So it's been an interesting week. The boy was unexpectedly back in town, which means most days were spent lounging in bed and watching movies* and getting absolutely nothing done. No complaints here. Fortunately though, from an economic perspective, things are picking up a bit. Met with Lance today about starting a lit search on health disparities and turns out my least favorite prof has no idea that I strongly dislike her and for some crazy reason thought I'd make a good advisee. Nevertheless, I'm going to see if we can compromise on some part-time work rather than a dissertation-size project, as the topic is interesting and I could work primarily with Brian, which is always enjoyable. And my advisor hopes to have actual data soon, so I may even start playing around with some dissertation research. Plus, over the past few days I've gotten back into writing some code and was pleasantly surprised that even after a two month hiatus I still mostly remember how to do this stuff. So, yeah, intellectual matters have been generally good and rewarding. Which is, quite frankly, a huge relief. (my brain has felt so fragile lately that literally up until a couple of weeks ago I've felt incapable of reading anything with equations or Greek letters. I was starting to worry that might not wear off) And I leave for NYC in a few weeks and we're moving about the same time, so, you know, things are going on. Thank goodness I didn't end up with some 'real' job this summer. Pulling full time hours right now, while nicer for my bank account, would really kind of suck. Instead, I do believe I'll continue to milk my 3 am bedtime-noon wake-up time for all it's worth.

*The Ring - excellent, impressive cinematography, incredibly disturbing imagery that's difficult to avoid, even if you're a wimp like me and watch scary movies mostly through your fingers
War of the Worlds - enjoyable, as long as you go in with the expectation of a summer movie where things explode and people scream; more graphic and somewhat more disturbing imagery than I was expecting, satisfying ending (true to original story) as far as the aliens go, typical annoying human characters from Spielberg
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - thoroughly enjoyable, totally over the top, very trippy (if you do drugs, I'm certain that indulging before this movie will increase your enjoyment); as usual, Depp is brilliant and amazing to watch