busy busy

right. i'm totally swamped, so entries are going to be fewer and farther between for a while. i'm in the midst of studying for my major area exams (comprehensives, qualifiers, whatever you wanna call 'em). they're due at the end of april/beginning of may (don't know the exact date yet) and i'm flipping out a bit. i read journal articles so slowly. and i'm reading even slower than normal, because i'm taking notes as i go. not helping. can't keep up this 3-days-per-article pace i'm doing. at any rate, i'm studying for 7-8 hours a day, every day, and it's wearing thin. gonna be tough to keep this up for another 2 months. ugh. it hurts even to think about it.

this weekend is CUNY, (the CUNY (city university of new york) conference on human sentence processing). despite the name, it's taking place this year in philly. so i'm volunteering to stuff folders so i don't have to pay the registration fee. so though the conference starts on thursday, i'll be busy starting tomorrow with stuff for it. tomorrow-sunday. that's so many days that i won't be reading articles! ack! i'll probably skip out of some of the talks, to read. fun.

this week is spring break here, not that i'm getting one (writing this entry pretty much counts as my spring break). the kids (and by that i mean undergrads) are gone, and the weather is warming up (though it's mighty nasty today, what with the clouds and mist), and spring is in the air. sunday, on my run, i smelled someone bar-b-queing. ah, summer... hopefully, i'll pass my exams the first time, so i will have the summer to enjoy.

good news, penn has agreed to pay grad student health insurance costs ($1000/year--booya!) starting in the fall. this is extra good, since i'm currently carrying credit card debt. speaking of credit card debt, i recently transferred my balance to a new card which is offering an introductory interest rate of 0%. that's right--i'm paying no interest until july (i think it's july). this at least gives me a few months to get a bit of a handle on my finances.

i've got this game called dopewars on my visor (handspring visor, a palm pilot-like pda). it's fabulous. what a great diversion. 'cept that michael hijacked my visor yesterday and played a new strategy (borrow like crazy from the loan shark, and only deal in the pricier drugs--no more dealing in ecstasy for us). the strategy was so successful that he took over all of my high scores. my previous high score had been $10 million and change. his new high score is $117 million and change. doubtful that i'll ever beat that. ah well, can have some fun trying. (but not now! must...read...articles). okay. on that note, i really must go. get a cuppa joe and get back to work.