Empirical Work

I'm working on an empirical project to include in my dissertation. I started this project in June and thought it would be fairly straight forward, but combining data from different sources and performing tons of random analysis is really hard! I've rerun my data-generating code 8 billion times, because I decide I need another variable, or I didn't calculate something just right early on. Ugh!

But I'm working a lot harder that I do when I'm doing theory work (which entails a lot of laying on my bed thinking with my eyes closed) and it's actually a lot of fun to do all the coding. I'm using Stata because (1) Ed has Stata for windows and using the stanford unix servers remotely is a pain in the arse and (2) I have a massive aversion to SAS. Stata was very easy to learn (it helped that I could query Ed when I got stuck) and it's really easy to generate all kinds of stats on your data very quickly. Maybe I never really gave SAS a chance, but I'm going to stick with Stata for now.

I'm nearing the end of most of my projects and I'm teaching this fall, so I'm worried that I'll let myself get caught up in that and not start any new projects until after December. So I would love to start something coauthored to keep me in the research mode. I'm still really interested in the paper on returns and eps numbers that end in 9. It's random, but it seem really interesting. I'm at a loss about what to work on theory-wise right now. I'm so sick of my dissertation that I can hardly stand to think about transfer pricing or intangibles ever again!

Houses vs. Apartments

I'm so excited for you that you're going to have a real house! It seems so much more grown up and settled. I love our apartment, but I still feel a little like a college student living in it. I wouldn't know what to do with a real yard of my very own, but it would be so fun to learn!

Let me know when I can come visit!

Oh yeah, that reminds me. You are officially invited to come visit us (as long as you are not a stranger randomly visiting this blog). :)

Work-wise I am stuck in a major rut - I can't get myself to do anything. More on that later. But I think we need to write that paper together sometime soon! It would be so fun, and I know we'd get it out quickly.

Yay!

I'm so happy that you blogged, Devin. I tried to resurrect my other blog with Heather and Sarah and Erin, but it didn't work out. I put a post up there and emailed them all, and it just sat there all alone for days and days.

We found a house to rent in Albany and I'm getting excited to move (I'm not excited to leave Ed, but it will be fun to decorate the house). The house is really cute - it's yellow and has a cute backyard. It has two bedrooms with wood floors and roomy closets.

In the meantime, I just found a paper that finds totally opposite results to the empirical paper I'm working on, so I've been spending all day yesterday and today trying to replicate his results. Mine are more robust, but I want to be able to at least explain his.

Hi! So it was a bit of a slow year post-wise, huh?

:)

Just over a year later...

Nikki suggested starting up again to keep in touch, and I think that's a fabulous idea, so here I am. Susheem and I just got back from our honeymoon. I love honeymoons. I'm trying to convince him that we need to do them more often, but he says we can only have one! (Although I'm pretty close to getting him to agree on a 25th anniversary honeymoon.)

I'm married!!! The wedding was so fun. I hope other people had fun too. I can't wait to see the picture and video. I don't want to go back to work yet! Now that wedding planning is over I just want to sit around and appreciate how well it went for about... oh... a month or so. :)

I've spent today sitting around and reading the new Harry Potter book and a friend's blog. She (Cathy - BM) started it up about 6 months ago and I never looked at it before! I finally did, and it's hilarious! And she writes so much. I knew she was into it, but I didn't realize just how much. Well, that was today. Yesterday was about 2 hours on the phone with UPS trying to track down a package. Apparently one of their guys didn't know that "THE RECEIVER PICKED UP THE PACKAGE THAT WAS BEING HELD FOR THEM" was UPS code for 'the package is waiting to be picked up and noone has picked it up yet.' So we thought some random person had picked up our package. I don't know whether to be more annoyed at him for not knowing their code or at UPS for having such a ridiculous code! And apparently "THE RECEIVER HAS MOVED. UPS ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE RECEIVER TO COMPLETE DELIVERY, NO DELIVERY WAS MADE;THE ADDRESS HAS BEEN CORRECTED." is code for 'no address change is neccessary and none has been made and no random person at this other address has been told about the package for them to just come in and take.' ... sigh. The more I deal with UPS, the more I appreciate the United States Postal Service. Fast, Cheap, Through rain sleet or snow...

:)

Okay, this is my first post back. I bet you forgot how random I can be on this thing! I'm so excited to start this up again. I can't wait to hear all about what's going on with you two.