I don't think I'd be able to survive corporate. I had a summer job doing IT-ish things in a small accountancy a couple years ago, at the end of the two months I was about to kill myself from the boredom and monotony.

That expert advice is valuable - thank you. I'm currently interested in programming language theory (prompted by steve yegge), we'll see where that takes me.

I'm trying hard with the friends thing, but there are precious few who don't "submit" to the partying culture.