind open thread (COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS)

What did you think of tonight's episode?  Please discuss in the comments!

Videos that make us laugh our asses off

Hubby stumbled across this "Unbeatable Craps System".

Somebody failed basic probability class!  That or he owns a stake in the online casino he features in his video.