Yesterday I was telling someone the URL for my blog and all of a sudden I felt sheepish. Pilgrim_girl_? What am I thinking? I’ll be 40 in a few years, for crying out loud! Is it time to let go of the girl and become something else? Something more mature and scholarly-sounding?
BTW, I think pilgrimwoman sounds dorky. Waaaaay too puritannical. I could just be pilgrim, but that’s a bit vanilla-ish. Your ideas?
Attended this panel today about blogging and academia. It was a bit discouraging to be one of the three people in attendance who weren’t getting course credit for being there, but I guess that’s just to be expected when you plan a panel on Halloween…
That said, there were some good points made, perhaps the most memorable contribution was Liz Losh‘s rejoinder: “Don’t blog while angry, it’s like driving drunk.” She mentioned this in the context of a discussion about the ‘permanence’ of webwriting and other forms of electronic communication. Each panelist concurred that blogging is best done with a ‘drafts’ folder to let ideas gel for awhile before hitting the ‘publish’ button.
A few other thoughts:
Scott Kaufman spoke about how blogging made him love writing again. Daily, he stops working on his dissertation after dinner and then allows himself to blog. What he said rang true with my experience as a blogging academic. When I am blogging I am a better academic writer because I feel so much ‘juice’ running through my brain. I also have a momentum built from blogwriting that carries through into all other types of writing. I can literally feel my wrists and hands loosen as the words just flow. The only challenge of being an active blogwriter is that of time–making sure that I don’t get so preoccupied with blogthoughts and blogdramas that I forget what’s most important (i.e. my dissertation).
Liz gave a few statistics that I thought quite telling. She quoted the following percentages of responses as to why academic-types blog (note: just a few stats of the many she offered and I wish I had the citation for the study, but I didn’t get that either):
91% praised the intellectual stimulation of blogging
63% liked blogging because it facilitated interdisciplinarity
64% said it fosters community
My two criticisms of the panel discussion:
1) Each blogger seemed sheepish about their blogging, admitting that it was extra-curricular to their “real work.” This made me sad–what I wanted to see was a panel that legitimized the ways that blogging can enhance an academic career, not a bunch of folks who admit its frivolousness.
2) There was the expected ivory tower elitism–some slams at BoingBoing and the ‘bad writing’ of most blogs. While I agree that many blogs aren’t masterpieces (I’ll include myself in that bunch), I’m not sure that all of the panelists really ‘get’ the genre and form of the blog. It has a different audience and intention than a NYTimes article. For the most part, it’s intended to be rough and raw and fast. It’s more about connection to communty than polish, IMO. Of course, YMMV.
This vid fits in nicely with my earlier thoughts about my narcissism….Take a look and let me know what you think:
Deep thoughts this morning…
I suspect that my blogwriting is fueling my narcissism. I think I’ve generally been the type of person who likes to draw attention to myself and I’m pretty thrilled to have this platform to discuss my favorite subject (ME).
And I’m not particularly proud of that.
-Some Friends throwing a party for me and other recent ABDs in our Meeting. With dinner, a tasty cake, shiny balloons, petite baskets of flowers, and a card signed by everyone. I loved the casual table conversations–good books, eating local, families, games, etc. What more could a girl ask for?
-Oh, I know: how about Friends who drop by after said party for a few rounds of ‘Apples to Apples’ and some stimulating conversation.
-A spot of rain yesterday and today. And the smoky smell is clearing.
-New garden neighbors, one of which used to run her own organic farm!
-Riding my bike home from class and spying a hottie on a bike heading my way. Stopping to chat for a moment even though it’s only been 4 hours or so since I awoke in his arms. And the sweet kiss he blew towards me as he rode off in the opposite direction.
-EllyCat insisting on curling up on my totebag for naptime after a few snuggles and scratchies under the collar.
-My kiddoes’ homecoming from school today. Because some days I just miss being apart from them–even for a few short hours…
Here’s how John and I ended up looking at JourneyGal’s Halloween bash last night. I never found any vampire teeth so I went as a goth gypsy. :) And I should, of course, mention that this is one of the very few times you’ll see me in make-up. I typically only wear it for Halloween and I only dress up every few years. It’s always such a surprise to see myself with dark smudges at my eyes and with red-stained lips.
John, a priest, won the costume contest along with a friend who dressed as a pregnant nun. Very cute photo op with the two of them together! GameBoy dressed as a ninja and CatGirl was a cat (no surprise there!).
