I spent last weekend in semi-seclusion in the 'study' room upstairs at the house instead of in Toronto at a wedding with Rebs. The story starts on Saturday, when we were set to leave, and I dutifully packed a bag friday night, crawled from bed sat morning and drove to the airport with rebecca. On the way, though, I decided that I couldn't make the trip, so I cancelled my ticket, had breakfast at the airport diner with rebecca, then waved goodbye and headed back home. It was weird to come home and unpack after not having gone on a trip. I've never done anything so dramatic before. But, in the end, I think it was for the best. I was able to finish a paper and a take-home final and to start studying for an in-class final, and as of 3:30pm, to put that nightmare of a class safely behind me.
By this time on Friday, I'll be done with my College park entanglements until August. For the duration of the summer, as I hinted earlier, I'll be at USDA working on biofuels or some such thing. I find that out next tuesday. And, this weekend, I go to Montreal (for real this time) with Rebecca. yeay for summer!!!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
almost...got it
Yes, once again, finals time. Ahh, the endless hours working on problem sets, papers, and studying for tests is drawing to a close. Today I sat through a thrilling 4 classes, and was lucky enough to hear yet another of my professor's anti-imperialist conspiratorial rants to finish off the day. If the final exam is on unsubstantiated unequivocal claims about evil corporate elites, I should do pretty well. But, in two weeks, it will all be over, I will be off to Toronto to see Rebecca's cousin get married, then to Montreal to visit her brother, then I start work at ERS (USDA) for the summer.
In the meantime I am trying to figure out how I am going to make progress on that seemingly intractable continuing problem: how to get an interesting dataset on which to base my dissertation research. The ideal candidate should have some environmental or resource content. Examples may include data on agricultural prices (which I am likely to get at ERS), data on building energy efficiency upgrades (which I am trying to get, but am unlikely to get), or data on investment in new technology (for instance, solar panels). Just keep your eyes out, that's all I'm saying. Anything with numbers and prices associated with them. I am learning, albeit rather late, that a key factor in an economist's success is access to good data, which they typically don't collect. In the physical sciences, anybody could build an apparatus and go and collect data - it was much more egalitarian. Here, good data is jealously guarded. Which makes one wonder how some data analyses are actually verified. But that, too is a topic for later.
In the meantime I am trying to figure out how I am going to make progress on that seemingly intractable continuing problem: how to get an interesting dataset on which to base my dissertation research. The ideal candidate should have some environmental or resource content. Examples may include data on agricultural prices (which I am likely to get at ERS), data on building energy efficiency upgrades (which I am trying to get, but am unlikely to get), or data on investment in new technology (for instance, solar panels). Just keep your eyes out, that's all I'm saying. Anything with numbers and prices associated with them. I am learning, albeit rather late, that a key factor in an economist's success is access to good data, which they typically don't collect. In the physical sciences, anybody could build an apparatus and go and collect data - it was much more egalitarian. Here, good data is jealously guarded. Which makes one wonder how some data analyses are actually verified. But that, too is a topic for later.
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