I've mentioned to a few people about how everyone down here in the Metroplex seems to be a little too concerned with power, authority, and the maintenance of established hierarchies. I'm sure you'll recall Sarah's interactions with the secretary formerly at her building.

Maybe it's a holdover from the traditions established during slavery, but from what I can tell, everyone down here has to submit to somebody else, and as a result, when somebody gets an opportunity to wield power over someone else, that opportunity is absolutely relished.

Among my new fellow students at my new school, I don't really fit very well into the established hierarchy, in which the "first years" don't know anything about anything and aren't really treated with all that much respect as a result. I'm not all that special, but I have already been a grad student for a while, and it turns out that I'm good at it. Although it surprised me a little at first that some of students with more seniority turned a little cold when they found this out, I think I get the picture.

A few weeks ago, my office mate, who is a fifth-year student who doesn't spend any time on campus, told me that I could take her desk and do "whatever" with the office. I told her I would do just that, and a few days later, I rearranged it to my liking.

Which brings me to the above picture of a baby hanging from the wall of my office. It was accompanied by a nasty note from said office mate that said something to the effect of, "How dare you touch my things."

Apparently, the baby is passed back and forth among the grad students as a joke, but I'm not sure if it's typically done as some sort of a warning. Oops.