Thanks.

You're all so sweet. Thank you for your comments - really that was just a bitter rant that I needed to get out of my system.

I do, indeed, feel better now.

Part of this may be because of my increased abilitiy to kill pixellated people in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" on the Xbox.

It is actually a kind of academic vertigo for me. You see, being an upper-middle-class (although technically abysmally poor) white girl in graduate school, the idea of playing this game is, well, odd. Academically I am appalled because this game reinforces every stereotype imaginable, while being violent, bloodthristy, and generally rewarding you for being a thug. So academically this game is horrifying to me. That said, however, I really really like playing it. This is where the reality/fiction seperation comes into effect. That said, however, the fiction is still racially and socially appalling. So really I shouldn't like it.

But I was up to 2am playing it. And I really do have a nice set of hookers.

Alas - the contradictions within us all.

Other than that, I have been reviving my academic tendencies with increased fequency of contact with other graduate students and the regenstein, with extra emphasis on registration and stipend-getting.

Because I like to be able to eat.

Other than that it's working on handouts for the writing program, deciding what to do with my preceptorees, and reading (oh yeah, reading).

Random crises will be averted.

Although I'm not exactly sure what they will be yet.

But I will be there with bandaids.

I am, in fact, that person - the one with the bandaids, pliers, needle and thread, and jewelry clasps in my backpack.