The analysis of insipidy

Three weeks into month of intensive immersion grad classes, my superego has been nearly slaughtered by the id and the ego. Id, because I'm tired of thinking...much rather eat! says the id. And the ego, because this purely intellectual, extraordinarily abstruse class cannot connect to any practical or useful understanding, even in an intellectual sense.

Allow me to illustrate. My current class is the linguistics of electronic language. My research topic is on the use of "I am" (Je suis) vs "I'm" (J'suis) in subject lines of posts and its subsequent use in the responses to those subjects in a forum for adolescent girls, "100% girls, No boys allowed."


The professor thought that was a great topic. Only the use of language, though, not the meaning that it conveys. Which begs the questions: What's the point of studying language without concern for its communicated meaning? That's linguistics, apparently. Let's just say that pure academia does not appeal to me.

A side note, my main distraction and means of remaining sane these week is the Twilight series. I have the audio books, which makes spending 2+ hours in the car commuting actually nice. I mean...what are Bella and Edward going to do next? These are important things.