Sam took this pic–his awesome camera made me green with envy even under all that makeup….
Two of them in one well-crafted photo.
Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?
PS: do note the stickers on the spine of each book–all shelved by LOC number…
Because EllyCat is THE QUEEN around here, and she knows it oh-so-well.
I am reading Assassination Vacation right now. Can I just say that I feel like I’ve made a new friend who loves the ghoulish bits of the past maybe even as much as I do? Her visit to the Army Medical Museum (or whatever it’s called nowadays) made me so jealous that I had to physically restrain myself from not scrawling on the copy of this book that my Friend loaned to me. That is MY MUSEUM–even thought I’ve never been there and have just fantasized intensely about the day I’ll actually get to visit.
People, Sarah Vowell is one of my people. And it’s so comforting to know that I’m not alone in this big, dark, history-apathetic world….
And to Johnw/H: you rock. Thank you for loaning me just the right books at just the right times….
John’s photo shows the odd orange skies from the ash and firesmoke.
FYI, a local professor put together a website to match housing opportunities with those who’ve been evacuated from San Diego and other SoCal fire regions.
Yesterday RJohn related an epiphany he had while waiting impatiently in an airport lounge. As he sat with his luggage trying to make the time pass faster, he watched a group of people in the glass-enclosed smoker’s lounge. He explained how relaxed they looked as they sat there, puffing away. Chatting with friends. Creating a kind of impromptu community that was completely unlike the impersonal anxiety on the other side of the glass. He found that he was jealous of the time these folks took out of their travel frenzy to just kick back and indulge in their cigarettes. And while not advocating a smoking habit, he suggested that we would all be better off if we partitioned a similar space of self-indulgence into our daily routines.
I responded to him with a smoking anecdote of my own…When I was undergoing my cancer treatments and I needed some time to escape from the craziness of the hospital for awhile, I often went to the smoker’s lounge. There I wasn’t a patient, I was just one other person seeking some respite from their life for a moment. I’d cozy up in one of the padded chairs and lose myself in a book. The smoker’s lounge also had vending machines with Juicy Fruit gum (a favorite back then that I can’t stand now) and toffee ice cream bars (ditto). And I didn’t mind the smoke, really. Because my fears of ‘getting cancer’ seemed oh-so-ridiculous at that moment. :)
I don’t smoke now and have no interest in taking up the habit. But I do try to find ways of incorporating ‘smokers breaks’ into my day. It’s my cup of tea that I drink leisurely as I sit in a wicker chair on my back porch or my evening escape to water my garden. Just 10 minutes of space can make such a difference.
Tonite I watched an interview of housewife-turned-Buddhist-nun Pema Chodron with some friends. Chodron spoke about many common Buddhist concepts, with her own unique spin on the issues of pain and suffering and the goal to be ‘fully awake.’
For me, the most provocative quotation from the program was this one:
“We are all capable of becoming fundamentalists because we get addicted to other people’s wrongness.”
She spoke at length about how this addiction, or ‘getting hooked’ as she calls it, sets off a chain reaction of suffering. By removing ourselves from the addictive cycle we can have more peace and compassion.
I love that idea. I am certainly guilty of being addicted to other people’s wrongness just as I am guilty of being addicted to my own rightness. I recognize that this is a very rigid way to live, but it is so human…sigh.
What I really want…to see the divine in each person I meet and not to feel anger and self-righteousness when someone believes differently than I do. So I will keep trying….
Note: the picture above is of some Buddhist carvings on the “Flying Mountain” at the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, China. The day I visited the temple nearly two years ago it was rainy and cold, the ground so slippery underfoot that it was difficult to walk around the temple and monastery. Yet there were still dozens of worshipers lighting huge bundles of incense outside of the temple and saying their prayers. I was impressed by the devotion of the adherents. That day I also felt very homesick for my family back in the states. At the foot of the Buddha I said prayers for their continued safety and felt great comfort.
Isn’t she just the cutest thing ever? She has the sweetest personality, too. Full of curiosity and coziness. The first to chase all of the cardboard box mice away and oh-so-eager to curl up with anyone who’s taking a nap.
Last night she was the very image of cuteness as she climbed into bed with John and I, formed a soft ball between our bodies and then laid her head on John’s pillow. As if to say, ‘you humans, I do so love you.’
