The last day before my exams. There is not really much that can sensibly be done at this late stage of course. I am endeavouring to relax as much as possible and do some final reading - just to make sure that I have certain frameworks set in my mind for Philosophy of Economics. My strategy, such as it is, is to make sure I have some good ideas about some of the models that I used in my work career and then hope that I can blend them into answers to exam questions. So I am in pretty good shape on the Black-Scholes option pricing model and one of the "econophysics" models of stock market crashes. I also have a good number of points in respect of predictions from econometric models. Hopefully I will be able to use these in Part A of the exam. But Part B is likely to be the main problem, full of technical game theory stuff that I just don't know. I have studied two tiny topics and just have to hope that one comes up (or at least for half a question)
In my spare time, I have largely arranged our planned Italian holiday for the summer using expedia as I did last year for the French trip. We start with 3 nights at a villa on the south side of Florence, about 1km from the centre, hopefully enabling the perfect combination of walking in the city and lazing in a villa. Then on to to 3 nights at the Hotel Lido on the shores of Lake Trasimeno, (where we stayed a night in 2008 on our way to Perugia) enabling visits to Cortona and Sienna, plus lost of nice meals out at the local restaurants. From there we head further south to Naples for 4 nights at a hotel to the west of the city on the edge of a volcanic national park. Finally 3 nights in Rome at a well-reviewed hotel in the east of the city, maybe 3 or 4 km from the centre. I have also booked a ferry back from Cherbourg for four days after we finish in Rome giving me plenty of time to travel back stocking up with even more wine, olive oil, and other goodies. All that remains is to find someway to get Linda back from Italy on the Sunday
This weekend's Times has an article on how this is fast becoming a golden age for science writing. Something like this remains my current plan after the MSc - something I figure I can do while I trade. I still have my dissertation to write but once that is done, I will be full-time on my biography project. I am actually really looking forward to getting stuck into this.
Emma did her 5k race today with her friend Charlie. They apparently set rather a fast time and finished in the top fifty or so. Charlie might be moving to the next village to us and so Emma would have a close friend less than a mile away. On her number, she had to write why she was running and had put "For my Grandad". I was very moved by that.
Just under the roof by the study window, two coal tits have nested and have a small brood very close to fledging. They seem unbothered by the loud music that I typically play - perhaps they really enjoy it. The parents appear every couple of minutes and I become rather keen on watching them - a suitable distraction from study anyway
Current listening is based largely around a recording of an event called "Noisenight" held a week or so ago at the Sydney Opera House. This featured Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Boris and Bardo Pond among others. A truly excellent event and a great recording. Boris played just one track, "Untitled" from the last CD and it was a quite spectacular version
Finally, this week's Doctor Who features a story about Vincent Van Gogh. Emma didn't approve, while both Linda and myself found it quite moving - especially when they took him to see the museum in Paris with a selection of his paintings. But then again, it is unlikely that Emma knows much about Van Gogh. I am inspired to watch one of the movies we have about him - maybe the recent "Vincent and Theo" rather than the classic "Lust for Life" with Kirk Douglas as the man himself - a truly extraordinary portrayal if memory serves me well.
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