Election 2004 and grad school

Well, I noticed that none of my other friends who blog have posted anything about the election results. It makes perfect sense--it's just too bloody depressing.

But for whatever its worth, a great big thank you to Jen for helping turn out the Kerry vote in NH, and to Leper, Schmooz, and Perlick for their efforts in Oberlin, Ohio.

As for my academic career plan--Master's vs. Phd--I had made the comment earlier that part of it would weigh on how this election turned out. Well, even though the popular vote is pushing me towards staying in Canada, my ass has a strong mandate for a Master's only. Reasons:

1. For a PhD, I'll have to take double the number of classes I'm taking now for my Master's--which is a nice light load of 4 classes over 2 years. I'm learning that classes and scary math still kick my ass, so I'm really not psyched to do twice my current goal. Also, given my specialization, there is the problem of finding enough applicable courses to take--I'm going to be taking one of my courses cross-registered at the University of Toronto. Incidentally, that course is taught by the advisor to my former mentor/boss in Boston, so I'm looking forward to it.

2. I miss having an income. Or at least an income significantly greater than a grad student's. I just found out my laptop has a dead motherboard ($700 replacement cost). Ouch. While I'm getting some nice outside income by working for my advisor's consulting company, it's not quite the same. I'm not actually hurting financially, by any means... it just doesn't feel nearly as cushioned as before.

3. I've relearned the fact that to me, school feels like continuous pressure--a lot more so than a job. There's always something here to take home and work on; more reading to catch up on; research that isn't getting done while you go and do posts on your blog. With my old job, when I did stuff on weekends, it always felt like an occasional 'above and beyond' effort that was duly rewarded, while in school, it's just plain necessary.

4. I miss Boston, and all of you folks there. I miss being able to wander down two floors to Bird and Grendel's, to suggest an expedition for beer or dinner. I miss (well I'm going to miss) frying a turkey at Thanksgiving at Unit 5 and Rebecca's. I miss the kick-ass kitchen with the sexy black Kitchen-Aid range at the Pemberton Street apartment. I miss running into the random collections and combinations of friends who would show up at various events--coffee hours, dinners, power lunches or dinners. I miss you guys--individually (you know who you are) and collectively. I miss being able to tell my marginally entertaining stories in person. So... yeah, I'd like to come back to Boston.