YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! YES YES FINALLY!! MMMM, yeah! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Hot damn it's about time!......wooo!!

To those who get jealous/annoyed when someone has a good day (I do sometimes), I apologize...but it's been an incredibly, really good day. Anyone who's been reading this thing for awhile will know I've been looking for a solid job for a long time. I've searched near and far, from the west coast to the east coast, from Japan to Germany to the United Kingdom and back to the States...and after emailing hundreds of doctors for over a month and a half, I not only found an open position, but one in a lab that I really like. Out of the darkening void of job searching comes hope rocketing up like a mutha fucka.

It's located at UC Davis, which apparently has a hub over in the San Francisco bay area near the Berkeley campus. I've been to the bay area a few times and I like the city's look and feel. I've always wanted to get deep into the underground scene, and San Francisco is liberal enough to be kind to a normal man like me. The work itself involves all of the techniques I've always wanted training in:

transcranial magnetic stimulation - Dude, you're getting brain surgery...but you mind if we switch off this part of your cortex temporary like?

functional magnetic resonance imaging - Dude, we're going to stick you in the middle of this huge ass white donut the size of the room and scan your head for four hours while you lie completely still and experience stuff!

ERP's - Dude, we're going to fill up this whole 128-256 electrode hairnet hat with gooey shit and have you be a test subject while we scan your brain waves and analyze them to death.

I could go on, but this is my mental jack-me-off and you've had...er...more than a taste. On top of learning more about all these techniques, the guy himself is very charmismatic, has a sense of humor and knows his shit. It's a relief to hear someone not stumble over their own research.

Looking over my credentials he said they were "terrific" and sounded really interested. He was working with me to figure something out. Hell, he invited me to the area to have a personal interview with him and meet the staff! Yeah I'm full of myself right now, I know, but wouldn't you be after nearly two months of nothing?

Ah but the catch...and such an interesting catch. For some reason most of their administrators are tied up in something. Scandal, decided to quit, I don't know. Even the main secretary for the neuroscience centre there has split. In short it's been painful getting new staff because the channels for getting funding are screwed up. So...he probably can't pay me for full-time at first...but...BUT, he can for part-time. And he personally assured me he'd ask around and try and get me another part-time lab job. I could work these, maybe a third part-time job, until october when he gets more money. It's three months of potential hell...but think about all the entries where I'd be bitchy and creatively miserable! Hell, drinking binges and depression have inspired great writers since time began. I could do 55-65 hours...I did that studying and going to class in college most of the time.

And after three months...two years of solid work.

There's also a position at the Monell research centre in Pennsylvania at the U Penn campus...but while I love free medical and dental, I don't like the work as much. The funding there is secure, though, and security can be good. Still, I'm jumping at this UC Davis chance. I feel like this is my first good break.

previous - next