Changes

Looking back to when I started this blog in late 2006, its original focus was to give me a place to vent my frustrations about the dissertation process in the last leg of graduate school. At the time, this space was called, "Maunderings from Dissertation Hell," and the posts were composed of much wailing and gnashing of teeth, reflective of one under constant torture. Just the act of sitting down to write something - anything - helped grease the wheels of the writer within me, so I often used blogging as a cognitive warm up to the more intensive writing of dissertating.

Once the dissertation was finally complete and I was PHinisheD, I began the most unusual postdoctoral fellowship in the world. Since I was no longer dissertating, but treading water in postdoc, the blog was retitled, "Prattling in Postdoc Purgatory." I didn't blog much during that time because honestly I didn't want to bore my beloved readers with more whining, so there was precious little actual prattling done. I've also been juggling anywhere from 1 to 3 additional jobs during that time, so there's been precious little actual time for prattling to actually happen.


I finally passed the final hurdle in January. It's been a little over two weeks since I sent off the last pile of money and paperwork to the Great State of Texas for the license to practice what I've trained to do for over a decade without training wheels. Once the postman brings that precious piece of paper via certified mail in a couple of weeks, I'll have visible proof that I have been "brave, truthful and unselfish," and can finally be a "real" boy.

Since I'll finally be in private practice as a neuropsychologist, and will no longer have to keep proving myself worthy, the topics I blog about will also change with that very significant change in my life. In addition to my usual stuff - bragging about The Girl, discussing our famous gatherings, sharing recipes, I'm thinking of discussing neuropsychology-specific information & cases and sharing what's working/not working as I grow my practice.

The problem is, I don't know what to rename my little slice of blogdom. Here are a couple of ideas I've been mulling over, but nothing really "snaps" for me:

Nerdwina Brainiac's Practice Effects

Confessions of a NeuroNerd

...and the trees looked like neurons...

From the Backal Lobes

What do you think, dear readers? Do you have any ideas or suggestions? I'm open...

Hanging Up My Chalk

The Dean of the Humanities Department called me to come teach again. Although it was fun, I had to decline this time. Once I get caught up on stuff around here, it will be time to get a real live full time job that pays real live full time money. I've renamed the blog for that class and am leaving it open to public view for awhile, but eventually I'll take it down. Enjoy it while you can if you have an interest in such things.

In the interim, I'm still selling soap, have a bunch of books I no longer need for sale on Amazon and am about to sell a really nice Gemeinhardt KGM Limited flute so that I can continue to have a little of my own money in my pocket until I'm ready to go back to work. Speaking of, I have a boatload of stuff to do today so I'd better get on it.

Post Secret

One of my favorite blogs is Post Secret. People mail in their secrets on homemade postcards and a new batch is posted every Sunday. Today, instead of the usual new batch of postcards, Frank graced his readership with a touching and lovingly created movie. Enjoy.

What to Do?

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I enjoy the interactions with my readers and the creative outlet of nonacademic writing, so I don't want to abandon this blog. I'm just not sure where to go from here. School and my dissertation are, for all intents and purposes, finished, so now what? Do I rename it to reflect the next phase of my life? If so, what? Postdoc Hell, Postdoc Purgatory or something entirely different? Do I re-vamp the template or leave it alone? Do I continue posting personal stuff along with tidbits about how to get through or stick to strictly items of either personal or professional interest? Should I set up another blog for professional interest articles and leave this one alone?

What do you think?

Spreadin' the Luuuv

Okay, I was tagged by Mr. Disgruntled over at the super-hilarious Disgruntled Workforce for some hot & nasty feed-subscription linky-love.

From Bob Meets World:

The idea is simple: You want readers and you want linkbacks too because that's all us bloggers want, it's more precious than water for some :)

So what do you do?

Easy! Copy the list down below on your blog, hence creating linkbacks for your blogging friends and then click the RSS feed link to subscribe to all of them. Add yourself and up to 3 other blogs and their feeds to the list before you post it, Show some love :)

Just imagine if 10 people would do this and then 10 more after them. That would get your blog 100 extra linkbacks and 100 extra feed subscribers!

Why is this good?

Technorati rank and estimated RSS subscribers are a large part of sites like reviewme, where you get paid to review stuff. The better your rank on technorati and the more subscribers on feedburner for example will get you more money :)

Feeds I’m

Adding:

Subscribe to SlickSumbich

Subscribe to Desperately Seeking...Something?


