700 posts. 2 years. Comments?

I vividly remember turning right onto the street that enters my neighborhood two years ago. As I rounded the corner, I wondered what the hell I was doing with my life. I did the same thing earlier this afternoon. Same corner. Same thought. It struck me as rather sad even as I shook my head and smiled at myself.

There are inescapable trends that emerge when one reads this blog for very long. I mentioned to Charlie some time ago that I didn't mind him not reading much anymore. "You've heard it all before." I noted. "I seem to just cycle through the same situations and stories and if I do make progress, it seems to be in a non-ideal direction." Then I sighed - I sigh a lot. Even my dog has picked up the habit.

I enjoy writing here. I think it's good practice to articulate thoughts and my growth in this postdoctoral experience has undoubtedly been in my writing. My introductions have become concise. My results sections contain results and discussion discussions. It's delightful. I wrote a book of iffy quality and am at 35,000 words of another I like a great deal. I've made online friends I adore. I've become fond of certain cities that appear frequently in my site stats. I've learned to read people I would never know otherwise and become emotionally invested in their lives, even if I never leave a comment.

I rarely do memes, though I've nothing against them. I also have never done a delurking post - probably because I've faithfully lurked on several blogs myself and am rather protective of those who don't feel like saying hello. But I spent the day writing another paper and slowly working my way through some analysis. So I haven't seen anyone at all - my only contact with the outside world has been through the computer.

If it's not too much trouble, I would like comments today. Ask a question, say hello, offer sympathy on my life of late. That would please me greatly.

I thought about doing some sort of prizes since I didn't participate in the gift exchange offer that moved around awhile ago for some reason I can't recall. Then as I was searching under beds for my stripey Sprout, I realized I needed to unload some of those romance novels I collected for years. If you'd like one from my collection, I'll pick a good one, note why I liked it and send it to you. (Seriously - you'd be helping me out. I have something like 6 huge containers under beds. It's ridiculous.) Email (minorrevisionsblog at gmail dot com) with a mailing address will get you one! Or two! Or however many I can stuff into a padded envelope! I'm even happy to mail them internationally (Hello, readers from Europe and a couple from Asia!).

Thank you for reading. Perhaps eventually I'll give you something new and different.