But what have I done for you lately?
According to a relatively recent New York Times article, only 7.4 million of the 133 million blogs tracked by the blog search engine Technorati have been updated in the last 120 days. This blog has become perilously close to falling into that neglected 95%, as my last post is dated February 18th, 2009 (although to be fair, I did update said post sometime in March). Perhaps it was a particularly busy semester.
The temptation, I suppose, is to compensate for my post-post deficit by rattling off a list of “personal updates” that account for the intervening 117 days. (Blogging aside: Lists generally lend themselves to blog posts. A blog itself is basically a poorly organized list. Slapping in some sublists creates the illusion of structure.) I will resist this urge, and opting to save these pearls for the impending swarm of summer blogging. (Second blogging aside: overly long posts are a blight on the casual blogger.)
Instead, I simply note that on April 28th my doctoral fate was all but sealed with the successful presentation of my long awaited thesis proposal. This strongly suggests that my thesis defense will take place in the fall, and that the up-and-coming fall semester will be my last at Brown. An extremely timely exit, since a delay of even a few months would permit me to make the dubious claim that “my tenure as a student at Brown spanned 3 decades”. At that point, I assume I’d be a lock for graduate student orator at my graduation ceremony next May, but my preference is still to acquire a PhD in time for my 10 year high school reunion (slated for Thanksgiving weekend).
With the uncertainty of my post-Brown existence drifting closer by the day, the need for a more regular blogging regiment is at an all-time high. Expect more updates shortly.