30 hours by train
02.27.2005Man, that was a long train ride. But it's nice to know Amtrak has 120v outlets next to every pair of seats. So Kaneda & Yoshi stayed powered up the whole way down.
I had to change trains in Chicago. Off the Lake Cities; onto The Cardinal. And I realized that I'm such a walking contradiction. Switching from iPod to pocket watch, laptop bag & 1960s Starline suitcase, 507 cowboy-cut jeans & European scarf.
Took the time to input tons of data into STATA, preparing for a panel time series analysis of Bolivian electoral data (disaggregated to province level, that's over 500 observations) by the time I head back. Should have just enough time to learn the xtreg functions in STATA (thanks to Dr. Corder's advice & his loaning me that volume of the user's manual).
Also, got through a dozen of the 345 papers. A disappointment, so far. I regret assigning 10-12 pages. At this point, I wish I'd just asked for 6-8 (even just a five-pager). I set the bar, I think, too high. Sigh.
Andy met me outside the station. A quick trip to his downtown apartment, a meet & greet w/ his cats (Pumpkin & Mona), a much-needed shower, and a sit-down meal of rice noodles & tofu over some catching-up conversation. He goes to work tomorrow; I get to sleep in.
If you wanna know what I listened to on the train ride, here's an iMix sample. Most of the time, I listened randomly. Then I an urge to hear The Get Up Kids (after looping "Valentine" over & over) & Camera Obscura (because they're one of my new favorite bands).
Finally, I'm really digging del.icio.us. You should check it out.
Posted by Miguel at 11:29 PM
Comments
Hi, hope you have a great spring break. Don't feel too bad abt those papers. Perhaps those kids wanted to do a great paper for ya, but just didn't have enough time? ; )
When i clicked on your iMix sample, i got this message, "itms is not a regisered protocol". ?
Posted by: Stephanie at February 28, 2005 04:08 AM
Was it fun? Maybe next time I should take a train to NYC. N.
Posted by: Nenad at February 28, 2005 09:34 AM
Who are Kaneda & Yoshi? Do your computers have names? :-)
Posted by: MB at February 28, 2005 04:18 PM
Kaneda is my PowerBook; Yoshi is my iPod. I tend to give names to many inanimate objects (even refer to them as "he" or "her" or "little guy"). And, yep, most of my friends think that's odd.
Posted by: Miguel ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.centellas.org/miguel/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 28, 2005 06:10 PM
I got to look into taking the train out there, maybe in May when the kids are gone from campus.
Posted by: sam at March 1, 2005 10:30 PM
Hey Miguel- just reading through your back posts (I just got a new computer- super hot!) and I really liked your imix. I'm going to download some of it tomorrow. I just heard of death cab for cutie & the postal service (all of similar origin, right?) and really like them.
There's big news on my horizion, but I'm afraid to announce it just yet. I'll certainly be keeping in touch soon. Hope all is well. And I was saddened to see the images of campus all torn up. Such bad forsight & planning on their part. Did you write them a letter? Did they ever tear down that old knollwood building where ceramics & sculpture used to be?
Posted by: Vanessa Sly at March 8, 2005 01:42 AM