A mediocre badass

The last two days have been a series of humbling lessons in the fact that a.) I'm not as much of a badass as I think I am and b.) that I'm not a complete wimp either.

Attention Bihar bus drivers: 1 person < 4 samosas

The last few days I've been piloting the survey instrument around Patna to figure out the best way to phrase certain questions and the best way to select respondents. Yesterday the team, which is growing very quickly, went to Punpun block about 25-30km south of Patna to test the questionnaire in a more rural and isolated environment. This area is well known for making jokejokes of its village names. Some common examples: Where do you go to get cow products? Dehri village. Where do you go to get Jewish holiday fixtures? Manora village.

Four hours on Sunday afternoon, with doors open

Swatties and former Swatties will appreciate this piece:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938483,00.html

I think most of us would agree that it is a fair portrayal of our alma mater. In fact, given the article's progressive views on diversity and gender equality, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the author is a former Swattie.

Surveying, and I'm not talking about the ACSM

I am going to start surveying soon*. The past few months have been mostly in-office data work, so the prospect of being in the field** is exciting, nerve-wracking, and exhausting. Exciting because it means buzzing down dirt roads in the chill of the early morning on the back of a bike, searching the rustic scenery for idle surveyors. Nerve-wracking because it means I will be managing ten times more people than I am now and mistakes are costly - whereas I can always tweak and re-run a .do file if I mess up a regression specification the first time, I can't  re-run a $30,000 three-month survey if I forget to tell my surveyors that they HAVE to stick to the pre-selected randomized list of respondents or face eternal damnation. Exhausting because it's exciting and nerve-wracking and all-consuming. I'm going to miss my boys -  Vincent Chase, Jonathan Ames, Dexter, and the rest of the crew - while I'm away. Oh yeah, and Virginia, I'll miss her too.

Being Adminator

Like Weaver, I try to make my posts about non-work things, since a good chunk of what I do is interesting to me but would make for a horrendously boring blog post (e.g. creating the perfect staff payment tracker). However, since McManus and I don't have a lot going on in our lives besides work (and people who aren't as in love with dogs may want a change of pace), I'm going to give an update on my work life.

Lalu's new best friend: "Money"

Two of our JPAL colleagues, Seema and Nikhil, just adopted a feisty little street puppy that they've named Mani Pandey (and Jeff's nicknamed him "Money," since that's what the pronunciation in Hindi sounds like, which has spawned spin-offs like "Paisa Puppy" and "Rupee Runt"). And Seema's started bringing him to the office. So now, paradoxically, we're actually able to get more work done because the puppies play furiously for 15 minutes and then collapse in exhaustion for 2-3 hours. No words can describe how hysterically adorable it is.