So, in keeping with what seems to be a theme this week about the ups and down of blogging, I thought it might be helpful to me to make note of what I enjoy about some long-standing blogroll residents, and highlight some new ones. There's been sort of a path in my discovery of these blogs (with a few byways) that looks a little something like this: An eye-catching error in a blog summary in the Age led me to Moment to Moment, which is a regular read because Kate writes thoughtfully, with humility and humor, and takes lovely photos, to boot. I think this bit of goofiness led me to Ampersand Duck, from whom I have snitched several quizzes and who should've been in the blogroll long ago, but I just never found time to do the update during the semester. The Duck has an engaging way of writing about daily events that I enjoy and envy. Moment to Moment also led me to Barista, who has an incisive eye for oddities and absurdities. I admire the way he weaves together images, quotes, and his own thoughts into thought-provoking posts. Barista led me to Searchblog, which is becoming one of my must-reads. W is a fellow introvert, has a career and wardrobe that I can only dream of, and writes piercingly, elegantly, and humanely about her process of recovering from depression. There is so much in her blog that I relate to, that I fear, and that I am ultimately touched by. Reading your way forward through her archives is both harrowing and rewarding. Searchblog led me to Outer Life, which I find stretches my boundaries a bit, because there's much in his blog I don't relate to, but I find that the combination of his self-examination and careful, thorough observation of others makes for fascinating and entertaining posts, and his writing style is delightfully smooth. And, entirely off this 'path' of sorts, but no less worthy of mention, a friend of mine has started her own blog, Views from the Easel, in which she plans to post her artwork, discuss the process of creating art, and provide information about art galleries and events in the Washington, D.C. area.

So what has all this perusal of others' blogs led me to decide about my own? I realized that I really enjoy reading about other people's lives, and I'm going to try to write about mine in more depth. Not to say that the oddments, irate political commentary, and quizzes will disappear, but I think I want to try out a focus on a "personal essay" approach for awhile. This may be a bit challenging, because I'm usually cautious about self-revelation. Even more so than usual in this medium, since I'm going to be looking for jobs next year, and while I've attempted to at least not make it easy to link this blog to the 'real world' me through Google, it is possible that a very thorough potential employer could find it and learn more about me than I would usually care to have them know. So we'll see how this goes.