I was an addict of science fiction until I had to read for quals, and unfortunately for my pleasure reading I specialized in something other than science fiction, so my children are now better read there than I am. History from Penn, works in a professional school in Florida, eclectic interests, quantitative background from the age of social-science history. I learned programming in PASCAL and want to learn either Ruby or Python so I can create a time machine to go back in time, stop myself from wasting time in the past, and learn either Ruby or Python. I'm not sure I agree with Zizek that everything is voluntary at the level of symbolic participation -- or rather, my conscious mental processes might agree, but there are these things called involuntary muscles. Oh, wait. You didn't want to hear about peristalsis and Edith Wharton.