We want the funk

Making a new blog is always a gigantic pain in the ass, because the hardest parts of running a blog are the first things you encounter. What do you call it? Because all the good names are taken. On blogspot, you'll spend several hours thinking up random cool blog titles, checking their availability, getting pissed off, and starting over.

That said, Organic Funk is a way better name than any of the ones I thought of originally.

The second problem with debuting a new blog is deciding how much about yourself you want to reveal, because first impressions are everything. This is especially difficult for me because I a) am incredibly private and b) have compartmentalized my life so much that I have a lot of good friends who have no idea what kinds of stuff I do, socially or professionally, and the idea of merging those worlds kind of makes me a little anxious. So that end, the purpose of this blog isn't so much for me to speak topics of interest to one particular audience. This is more for my own amusement. If people get it, they'll like it. If not, I don't care.

As to me- I'm a late 20s academic, finishing my doctorate in sociology with a specialization in criminology and social psychology. That's the standard line when I introduce myself in academic circles. In "regular" guy circles, I'm a sports addict who is running several fantasy teams in any sport at a given time, is constantly thinking ahead to next year's fantasy football draft, treats the NFL and NBA drafts like Christmas, and actually looks forward to the Olympics and the World Cup. In "geek" circles I'm a minor movie and gaming fan, but my real life obligations and lack of any real money over the past 6 years has basically brought that to a grinding halt, so much so that this summer I'll be playing through Final Fantasy X, XII, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Mass Effect again, and I'm pretty much looking forward to that.

Not all of those worlds really work well together.

I have a second blog, but I haven't updated it in forever. It's at backtothefuture2.blogspot.com. That's the blog I kept all last year, but all it does is detail how I went about studying for my prelim examination. Prelims (or comps) are the equivalent of boards in med school or the bar in law school. Suffice it to say, it was awful. But I passed. Anyway, I don't want to turn that blog into a personal thing, I kinda want to just keep it as is. Hence, Organic Funk.

I also write for www.attackedbygorillas.com and will soon be writing for headblitz.com. Today, I'm writing next week's lecture (I teach SOC 101) on sexuality and listening to the second ep of the Penny Arcade-PvP D&D podcast simultaneously. I named my dog Einstein after both the real Einstein and the dog from Back to the Future. Except he's a beagle. And he's staring at me right now.