Oh hi,yes, I am still around. Came back from summer-fun-with-language, and have sort of been working on finishing those pesky prelim papers.
In other news, I am hopelessly distracted by this site. Why is it so much fun? Who knows...It doesn't take much to distract me anymore btw. Basically you create colors, palettes, and patterns and then people rate them. This is like the online version of coloring for me, which I must admit even up until grad school I used to do quite often. I like colors, and new colors, and learning new color words. Yeah, I know, weird hobby.
But actually you get to make things like this:
Color by COLOURlovers
I have also been reading the new China Mieville book. Called Kraken. If you have never heard of this writer, I suggest at least reading this book. It is about cult conspiracies in London, the end of the world, and giant squid deities. How awesome is that! (Please note connection to this paragraph and the thing right above :).