Subscribe to I Moved Your Cheese, Moron



The Originals:

• Subscribe to My Bloody Great Nutshell


• Subscribe to Disgruntled Workforce


• Subscribe to Ramblings of An Undisturbed Mind


• Subscribe to EveryBodyGoTo


• Subscribe to By The Sea


• Subscribe to Life Among Other Things


• Subscribe to Blog About Your Blog



• Subscribe to Mikes Money Making Mission


• Subscribe to Blog-Op


• Subscribe to BobmeetsWorld


• Subscribe to LifeisRisky



• Subscribe to Thoughtsfrommylife


• Subscribe to CountRamblings


• Subscribe to TheThinkingBlog


• Subscribe to NotsoBoringLife



• Subscribe to DoshDosh


• Subscribe to KumikosCashQuest


• Subscribe to Fuery


• Subscribe to JohnChow



• Subscribe to Sean-Dinner


• Subscribe to BrownBaron


• Subscribe to EverydayWeekender


• Subscribe to BenSpark



• Subscribe to DotSauce Domain Magazine


• Subscribe to BloggingSecret


• Subscribe to Wampago

Subscribe to Random Good Stuff

Subscribe to Serenity Quest


Subscribe to Maunderings from Dissertation Hell




Okay, so now if someone could please just tell me how on earth I go about getting paid to natter on, then all will be right in Hell.

tags technorati : linky love, memes

OMFG! The Girl Made a Blog!

I can hardly believe it. In the tradition of her grandmother and her crazyass mom (that, of course, would be me), The Girl has entered the blogosphere. Check her out at "The Rantings and Ravings of a Teenage Punk-Rocker." Y'all just think I'm funny. The Girl is a riot waiting to happen. The randomness is a bonus.

Incidentally, she's had her blog for under an hour and is already banned in China. -Family tradition & all....

666 Visitors Today!

As of 6am Central Hell Time today there have been 663 visitors to this dank little cobweb-infested corner of the internet. Wow. I'm stunned that many people are interested in my nattering. So, in keeping with the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the theme of this blog, (which is Hell, in case you haven't noticed), today should see our 666th site visitor. I'm moving the site meter up to the top this morning and if the lucky person happens to be you, pull up a piece of brimstone, spew forth your bile and tell the minions what brought you to Hell today. Hell, even if you aren't #666, leave a comment anyway. They always make my day.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "Go to Heaven for the weather, Hell for the company."

PS -I've said something similar about Texas for years: You don't go to Texas for the weather. You go to Texas for the people and the food.

My Mom the Blogger

I am so proud of my mom! This afternoon she entered the blogosphere and started her own blog right here in Blogger. She's an award-winning writer of poetry and short stories and will be sharing some of them there along with her own thoughts about stuff in general. Go check her out at Times Reflected Through Clouded Eyes. Be sure to leave her a comment. She'll get a kick out of it.

Before you say a word, yeah, it's genetic. My daughter is also similarly afflicted. There's just something about Texas wimmin.

Blogging Chicks

In my little world it's always been important for us grrrrlz to stick together. Men leave, parents die, jobs come & go, the kids grow up & leave home (hopefully!). Throughout all the transitions & stages a woman goes through, it's the other women in our lives that really get us through whatever is going on. My grrrrlfriends are my biggest cheerleaders when I've done something wonderful and the first to let me have it when I've fucked up. Gotta love that. Blogging Chicks is a meta blogroll that celebrates that spirit of women's mutual support in the blogosphere. I'm happy I get to play, too.

(singing...) Get down grrrrlz, go 'head get down...

True Wife Confessions

One of my favorite things about Blogger is that addictive little "next blog" button in the navigation toolbar at the top of the screen. It is a window to the human condition. You never know where in the world you'll be directed to next. There are loads blogs in other languages, using different alphabets and it's fun to try to figure out what they are blogging about. Granted, with my twisted sense of humor the topics I make up for them are typically not fit for polite discourse. Nevertheless, these worldwide bloggers cover everything from the mundane family and baby blogs to celebrity dedications to porn to music to shameless self-promotion and anything else imaginable. A lot of them (this one not necessarily excluded) are really really bad to really really mediocre and one has to wonder if the writers are that damn boring in person - or worse, even more boring in person and their blogs are some piss poor reflection of the inner wildass they want to believe lives inside their head.

Occasionally though you get a really good dark chocolate confection with a smooth truffle filling so delightfully sinful and rich it will cause your eyes to involuntarily roll back into your head with pleasure. I ran across one the other day at True Wife Confessions.

Women anonymously email their confessions, rants and/or raves to the moderator, who lovingly gathers them up to present in daily chapter-style posts with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Of course the contributors don't have to be married (or women for that matter although most appear to be) and the entries don't even have to be about their spouses. They could be about lovers, girlfriends, children, coworkers, mama drama et cetera. We all have our dirty little secrets and the TWC blog is a reflection of that as a virtual Everywoman as told by every woman. Simply decadent.