Still-Life with Eyeliner

change? 

For a very long time, I've been blogging about things that are personal. There are several reasons for this. I enjoy reading about other people's lives and think it's only fair to share mine, as well. Writing about personal material allows people that I know to keep up with my own personal climate and life, which is important to me. I tend to think about most things in a personal way and find that to be the least pretentious way of approaching a topic.

But...I'm having doubts about whether or not I want all this personal stuff to be floating around out there. Blogs can be useful for so many other things! People have misconstrued my intention or used information against me that was found here. People have complained about my not including what they felt was relevant on here. And you might think that this is incredibly obvious, that it would be naive to think otherwise. But I tend toward the optimistic, and it often borders on absurd, and I don't mind it a bit because it gets me through the day. But, it's time to consider whether or not I'd like that to continue in a public format.

I recently read an article about whether or not the Blog of the Academic was considered a scholarly source which made some great points in favor of a yes. Then, I read another which made some great points in favor of a resounding no. But the idea of contributing to discourse on a field instead of just putting out fluff about my life is a welcome one. And besides, LiveJournal, with its marvelous many filters and friend-protecting capability, seems to be a much more natural forum for the personal. But, where is the line between bad journalism and sincere contribution? What can be said about the ownership of an idea? How open does one really want to be with one's intellectual property anyway? I don't have answers for you yet. But, I've been thinking a lot about "publication" and what it means and how it's changed.

And so I will be reconsidering, reformulating, and potentially reformatting this site. Most likely, personal matter will move to LiveJournal. Most likely, I will offer some original content here, and on the rest of my page.

Thanks to those of you who have been patient through this transition of space that is my page. Do feel free to comment on anything that strikes you. And stay tuned for changes on the horizon.


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