'Dork': A dear friend in his 30's. Writer, hoon lover (both dog and cat variety). Once or twice a year I head over to Detroit, hang out, shoot photographs, and spend time with artists and n'er-do-wells. He's one of my closest family.

Dr. C: My current advisor over at the graduate school. We have our differences, we have our agreements. All the same I'll be glad to graduate in another year.

Dr. Zivago/Dr. Ziv/Professor Jim-Bob:The prof. guy I volunteered for between Feb. 2003 and April 2004. He's an asshole. I ran his lab, trained undergraduate assistants, worked on my experiments and helped with all the others. If it's any consolation, he fucked his career so giggles for me.

Emily: My current girlfriend. We've been dating for about a year and a half. She's a good person, good mate, and a good friend. Only sane woman I've ever dated--and I've dated me some fierce crazy bitches.

Me: I'm a 20-something graduate student living in the midwest at the moment. I was raised in the occult, trained as an Hermeticist, then a Shaman, sold crafts at pow-wows, and dealt with some very disquieting things when I was younger. I ended up studying Psychology and Neuroscience in college. After I graduated, I volunteer in the Zivago lab for over a year. I'm now getting my Ph.D. in Biological Psychology. I study how the immune system affects brain function, and how that relationship affects behavior. For hobbies I do photography and writing. I also still occasionally deal with the undead and extra-planar things. If half of that made sense, hi.

Mom/Ma: She's let me live with her since I graduated from college back in 2002. She's really more like an older sister than a mother. Always supportive, usually kind but occasionally prone to bouts of massive anger. She made living with your parent(s) tolerable, even fun. I secretly fear having to support her in the coming years. She still lives and works for my grandmother.

Scott: Was my mother's long-term boyfriend of many years. He used to be a big-wig trader in the stock market before prematurely retiring to take over his father's estate (i.e. the two story house I used to live in with them) and trust. I used to live with him and mom. He had the bizarre tendency to either sleep or be awake for days at a time. He also enjoyed rambling about various subjects and leaping from one topic to another. He's dead. He also fucked my mother over by not signing his will. Closest thing I ever had to a father; guy was still an idiot musician in the end.

The Captain: The oldest friend I have left. I've known this old goat since my early days of high school through a few BBSes we used to frequent. He married a mutual teenagehood friend of ours, and is happily getting a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Selene/Acacia: an old friend who I dated quite briefly when we were young teenagers. She entered into the same discipline I did and excelled at it. She attends one of the graduate schools I wanted to go to. She's gotten very distant as the years have passed. Who hasn't.

Dr. Silver: the prof. I collaborate with on my dissertation research. He alternates between being friendly and suddenly, jarringly, not at all friendly. It's been a productive relationship.

Tasha: A poet friend. I feel a connection to her for various reasons. I fell in love with her at one point through screens and late-night phones. Took me a long time to deal with it. I never said I wasn't pathetic.

Stosh, Maureen, M&M, Matt, Martha, any roughly anyone else I mention: friends of Emily. I suppose, by extension, friends of mine.

Lisa: My closest friend in Madison. That said, we just hang out on occasion, or I invite her to movie night, or whatever. She has two small children and enjoys painting. She's quite good.

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