Thunder Leap Flyer

A few years back, my friend Lord Hayden and I started an event called the Thunder Jet. The original Thunder Jet race was a time trial which involved drinking a beer, riding a kid's bike with 16" wheels around a course, and drinking a second beer. Fastest time wins.

The Thunder Jet soon became a beer-soaked bike riding tradition, with a coveted orange jersey that passed to each new champion (the orange jersey has never been washed).

Each race has its own flavor, from the Thunder Joust which featured PVC lances to Thunder Pitfall, which featured a rope swing and log obstacles.















This Friday is Thunder Leap, hosted by a couple of gents named Sketch Brah and Ruckus. The ammunition looks ominous.

A good Sunday

It was one of those rare weekends when the two-day window of good weather fell squarely on Saturday and Sunday, so I threw on a thick sweater and went skiing on Lake Monona. The only hazard I encountered was the open water outflow of the Yahara River, which I gave a wide berth.


Ice fisherman, skiers, snowshoe folk, kite fliers, and snowman makers were all out in force. I was hoping to get a good shot of the Madison skyline, but there was still a bit of haze when I neared the downtown shoreline so the picture didn't turn out so well.


The good weather also inspired me to invite some friends over to enjoy an elicit fire and beers in my backyard before the 24 Minutes of the Abandoned Building (24MOTAB) bike race. The fire made everyone pine for spring, and the consensus seemed to be that with the Tour of California wrapping up, it was time for all the damn snow to start melting in Madtown.


After feet had been warmed by the fire and brains had been fooled by beer in to thinking it was a good idea to ride bikes on ice, it was time for 24MOTAB. This race is run once a month and consists of creating a bike pile (see photo), extricating your bike from said pile, and riding around an abandoned building for 24 minutes. The first person to cross the line after time is up, regardless of how many laps they have completed, is crowned the new champion. The course on Sunday was complicated by glare ice and a gate that had to be ducked under or over each lap, but good times were had by all.

Economics of beer

Last night I met some classmates in the Wisconsin Evening MBA program out for beers after class at a college bar (The Church Key) on University Ave. Some folks that arrived before me had found the $2 pitchers of Bud Light too cheap to resist, so there were already four or five pitchers circulating among the group. I had a decision to make: drink bad beer (for free!) or pony up for a $4 pint of Lake Louie Milk Stout, the beer I truly craved.

Having just completed an economics exam, I decided to try and apply the concepts of sunk cost and opportunity cost to the problem. Sunk cost is basically the theory that unrecoverable money spent is "sunk" and not relevant in future decision making. For example, if I bought a ticket to a concert for $30 but then lost it, I should just bite the bullet and purchase another ticket. I was willing to pay $30 to see the show before and I should be willing to pay the same amount now. The money I spent on the original ticket is gone and shouldn't have any bearing on my new decision.

Opportunity cost is a little more difficult to wrap your head around. Let's say you won a free ticket to see Eric Clapton and the ticket has no resale value. Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40, and on any given day you would be willing to pay $50 to see Dylan. In this scenario, your opportunity cost of seeing Clapton is $10, because you are giving up that $10 of surplus value you would have gotten had you seen Dylan.

Okay, so back to the beer. I figure the money spent on that Bud Light is sunk, so it doesn't figure into my decision. On any given day, I'd pay up to $5 for a pint of really good beer, so I'm getting a $1 surplus on the $4 pint of Lake Louie. That means the opportunity cost of drinking the Bud Light is actually $1 (not free). Since Bud Light is worth zero dollars to me, the correct economic decision is to buy the good beer, which is exactly what I did.

You may be saying to yourself, "that sounds like a lot of nonsense." Perhaps. And what, you may ask, about the law of never turning down free beer? Or does the law of "life is too short to drink bad beer" supersede that law? Such are the complexities of the economics of beer.

Purpose

After following my dad's blog, The Lake is the Boss, for the last year I realized blogging is a pretty good way to keep seldom-seen friends and family in the loop on what you're up to. I'm going to attempt to throw up a posts for just such a purpose. Hopefully I can be relatively diligent and make the EO Update a weekly affair.