Thanks spiritway! in light of all these crappy anonymonk posts, i appreciate your kind words :-) i've got a wonderful college i'm going to, so i can't wait to see how the next few years and beyond pan out.
Unfortunately, some people find it amusing to trash others, rather than to produce something constructive. I have a tendency to get hooked into answering trolls - a bad habit I'm trying to break.
As someone once said: "The trouble with the world is, not all the clowns are in the circus."