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March 23, 2004
Busy-ness of the Long Distance Blogger
Like many of you (including George and Matt), I've spend most of the last few days putting out various fires, trying to revise a couple of articles (more details soon) and put together a conference paper. I've been working with students on getting their research papers rolling (so far so good--my students rarely fail to impress me). I've also been putting together proposals for conferences and future articles, including 1-2 conference papers that will hopefully allow me to indulge my desire to talk about documentary films. In short, I feel like I've been in a full sprint for the past month, unable to slow down at all.
This isn't a complaint, just context for a few passing thoughts I've recorded in my blog over the last few days. Weez comments that my references to a "blogging crisis" leave her "wanting more words." I know that one of my goals, when I started my blog, was to use it as a tool for working through research ideas and hopefully receiving a little feedback from my readers, but lately, because the blog hasn't felt very much like an extension of my research, I've been trying to reflect a little more on why I blog.
I just lost a huge chunk of this entry, and I don't have time to re-create it, but the main thrust was that I've been trying to work through how my understanding of my audience changes what I've been including in my blog and my dissatisfaction with what I've been writing about here lately. I'm not sure if I'll be able to restate what I'd said, but I think the hastily written entries that I've been writing lately don't seem to be quite as fulfilling as I'd like them to be. I'm not sure that's a critique of the medium as much as it is my use of it lately, the fact that my own understanding of my audience is in flux right now. If I get some time tonight, I'll try to work out these thoughts in further detail, but I need to spend the day revising my conference paper on The Ring and getting myself packed for my flight tomorrow morning.
Posted by chuck at March 23, 2004 11:21 AM
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Comments
I really, really know what you mean.
My blog has really drifted from its initial intention (of tracking my research) and has become just about things that interest me. At the moment, I'm not worrying about it too much as I'm officially deferred this semester, but I wonder what will happen when I'm back on board next semester. And the hastily written thing is a problem, I know. I squeeze blog writing into a few moments before work starts and it always feels pressured.
Posted by: mcb at March 24, 2004 8:35 PM
Just got back into town. I think that attending teh conference really helped me to recharge my batteries. I still want to think about ways in which I can make my blog time more productive, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do that until summer.
Posted by: chuck at March 28, 2004 5:00 PM