I can certainly understand where you are coming from. Myself,I have been investing far more of my energy in Bryce and Poser recently for character animation, and Rhino for modelling. I find that I am in the position of having a background in software (RDS and Carrara) that is not presently being taken seriously on a resume, which is rather frustrating. I am seriously hoping that they can get this ship out of drydock soon,because I would like to be able to work with a software that is stable and versatile, rather than outsourcing to other sister applications. Believe me, if I were to come into four thousand dollars through some good fortune, I too would be delighted to purchase 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, SoftImage or some other comparable high end application and never look back.