Rear-view

Meta-blogging, or blogging about blogging, is one of the few things I have consciously tried to avoid ever since I started the Nomological Net. This space was set up at the instigation of a couple of friends, Wildflower Seed and the ex-Kundalini, two years ago to the day. I was just coming out of a fairly severe stress-related illness and the idea of a relatively mindless distraction seemed worth trying out at the time. Time has passed, the stresses have changed – qualitatively for sure, who knows about quantitatively – but the distraction has become an endearing part of my daily routine. Who woulda thunk it?

This birthday of sorts appears a reasonable excuse to lift the restriction on meta-blogging; and take care of a tag, all at once. Black mamba would like me to “Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like).” Well, 5 she gets, and more.

Family: Start with the post I cherish the most, about an uncle, a grandfather, and an old family friend. Then there's this gem from my mother, and another one of my favorites which counts under this head because I started it by praising my genes. I also like that post a lot since it drove home to me the great thing about blogging. It made me a new and completely unexpected...

Friend:
My regular friends don’t often feature in my posts, but here are a few I wrote specially for some of them, looking back, looking sideways, and perhaps even looking way ahead.

Myself:
Probably the post that was the most about myself was a response to another tag. And while there have been many that recount things that have happened to me, such as haircuts, visa interviews, airline flights, culinary discovery, and even mistaken identities, probably the ones that define me most specifically are the occasions that I talk about my work-- research, teaching, and (my other favorite post) dissemination. I try to keep work and play separate, but sometimes they just fold into each other.

My love, if it hasn’t been obvious, is live music. This blog has been peppered with posts about live music. Here’s the first. Then there’s travel: Cambodia, Trinidad, Central China, Santiniketan, among others. And taking pictures like these.

And something I like? How about – to steal a phrase – comment space mayhem? After all, like I said, the best part of the blogging is the friends that you make.

SO then. This space has now embarked on its third year. 200+ posts and 45,000+ page loads have happened. Funnier things have happened on the road, though, and that’s the thought I leave you with.



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