to my great chagrin, my adviser has temporarily run out of money to fund me, and i have to go back on the dole TA a blasted intro course next semester to foot the bill. this is a severe pain in the ass, and i've already decided to be the meanest, grumpiest TA ever.

haven't really been talking about this much on here, but i've been seriously trying to decide when i should graduate. the committee has said that i've paid my dues, so really all i have to do is scrape together this last dataset into something that looks like it has findings and science in it, and i'll finally become a (fake) doctor. the problem, as ever, is where to go from here. the places i really would like to do a post-doc don't seem to be taking new people on at the moment, and i don't think i'm at all ready to go out on the job market. tentative poking around in the police state has revealed that there is a grand total of one lab that's suitable for me, and guess what: i've been in it. basically, where i'm at is: gross fluctuations between despair and high anxiety. the plan, i think, is to eat a lot of chocolate and drink a lot of scotch this christmas, and tackle the problem again come the new year.