Diagnosis

So what's up with the blogosphere?!

This is not an accusation. I am as complicit in the decline of our blogging community as anyone else.

The decline of the travel blogs was predictable. The enormity of the travel blog institution makes blogging in general almost seasonal by nature, rising in the spring and falling in autumn. But the decay has not been limited to travel blogs - general interest, special interest, concept blogs...all have felt the depression. The only mainstays in my usual internet route to have survived are those which are decidedly not invested in the blogosphere as a community. This insulation makes them immune to the periodic rise and fall of other bloggers' interest in their blogs. For these bloggers, the decision to write a post does not factor in whether or not there is an audience. The volatility of the thoughts and ideas themselves necessitates their crystalization in the form of an entry.

Anyway, hopefully this post will catalyze an increase in my output.

Community

For the first time ever, I tried out the third floor of the Rock as a study space tonight. I chose my particular desk because it had a nice chair and there wasn't anyone else sitting nearby. Over the next few hours, as I casually and sporadically glanced away from Sinclair Lewis's novel about how lame George F. Babbitt is, I took notice of the things written on the desk. This unassuming wooden surface had been the anonymous confidante of a whole slew of overworked, occasionally crude, even more occasionally brilliant peers, past and present. I feel it is my duty as an amateur anthropologist to chronicle the writings of this subculture.

(college is so painful it's beautiful)

(focus!)

With encouragement from previous incarnations of myself, I had the epiphany I'd been waiting for.
or perhaps I was abducted.

I'm still watching too much X-files...even if they're only showing the awful late episodes on TNT, with Agents Doggett and Reyes. Come back Fox (Mulder, not the channel)!