Testing... testing...?

(Just an introductory post here, in case anybody's listening.)

I never thought I'd start a blog. "Who blogs?", I thought. "Who on earth could be so self-important as to think other people would care about the minutiae of his or her life?!? Hrmph. You'll never catch me doing anything like that."

Just goes to show: if you want the gods to laugh, make a plan.

I've just finished my fourth year in a tenure-track job in the Humanities. I was one of the fortunate few who was able to land a tenure-track job the same month I defended my dissertation. For eight years of graduate school, those were my two goals: Finish the dissertation. Get a job. I never thought beyond that.

Now, here I sit at the end of year four, realizing that I have two new goals: Turn the dissertation into a book. Keep the job. And here I've been fortunate again: I've been awarded a couple of very nice fellowships which will allow me to take a year off of teaching and work on finishing the book. But I'm a chronic procrastinator. Hence, the blog.

You might think: "Getting a blog is the absolute WORST thing she could do! She will procrastinate! She will write posts when she should be writing her chapters!" Possibly. But also, just possibly, a bit of daily accountability will do me some good. So here's the deal; here's my contract with my (as of yet largely imaginary) readers:

1. I will try to post something every day. Topics are likely to have to do with my academic life. Sometimes, this will simply be something dull, such as "Today I read article X, which may be useful for helping me with chapter Y", or "Today I wrote 426 words." I may also talk about personal issues (for example, I'm in physical therapy right now, and I do a bit of whining about it). I will endeavor not to use this blog as a place to air dirty laundry, mainly because it's just not classy. But I make no promises about any of this.

2. If you are an academic, and want to exchange words of encouragement about the writing process, I will welcome yours, and try to reciprocate with my own.

3. I will try respond to comments (from everyone, not just other academic geeks) on a semi-regular basis. Spam and obnoxious comments will be deleted. I don't want to buy your product. I don't want to see pictures of your (or anyone else's) body parts. I don't need cheap pharmaceuticals. (At least, not yet. Ask me again after I've spent six months wrestling with the manuscript. I might be in the market for some Xanax at that point.)

4. If the blog begins to keep me from doing the actual work that it was created to motivate, the blog goes.

Thank you for your visit. Please help yourself to the candy dish.