our multivariate stats professor is almost completely blind, which means he teaches the class without notes or computer aids or even writing on the board, an absolute first for me in the history of my experience with math. he also insists that we use sas, which gives you an idea of what era he's from. powerful and "flexible" (the academic f-word) as they are, i hate command line stats packages. it's not even a phobia, because i'll grunt and complain my way through matlab -- it's knowing that 95% of the time i can do whatever i need to do far more simply in spss. hopefully this is the semester where i finally outgrow that phase of life -- certainly i don't think some of the more prickly analyses i see on the syllabus are easily performed by the old faithful.

(it's a very frightening syllabus, by the way, all the stuff that i've heretofore skimmed over in methods sections of papers finally confronting me like so many inescapable gorgons. oh well. i suppose it's about time i actually know something for a change.)