Michael helping Thing One with his math homework:

You have 16 monkeys. You shoot ten of them in the foot. How many are not limping?

Classes seem to be improving, but I might be deluding myself on that point. The reading, while still overwhelming, isn't as bad right now. I'm still trying to figure out what the Vampires teacher wants in writing as her response to my paper was less than specific and I'm looking at another field work exercise for Culture, Childhood, and Youth that leaves me with dread. I didn't do very well in the first exercise, which I'm sure was due to my lack of ethnographic research experience.

I've also had my first, rather unfortunate encounter with a sexually ambiguous student. She and I have worked through it and we seem to be on good terms now, but I really, really thought she was a he. My supervising professor made the identical mistake, which wouldn't have been so bad except that it was on the Monday following my Friday error.

More teaching hijinks to ensue as we address education in class today. We're covering readings from Horace Mann and Michael Moore, which I think says a lot about the ideological spread represented in our book. My favorite bits? The "Life In Hell" comic strips that show up periodically through the text. They're like little rays of bitterness in an otherwise scholarly text.