It Never Rains in Southern California?

This morning, I woke up to the strangest occurrence: It was raining. Like, really raining. It wasn't sprinkling or lightly misting; it was truly raining. I wanted to crawl back into bed, but I had to head to campus to meet with professors and attend a job talk. Here is the view from my window:

You can't see that it is indeed raining, so just take my word for it. See how dark and dreary it is? There were few students on campus today, and many were without an umbrella and unprepared for the weather.

Progress is slow but steady on my qualifying paper. KB and I did some quick stats stuff yesterday with my data, and it looks like the results will be interesting. I am currently busy reading, reading, reading lots of theory about citizenship and the welfare state for my paper. KB has proposed that we co-author this paper so that we can get it published (after I have it signed off as my qualifying paper.) This is obviously a great opportunity and I am very excited because I doubt that I could get this published on my own.

I met with DM today, the prof who will be the 2nd reader for my qualifying paper. I dropped in his office to give him the latest update and discuss a couple points from our previous conversation. We talked about research methods, and he gave me a few of his articles to read so that I could get a better feel for what he does. DM has also offered me abortion events data for me to use. I'm not sure what I would want to do with it, but it is always good when a prof offers you data. Data collection for this current qualifying paper has been a long and tedious project, so I could use a data collection break for my next paper.

I also met with CU to talk about my class paper for my political participation class. We have to write a research design, which means that I have to come up with a research question, propose my hypotheses, and then discuss how I will go about answering the question. There are a few more components, but that's what it is, in a nutshell. It is due in 2 weeks, so I don't have to completely commit myself to a project. It only needs to be something that I can live with for a short time.

I also went to a job talk today. We are hiring a professor that focuses on International Political Economy. Today was the 2nd or 3rd candidate for the position. Basically, a job talk is when a candidate gives a presentation about a chapter from their dissertation. It usually lasts about an hour, with a question and answer session. Afterwards, some grad students meet with the candidate so that he/she can ask the students questions about the program or UCI in general. I don't know too much about job searches or the job market because I am nowhere near going on the market.