Archive for the 'blogging' Category

This post is about meta-blogging

Having made the decision to pursue a doctorate, I’m boning up in preparation for the qualifying examinations. For the past several weeks I’ve been marinating my brain in computer science, tenderizing it by bashing it repeatedly with a large stack of textbooks. Three more weeks, pass or fail, and I’ll finally have a chance to emerge from this haze of NP-completeness and routing algorithms.

I strongly disapprove of excessive meta-blogging and the cringing, pathetic whinging that often accompanies a shift in a blogger’s posting schedule. A good blog should be about something besides itself. Nonetheless, I don’t think I’ve set expectations for my own schedule, which would seem to be a reasonable courtesy. (As a further courtesy, any further inclinations toward meta-blogging will be sternly quashed and allow to emerge only once a quarter.)

My general goal for Zenoli has been to make on average two to three posts per week, with a minimum of one and a maximum of four. I expect to continue with that schedule for the rest of 2007, though until late April the frequency will be at the low end of that range. I may toss up a few shorter bits that are more timely, and probably shouldn’t moulder in my queue.

Thus far, writing this blog has been quite a curious experiment. I’ve enjoy developing these small essays, and watching my own approach toward my writing change. Most significantly, thanks to this site I have corresponded a bit with some very interesting people; a sincere thank you to everyone who has written and commented. I’d also like to thank those whose exceptional examples of thoughtful blogging serve as both a moveable feast for the intellect and a spur toward the heights.

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Blogging as Succedaneum

I admit it . . . I’ve been writing bits and pieces of fiction for years, mostly short stories and short-shorts. Once I started grad school, though, I determined that schoolwork would be my primary focus, and I would avoid such all-consuming distractions.

Lately, though, the desire to write has been growing. I’ve tried to postpone matters by starting this blog, as writing digestible chunks of non-fiction satisfies some of the same urges.

If you are looking for ways to avoid writing (or worse, attempting to get your work published), I recommend Michael Swanwick’s “Ask Unca Mike” column. He provides (or used to provide, as it hasn’t been updated in a year or so) a satisfying assortment of bad (and abusively amusing) advice in the hopes of discouraging the competition.

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