I hate-a data*

For my diss, I'm supposed to be using two data sets. I got the publicly available NELS from the NCES folks a while back and just assumed (and you know what that does) that they'd have info on where people are from (as in countries). But they don't. Now maybe this is not the biggest whoop ever. I have some ways of identifying where people are from (in a messier way) that may work out just fine (I would probably have had to collapse categories in a way that would maybe end up similarly to what I can identify in the publicly available data). But of course I didn't realize that before spazzing out and almost making myself puke over it. Especially b/c I tried to figure out how to get access to the restricted use data (where this info is probably available) and it's so fricking hard to get the daggone data it's not even funny. A grad student can't get it for herself. It has to be a prof at a university. And then you can only use the data "on site." So I'm not "on site" anywhere but my own apt, really. And even though it's like a fortress to get in here (2 locked doors (deadbolt and handle lock), down a spooky alley way and then 2 locked doors in one way and 2 locked gates plus same spooky alley and 2 locked doors in another way), it would never pass security measures for this stinking data. And, again, I'm not a prof. And I'm not in Wisconsin enough to use it there and even though I have some sort of access to Penn, I don't have access really to any computers (particularly not ones locked up in some kind of secured site). And anyway, I'm moving next year. So would I have to do all of that all over again? So, what's a dissertator to do? Think about puking/dropping out/using different data? All of the above. Well, I think I may be able to get by with the NELS public use data. We'll see what G-dog says. But LORD! I know we should protect the people who participate in these data collections, but does it have to be THIS hard?

*Also, I'm not very funny. Or clever.