Answers You Never Wanted

I swore up and down I'd never do it. I puzzled over why other people would ever bother to do it. But now I know there are two types of people who create (and actively update) blogs: people who really want to avoid what they have to do in real life, and people who are really interested in themselves. I'm afraid I might be both of those types of people. Perhaps I should have two blogs?

Blog v.1: Andrea Hates Her Real Life:
I'm so sick of my dissertation I could shoot myself sometimes. You wouldn't believe the things I've done (and regularly do) to avoid working on it.

Blog v.2: Andrea Is Intensely Interested in Herself:
Had a show today for my improv class. It was rough! Now am in a hotel in Queens that I explicitly chose because its website offered a complimentary shuttle to JFK. Then I got here and the receptionist had no idea what I was talking about. Like I'm the crazy one! Whatever?!

Well. Now I feel bad. Actually, the real reason I finally decided to start a blog was because I realized that there are actually some excellent blogs out there. I guess it just took me awhile to get truly sick enough of my work to the point where I spend days in front of my computer without so much as touching said work so that I could find them. And then read them all. And their backlogs. Anyway, now I really like them, so I'm obviously starting this blog so I can be JUST LIKE THEM. Ah, inspiration, you magical and elusive thing.

Anyway, I believe in the scientific enterprise, so that means I also believe in citations. And, if nothing else, your reward for getting this far is that now you know which blogs you should actually be reading:

• Satisfy your curiosity about things you never knew you were curious about here: http://www.kottke.org
  

• This person is one of the few graduate students out there who has her fingers on the pulse of normality: http://trytheshrimp.blogspot.com
  

• Satisfy your curiosity for everything raw (try not to let the naked man sleeping on a bed of grass put you off): http://welikeitraw.com

• Here is where you can read about things you actually already have wondered about before. And you can take surveys about procrastination! That's amazing the way looking into a mirror that faces a mirror is amazing: http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com
  

• If you count the amount I like this page, it may not belong here. If you count the frequency with which I read it, however, it definitely belongs here (plus the title of a recent post is "Child or Caveman?" You can't beat that): http://well.blogs.nytimes.com
  

• This is a blog I discovered just now by the author of my favorite book but haven't actually read yet, but am sure is very, very good. The fact that now I'm searching for blogs to post on here means I've pretty much run out. Frankly, for all my talk about discovering all these excellent blogs, I'd say my list here is pretty pathetically short. One big hypocrite, that's me (file this last comment under Blog v.2): http://areasofmyexpertise.blogspot.com
  

Also, I am intensely thirsty. Thus, we wrap up full circle. Not bad!