Really? Nothing?

Two weeks and nobody is doing anything blog-worthy? 

I'm not, either, but the lack of update has spurred me to regale y'all with the latest exploits of the typical UChicago graduate student (me). 

Mostly, I've been writing a lot of papers. This quarter I'm working on a thesis with two friends (Meredith and Robbie) about the effects of foreclosures on rental markets in Chicago. Mostly we've been trying to figure out how to actually measure these things, because no one keeps very good rental data (price, vacancy rate, etc) for us to use. It makes for an entertaining weekly meeting discussing the pros and cons of various data sets (the census, private sources, various real estate firms...) and how we might be able to come up with some really cool instrumental variable to show that something is happening. (We haven't, yet.) Doesn't my life sound exciting?!

But that's not all. The thesis is not part of any class and is something the three of us are pursuing on our own. Class-wise, I'm taking urban economics and a crime policy class, and am working on a big group project for a class (analyzing and communicating policy) on improving international food aid. It makes for a nicely varied quarter, but it's also sometimes hard to jump between thinking about the impact of early childhood education on crime (it turns out preschool is the single largest predictor for future success -- or failure -- of pretty much anything), urban residential location models and the political repercussions of of switching food aid from surplus US commodities to cash.  

This quarter ends in about two weeks; a short break later we're back at things for 10 weeks until graduation. My work load should be a bit lighter than the previous two quarters -- a welcome change if only it will give me time to search for a job. (Anybody hiring?) 

I'd share some stories about what I'm doing other than school, except there aren't really any. How pathetic is that? Well, I suppose there is the fantastic performance of our intramural soccer team. This weekend are the finals, and both the Harris men's and coed teams made it! 

Now that I've shared my boring life, even the most mundane of your daily activities must seem worthy of a post. Share!!