Quo blogis?

A number of my friends have commented on how little of my own personal blogging I have done, of late. It used to be, I'd post ten or fifteen times a week, on any little thing as it came up in my private life or in the headlines.

These days, though, I've pretty much set aside this blog as the holder of the Fortune Teller, a dogblog and a catblog, and very rare other postings. It's not from lack of interest. I do spend an inordinate amount of time online, as usual. It's just that, now I have a far too many side alleys to traipse down, as I search for links to include in those daily birthday posts.

Research is fun.

My friend exSailorette is finding this out, too. She signed up for an online course, to advance her edjamacation (she's heading for a Master's degree in something useful, unlike the studies I undertook in my undergrad years... what does one do with courses in art history, elementary education, and modern foreign languages, if one doesn't pursue some sort of doctorate and propose to teach at a college?). Anyway, exS commented this morning that it was amazing how much more she was learning in the online course than she did in the classroom, on essentially the same topic. While at the computer, doing a quick look-up on a theory or the theorist, she ends up finding all sorts of in-depth analyses, reads them, and easily comprehends the subject. In classroom, she says, the professor mentions a noted person in the field, gives the title of the theory said person is known for, and moves on, without offering anything in the way of real understanding. Online, she can take as long as she wants to noodle around in the deep dark recesses of a given topic.

I wonder if she'll realize this is why I keep accumulating actual paper-page books, too? It's just so totally groovy to open up a new something to find out some morsel you'd have never picked up in regular, day-to-day discourse. For example, Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound helped a MRS. J. B. SAMUDA of Newton Centre, Mass. get rid of her tired, heavy, sluggish feeling, and now she feels fine. She can play base-ball with her children. That's not gonna come up over your average dinner table.

At least, I hope it isn't.

So, anyway, I spend my days doing the very serious task of researching, and that is why I blog so much less than I have in the past. If you miss me, I apologize. If you pity me...