...and we're back

Hi kids. It's been a busy 2ish weeks since my last post. First I finished up entering the rest of my surveys, which was dull but went pretty quickly. Then there were the several days of hiding in my apartment and moping leading up to the 17th, which was the 1-year anniversary of my dad's death. The day itself wasn't too bad, and I went out with friends that night and repeatedly toasted my dad (i.e. drank a lot), which was nice. Then it was a flurry of chores and packing and stuff before DWE and I went off to Belize, which was utterly fabulous. There will be many stories and pictures to come. School started for me yesterday, so I'm rapidly getting wrapped up in that again.

I had my first Macro class last night, and it promises to be probably about as interesting as macro can be, which is to say not incredibly interesting but not mind numbingly dull, either. The professor is I think just about exactly my age, but he seems intelligent and enthusiastic about what he is teaching. Tonight I have Grad Seminar, the class where we essentially write our Master's thesis. I have no idea what to expect out of that class, except for the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the professor.

I realized recently that the deadline to register for and submit an abstract to the Pacific Development Conference is rapidly approaching (less than a week away). This is a one-day conference that I attended last year and I want to present my India research this year, but since we just finished entering our full data set (and actually I still have a handful of E's surveys to enter) I haven't run any regressions or gotten any results with the full data. I also haven't implemented the full methodology that my adviser wants me to use. It's not like I have to have my presentation ready by the registration deadline, but I do have to submit an abstract, which requires me to have a pretty good sense of my methodology and results. So I'll be spending the rest of the week and weekend working on that.

Special note to N: the quote on my myspace page "blurb" is from an episode of The Simpsons. Homer becomes the conducter of Springfield's new, faultily-constructed monorail, which was sold to them by a conman. The brakes fail and he can't stop the train, so Marge, who found the scientist in question while investigating faulty monorails sold to other cities, contacts Homer by two-way radio to offer him assistance in stopping the monorail. The reason I love the quote, in addition to the fact that I find it funny, is that despite the absurdity of the idea that Marge brought Batman to help, Homer has an unassailable point: Batman is a scientist. I'm a huge fan of that sort of bizarre but sound logic. Another excellent example is from the movie Office Space. The main character, Peter, is talking to his mullet-wearing, construction-working neighbor, Lawrence, and they have a conversation along these lines:

Peter: "What would you do if you had a million dollars?"
Lawrence: [deadly serious, and without missing a beat] "Two chicks at the same time."
P: "That's it? Two chicks at the same time?"
L: "Always wanted to try that, and I figure if I had a million bucks I could set that up. Chicks dig a dude with money."
P: "Well, not all chicks."
L: "Type of chicks that would double up on a dude like me do."

It's so true.