Welcome to Blowing and Drifting.
Good old Xferen is no more. It was a good blog while it lasted (from October 2004 until June 2006), and I had a lot of fun doing it. I learned a great deal about blogging on Xferen (and on my shared blog, After School Snack, which is still very much a going concern), including how to write more concisely and sharply. In fact, I think I have learned more about writing from blogging than from doing my dissertation. Some of you won't be surprised by that statement. I also learned how hard it is to both stay focused on a particular set of topics and maintain the discipline to post daily.
I am still learning, of course, but in the past couple months I'd started thinking about making a fresh start - going west, as it were. I finally made the decision at the beginning of the month when my co-writer at Xferen, having only so recently arrived, lit out for her own territory, Mama in Wonderland. Honestly, I was happy to see her go, because trying to maintain her standard of frequent postings and good writing was getting exhausting. Around the same time, but otherwise unconnected to Shannon's move, Xferen was marred by some "off-line" reactions to one of its more innocuous posts; these were ugly enough for me to want to put the blog behind me - and maybe develop a syllogism:
xferened : friends :: dooced : jobs
And but so, here it is, technical glitches notwithstanding. I hope I can post more frequently and focus better on a smaller and, frankly, more coherent (even interesting?) set of topics. No promises, but these topics are likely to include household current affairs, quotidian life in a postmodern small town, the odd recollection, and unpopular but personal interests like nordic skiing, certain musical genres and performers, and the books that I can make time to read.