And in Other News...

Today is the one-year blogoversary of "Outside the Interzone." Yes, 365 days, 578 posts and 8825 visitors (plus some; I didn't add the site meter until early July) ago, I started this cozy little jokey, sciencey, unabashedly political, and (I hope occasionally) thought-provoking cup of... whatever the hell this is. I've been having fun, though I admit over the last weeks I haven't often felt that inspired. This is reflected in the lower post frequency.

So I thought I'd do a quick review of various things I've been particularly proud of, or that figure prominantly in the blog's short life...

From the first day:
The Interzone was named after the novel of the same name, by William S. Burroughs. Couldn't get through it. I think actually I still have the Bill's copy. But at any rate, he tells me that "Interzone," in the context of the book, is a metaphor for nowhere. So the idea of being outside of nowhere is an interesting one to me. Does that mean I'm somewhere, or even more remote than nowhere? I have no idea. I also like the sound of the phrase: 2-1-3 syllables. Of course there's the literal meaning that I'm often outside the Interzone. Finally, the out-in conflict is appealing to me, though technically, "inter" is a prefix meaning "between" rather than "inside."

So there you have the reasons this nascent blog goes by the name it does.

One of my geology profs was in here with some colleagues shortly after I posted this. I showed it to them, and I swear, I think they thought I was serious. I suppose I can look pretty crazy, but I do know my geo- and he knows that. So this picture has caught me in a kind of odd space between a little hurt and offended, and very, very amused that someone thought I saw this as anything but darned funny. (You can click the pic for a somewhat larger and more legible version)

My first post on Ozma. At this point, I hadn't picked a name for her, (and I admit that I still think of her as 'cat' first and most frequently) and I had not yet discovered Lolcats. The second point is pertinant because the hamburger story is true, swear to God.

In July, responding to energy prices, I got pretty explicit about a core tendancy of mine: I look to the middle ground for sense. This is not to say that philosophically I believe that's where "truth" (whatever that means) will be found, it's just that on any opinion that can be dichotomized, the ends are almost always demonstrably in error. So if you assume that "the best" answer must be somewhere along the continuum (which is probably not a very good assumption- I have a problem with one dimensional analyses) , and the end points are flawed, the answer you're looking for must be somewhere in the middle. And after all that seriousness, I posted a few puns that I had personally created over the years. I try to restrict myself to puns that are self-created, so you'll always know who to blame for them. You're welcome.

In August I posted an ever-so-slightly snarky assessment of McCain's choice of Palin as his VP running mate. And in September I participated in my first Accretionary Wedge... I have no idea what happened to that carnival, but I miss it.

I think this is one of my longest posts (in terms of text), and it's certainly one of which I'm very proud: Tips for Science Grad Students. My sister commented at Christmas that it did a good job of addressing many of the problems she'd had as a grad student- and she was in a completely different, non-science area.

In November, I started playing with theme posts. First was my Halloween post, which was actually the day after, but since it fell on Friday, I justified my tardiness by explaining that the post was for Halloween weekend, not just the single day. The next one was for the election, about which I had a very strong opinion, and (given the last two presidential elections) very strong trepidations.

It's getting late, and I'm getting tired... and the cat's getting hungry. I'll finish up this retrospective tomorrow. But I can't leave without saying thanks to those of you who take the time to leave a comment now and then... I do enjoy this "blogging" thing, but it's you commenters who keep me motivated.