Twitter scheduled a little maintenance window tonight. It didn’t last long and I sure successfully improved something. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to say the same about my own downtime.
Twitter’s downtime has a new look
For me, writing is about rhythm and energy. Lately, both have been necessarily focused on academic work and the initial drafts of my first book. The schedule has been light on sleep and heavy on slowly crafting words for publication. By the time I get back to the browser bookmark to BlogSchmog, I can barely type my username. The guilt became so bad, I had to disable my RSS feeds to keep my eye on the ball.
With deadlines looming, I have been too busy writing to blog.
On the plus side are a few papers of various sizes that I consider solid work. Given that we sacrificed income for accelerating the degree pursuit this summer, I was happy with the results. I triple-booked the first half of the current semester in the process, however, and am paying the price with regularity. November brings relief on several fronts … just in time for a full-press on qualifying exams in January.
In between paragraphs, I have reflected quite a bit on what 2010 will be like. The most aggressive time table allowed by my doctoral program has me graduating one year from today, when I could be ABT (All But Tassel). I’m braced for a slightly longer trek, but won’t have the tolerance or bank for much more than that. Academic hiring—which likely would involve relocating from Bloomington, Indiana—won’t begin until next fall to land a job two years from now, so with a great deal of certainty I’m projecting a return to industry at least for while. That job likely will be local. It may become permanent.
In the meantime, blogging may pick up, or it may not. Depends on stamina and brain cells.