Until this afternoon, I haven't jumped into the Pacific Ocean for at least 40 years. I'm taken the plunge in Carlsbad, California. From our beach hotel, I've been watching the ocean and the sunset. If you are a mildly contemplative person who is seeking to relax, then this is the place to be. Watching my son battle the waves allowed me to travel back in time to when it was my turn to battle the currents of the Atlantic Ocean back on Fire Island off of Long Island. My son's FLL Lego Robotics North American Championship has brought us here. This has been a good mini-vacation for me. At Lego Land today, I had the opportunity to admire hundreds of different tattoos decorating the skin of different men and women walking around in shorts and bathing suits. Perhaps I'm getting old but I believe that it is time for the U.S to show some class and cover up.
My mother asked me why I haven't been blogging. As I stated in an earlier post, I'm burned out. I'm trying to focus my attention on finishing a large number of papers that I have up and going. I'm very excited about finishing my book manuscript (joint with Siqi Zheng) on China's cities. This book is quite good. I'm also quite excited about the open source set of lectures I'm developing on environmental and urban economics. We will find out if UCLA students are as smart as they claim to be as I employ dozens of them to work with with me on this book. We will see.
