Trillion...what a number!!

GDP. What's that??? (Nor, you may not want to read, though its interesting but it could bring back macroeconomics horrors) Well I'll tell you. It's what I've been learning about in my macroeconomics class this week. Interesting stuff. It stands for Gross Domestic Product and its the total goods and services produced in one year in one country. The U.S. GDP in 2007 was $12.7 trillion. Do you know how much a trillion is????

A million seconds is 13 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.

A million hours ago was in 1885 (info from 2007).
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.


Are you saying WOW yet??


Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
(The following info is from 2003, so some of the numbers are not as large as they would be now...in 2009)
A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.


The country has not existed for a trillion seconds.
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe. Whatever Neanderthals are... = 0

The U.S. government spends more than the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Australia, China and Spain combined. If you laid one dollar bills end to end, you could make a chain that stretches from earth to the moon and back again 200 times before you ran out of dollar bills! One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, 14 years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills.-----Just a little side note, GDP doesn't accurately tell how well a country is doing, just how well stuff is being built and sold. Like after Hurricane Katrina, GDP rose because of all the jobs that were provided and all the infrastructure that needed to be rebuilt. Definitely not a time where we were doing "well".


Ok, I've had fun with my trillionness. Its just astounding. This is the stuff I like to learn in school. The point of this post...to express my happiness in finally liking and understanding economics. I really do like my macroeconomics class and it is mostly because my professor really helps us understand what we are learning. She makes us think and talk to our classmates...something that we grudgingly do but I'm glad she makes us do it cause we learn so much more by talking about it to other people and thinking about what something means before she is about to tell us. Basically, she makes us think instead of listen only. And today in that class I learned that people have two choices in what they can do with their disposable income (income after taxes)...they can either spend it on consumption or save it. See, I just taught you some economics. Its as simple as that when you put it into English. Its all about assumptions and theories. And it's a social science, analyzing our eyeballs out over graphs and such.


Another thing I like about this teacher is that she tells us what to look for, what we need to learn, the basics and such. This really perks up my ears and helps me focus on the things I really need to pay attention to and get down. Yep, I sure do like my macroeconomics class. We'll see how I feel after the first exam...next Thursday. Ugh and GULP!

So, what's going on in my life. I just told you, haha....school! And I'm trying better to actually understand and engross myself in my textbooks so that this stuff is interesting to me. And look what happened, I enjoy a class. Accounting is good too, have another good teacher. I did pilates tonight at the recreation center, it felt good to exercise though my knee was popping a bit with the squats. And I went to Chili's last night with 3 of my good guy friends...luckily one of those friends paid for my meal. And I went to Arby's tonight after pilates to treat myself for working out...and eat it while my metabolism was still burning. I love these Arby's coupons we get in the mail. About the only time I eat there, when I have to pay.






When filming a "Pearl Vision" commercial at EFY 2006, these are snapshots of the video. The football did actually drop in my eye, and this is how I became a candidate for glasses in the commercial.

Welp, I haven't taken pictures lately...I usually whip out my camera every once in a while but I haven't in a while. I'll post some old pics though, just so this isn't like a textbook and all words. I'm doing well, am dealing with the cold...darn snow all melted, except for the dirty icebergs...and stuffing my brain full of knowledge. Thanks for listening!