I wonder that myself. What's the bloody point of this blog, anyway? I had this recent (paraphrased) conversation with my webmaster friend:
WF: You need a blog. With ad revenue, you'd make a mint either blogging about information for which people would pay [e.g. compiling and summarizing news articles about the latest goings-on in the widget industry] or on, say, life as a sports fan ex-pat in this town. Plus, you have the whole chick-as-sports-fan angle, which is less common than otherwise in the blogging world. The trick is thus to find your niche. What about writing about how the whole PhD pursuit is an agonizing drag through the bowels of hell? [WF has a PhD himself, so he knows of what he speaks.]
PSK: But, WF, I'm a dilettante! I have the attention span of a puppy! There's no way I could keep interest in a blog about one particular thing for any longer than a few days. I'd write a bitchin' blog about widgets and/or PhDs for a week or so, and then I'd discover something shiny on the floor, let the blog atrophy, and then any ad supporters I may have had would storm my apartment with torches and pitchforks. So... no.
So, in short, this is a blog about nothing. But that's not to say it doesn't have a purpose. If anyone actually is reading this, it means you're probably a friend/relative/well-wisher of mine, wondering where the hell I've been and why I haven't been in touch. To answer your questions: (1) I've been in the seventh circle of academic hell; and (2) I find that I think of calling/emailing people only at the absolute most inopportune times. To wit: "I really need to call my cousin in California; I've been a major flake on that. Where's my phone?" Except--wait--I can't, because it's 9am here on the East Coast. Stuff like that. So, anyway, this blog is sort of meant to get my brain some writing exercise now that I'm done with classes... and thinking very seriously about leaving this whole academic slog behind to indulge the part of my brain that is screaming at me to write a novel (even if only for me). But if it has the side effect of keeping you posted on what's up with me, then I guess that's a good thing. Don't come crying to me, though, when every post begins with something like: "If I have to analyze one more crappy article about political this or military that...." Because it's inevitable, people.
[How did I end up with horse racing on the tv? I have to find SpongeBob or something.]
Crap! Look at the time. Off to the supermarket (asparagus is on sale! avocados, too!) and then the gym, and then to meet with some friends in the 'burbs. Toodles until then.
1 comment:
here's the way i look at it:
blogging is fun. seriously. it's self-indulgent and silly and so forth - but dammit, it's fun.
and what's more, it's FREE fun, which is really hard to come by these days. there's definitely the possibility you might make some money, but above all you won't spend any - which for me is enough to keep me coming back for more.
now you just need a flickr, a twitter, and a second life. and then your life will suck like mine...woo hoo!
Post a Comment