I'd like to assure you that my albums posts will appear eventually. I had intended to write them before school started, but my Christmas break turned out to be enormously busy and stressful. At this point a year-end albums post is hardly relevant or timely and probably no longer of interest to anyone, really... but for my own satisfaction, I will write about 2010 albums at some point.
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My hundreds of regular readers may have noticed that I only wrote one post about my graduate work all last semester. By contrast, I have in the last couple weeks posted three times on things related to graduate work. A reason exists for the lack last semester and the comparative activity now.
I try to think of my graduate work in terms of career work rather than as a delightful hobby of mine. The books I read are often dry, and sometimes I find the ideas and arguments disagreeable. If I approach such writing only with the old liberal arts love-of-learning, I find that my temptation is often not to read at all. Instead I remind myself that part of being an adult is working a job that doesn't perfectly suit one's ephemeral enthusiasms.
The bonus of a work-minded approach is that I can read and discuss these works without feeling a pressing need to assault them. I can address particular flaws and question certain assumptions professionally.
The downside is that my graduate work has been relegated firmly to a "day job" compartment in my mind. I find myself resistant to talking about it outside of classes. As most of you know, you usually can't get me to shut my mouth about my studies. So far in graduate school I've taken to changing the subject when it comes up. Similarly, I have felt very little desire to blog about my work, even when it's exciting and stimulating.
So this semester I am working to change that. While retaining a sense of vocational responsibility, I would like also to rekindle my simple enjoyment of study. Even the works I find utterly misdirected have their passages and moments, and I want to highlight those. This will not become a history-grad-work blog, but I do hope to bring in a little more from my graduate work, to highlight the things I appreciate and maybe wrestle through things I don't.
