I'm grateful for whatever breaks the silence of this room Okay, time to settle in for the next marathon round of paper-writing. Ready? My IPE paper is due next Wednesday, and the topic is "Can developing countries catch up to developed countries?" Based on my preliminary research I think this is probably going to be a pretty complex topic to tackle. I think it's rather timely, though, that the dude who just won the Nobel prize is one of the originators of "micro-lending", which is playing a big role in changing the status of poor people in some of the most dire situations in developing nations. That's a nice aspect to address, because apparently his approach is incredibly effective. I like it. I will be reading research papers all weekend...

But first, to blow off a little steam and celebrate the accomplishments of the week, I decided that last night was a good one to head out for a few beverages. Devin and I headed to Hooley's again, where we tried a fun meal - a donair pizza. That is, a pizza made with donair instead of tomato sauce, and donair meat and cheese. It was quite tasty. Later we were joined by Pat, and then the three of us headed over to Carleton to hang out with some fellow students. That was a bit of a mistake.

Kids don't mind waiting in line for a very long time, I remember. The line-up to get into Oliver's, the campus pub, was pretty long and not moving at all. Pat had his name on the guest list so he headed to the front, but Devin and I decided to go upstairs to the "grad student lounge", which at least had open tables, but was hot and smelly. We had only one drink before deciding to bail on the student scene.

It may have been the tequila shot that he insisted we consume before we ate our pizza, but Devin is not feeling so hot today. And he doesn't have the luxury like me of staying home. Eep. At least I get to sit here in my pyjamas while I research. Yep, this is the life... or something...  | ¶ 1:04 p.m.