It is 4:45am and I cannot manage to fall asleep. I need to "wake" up in about two hours to take the circuitous bus, train, and then bus route to the airport for my flight to Taiwan. My flight leaves way earlier than everyone else's, so I'll have the day to sleeplessly wonder around Taipei and I'll meet everyone else tonight at the Chocolate Box Hostel.
I got a research fellowship through the Center for Research in Economics and Strategy at WashU, and have been supposedly working on a research paper on franchise regulations all summer. The final deadline is tomorrow, and predictably, I still have quite a bit of ironing out to do before I can turn it in. Thus, I am bringing my laptop to Taipei as a sad consequence of my procrastination, and will be hanging out in a coffee shop for part of tomorrow in order to finish the paper. I am actually quite excited about handing it in, though, as it will be the longest paper I've ever completed at around 40-45 pages. If you require some light reading to put you to sleep at night, let me know and I'll send you a copy.
As I was restlessly daydreaming, I reflected on the fact that other than purchasing my airline tickets for Taipei, I have gone the whole month of September without making a purchase with a credit or debit card. I've been using cash for everything, as Visa levies a heavy fee on individual foreign currency transactions. This exclusive use of cash contrasts sharply with my normal spending, which takes place almost entirely through my credit or debit cards. I am curious what psychological effect this has been having on my spending, to part with cold-hard cash rather than swiping a card. I recently heard on a Marketplace podcast that when it comes to discretionary spending, people tend to spend over twice as much with a credit/debit card than with cash. However, perhaps this is negated by my spending in psychologically dissonant Hong Kong Dollars, where a $15 coffee is actually only around two US dollars.
In other news, I watched the very first episode of Mad Men (my procrastination knows no bounds) and am really excited about watching the rest of the series. I especially enjoyed the Bob Dylan song that concluded the episode.
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Two things:
ReplyDeleteFirst, I know all about putting off writing a giant paper until way too late. My honors thesis was 125 pages, and I wrote the lion's share of it in two weeks. A whole lot of pain.
Second, I agree with you on the spending with cash versus credit. It's much more streamlined and simple to use the card, no ATMs, no risk of losing cash, no giant wallet. But yeah, I'm sure I spend way more because of how easy it is. Net though, I think the card is far superior, as long as you're spending money you actually have.
PS - Mad Men rulez.
You should get your thesis published as a book with a really captivating cover and print like 1,000 copies and I'll build a library in my mansion and put them on display and you can hold signings at public libraries and Barnes & Nobles.
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