i'm in the gsc, working on the scholarpedia article the advisor wants me to write. it's incredibly hard. partly because i feel there are gaps in my knowledge of the subject that you could drive a bus through, but also partly because i only have 2000 words to work with, insanely few for a review paper. (just you watch though, when i have to do a 25000-word version for major areas in a couple of years i'll be screaming again for an entirely different reason). 2000 words means crisp, unembellished sentences, draconian standards of exactitude and the mass extermination of adjectives; also, having to find the right synonym to improve cadence rather than lazily sticking in extra words. the wordsmith in me stirs, and licks his chops.