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I took the GRE today. I scored 720 on quantiative (math) and 590 on verbal. I also had to write two essays which take longer to score (a real person scores them). I’ll report those results when I get them.

The scores are out of 800.

A 720 means I missed 2-3 questions (out of 28) on the math portion; a 590 means I missed 7-9 questions (out of 30) on verbal.

The average math score of incoming PhD students at GMU is 760. Thus, I am probably at the lower end of acceptable.

Seriously. Here’s the story.

Ashley and I live in a community at the corner of Tropicana and McLeod. A little over a year ago, there was a Wal-Mart at that same corner — but it apparently went out of business about the time Ashley and I started dating.

With the death of Wal-Mart, other stores in the complex, one after the other, also went out of business (or maybe they moved). Other than a bar, a pet store, and a GameStop, I think the shopping center is now more or less empty.

But a few months back, the old Wal-Mart building got surrounded by a big fence, and lots of construction vehicles and crews showed up. A couple months passed, and a sign got attached to the fence: “Future home of Wal-Mart.” A month later, Wal-Mart moved into several suites at the nearby strip mall and began hiring for its new store. And last week, Wal-Mart turned on all the lights in the shopping center. These lights shine over into our community’s parking lot, lighting things up considerably at night.

A Halloween/costume store has already opened up in the center, and I anticipate seeing new growth there in the next couple months, on account of the increased traffic Wal-Mart will bring to the area.

This Wal-Mart opening up has brought new jobs to the neighborhood. It will bring new businesses back into the shopping center.  Lights from Wal-Mart are now making my community brighter and lighting up my life.

The Constitution is 221 years old today. Let’s all sing happy birthday to it.

It’s stories like this that make me want to be one.

Here’s the gist of it, though, in case you don’t want to read a lot about it:

Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia; a murder he maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state’s non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted or contradicted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. [note from Brandon: Police pressuring or coercing statements? No waaaay...]

One of the two witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester “Red” Coles – the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

Liberty and justice for all, America.

While I suffer through my terribly terrible calculus class, I frequently drift off and think about other things. Recently I was thinking about which classes I’d like to take next semester. It seems I’m dreaming the impossible, though, as the course load would be 20+ credits. Here’s what I’m looking at, along with some notes about the courses.

BUS495 BUSINESS CAPSTONE^a
ECON495 ECONOMICS CAPSTONE^a
ECON462/463 INTERNATIONAL TRADE/MONETARY RELATIONS^a
ECON442 HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT^b
ECON457 LAW AND ECONOMICS^b
MATH182 CALCULUS II
MATH251 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
PHYS152 PHYSICS II

^a: These classes are required to graduate.

^b: I need to take at least one of these classes to graduate.

In other words, I only have to take four more classes after this semester to graduate. The two math classes would definitely help me out in grad school. The physics class is just the second part of the physics class I’m taking right now, and I find the subject material incredibly interesting.

However, as you can see, that’s 8 classes, two of which are 4 credits. The total credit load would be 24 credits.

I’m hoping the schedule for spring and summer will get released around the same time; if so, I think what I could do is take MATH251 and PHYS152 in the summer. And maybe MATH283 (Calculus III).

Ugh. If I could only go back a couple years and redo my school career with the knowledge I have now…

Anyone have any suggestions/comments concerning the above class listing?

Check out this short blog on Marginal Revolution about the health benefits of Wal-Mart.

I have a blog draft I’ve been brainstorming about for the past couple weeks called “Everything Wal-Mart” — maybe I’ll work on it this afternoon, and talk about some of the many ways that Wal-Mart rocks my world.

Don Boudreaux writes things so simply, even a fifth-grader could understand them.

Unfortunately, it seems most people are less intelligent than fifth-graders:

Read what he has to say about budgets.

A few weeks back I decided I wanted to plant a garden… mostly just to see if I could do it. And because veggies and fruits are yummy.

Since we live in a second story condo, planting space is pretty limited. But we have a small 5′x10′ balcony that we don’t really use, so I figured I could build a box up there and it would work out for us. After a few weeks’ work, I finally finished it yesterday (and planted some carrots, onions, lettuce, peas, and broccoli today). I made it out of 1×10 boards, and used 2×4s in all the corners. I also had some 1×4s for bracing in the middle, and I used 3/4″ PVC pipe for drainage — I just drilled holes into the pipe.

And the dirt. I put a 2-3″ layer of rock gravel at the bottom, followed by about 3-5″ of sand on top of that, followed by about a foot of potting soil (it smells like poo… seriously). That was about 13,000 bags of rocks, 15,000 bags of sand, and 20,000 bags of soil. No not really, but it felt that way when I was hefting it all up the freaking stairs.

Pictures below. And I’m sure more will follow once the little seedlings start showing their sprouts:

I realized today that we in Las Vegas have a few streets which are said a specific way, and while outsiders would understand us, they might not say the street names in the same way as a person who has lived here for a while.

Most, if not all, of the streets in this city have a suffix — Ave, St, Blvd, Way, etc. When giving directions or stating the location of a landmark, no one ever says “Oh, it’s located on Rainbow Boulevard” or “You’ll turn left down Tropicana Avenue”; these suffixes are dropped.

However, there are a few streets in the city for which one Must Always affix the suffix. The three that sprang to mind today were:

Maryland Parkway, Boulder Highway, and Las Vegas Boulevard. You’ll never hear a Las Vegas native say just “Maryland” or “Boulder” or “Las Vegas” — you just won’t.

We also refer to I-215 as “the two-fifteen”… but I’ve heard other cities do this with their freeways. Sometimes we call US-95 “the ninety-five” and I-15 “the fifteen,” but I don’t think I have ever heard “I-215″ in colloquial speech. It’s always just “the two-fifteen”

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that we do that, and wondered why. Does anyone know? And are there any other streets around town with similar “rules”?

Since I know you’re all curious, and since it’s changed since I last posted about it:

ECON303 INTERMEDIATE MACROECONOMICS
ECON359 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ECON441 ECONOMETRICS
MATH181 CALCULUS I
PHYS151 GENERAL PHYSICS I