Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Wednesday - What Can I Write about That Doesn't Make Me (or Others) Cranky?

I have attempted to begin this post twice.

Attempt #1 was going to be an attempt to write some shiny happy post in which I thought about things that did not make me disgruntled, because I'm sick of how cranky I've been on the blog and in life. Problematically, it made me cranky to think positively, so I had to stop.

Attempt #2 involved the topic of "office hours" and how I don't ever have a problem with students not coming to see me. After three sentences I realized that this topic a) was boring and b) really came off as self-congratulatory, and I could not continue.

I've got some other things I've thought about writing about that are less academic (in the professional sense - I'm sure they'd be equally if not more academic in the colloquial sense), but I've been consciously trying to be careful about writing about some of that stuff because lately when I've written about the personal I've had a tendency to hurt people's feelings without realizing it. Which is really annoying because I don't like hurting people's feelings, and it's especially annoying when one does so by accident. And yet it's also annoying to feel like I can't write about things that I'm thinking about. In other words, this whole train of thought is annoying, and it is getting me no closer to stopping the crankiness on this blog.

And I'd really like not to be cranky on this blog.

So I've thought also about doing that meme that's going around where people bold stuff they've done in their lives, but I feel like a) I might have done a very similar meme once and b) thinking of doing it made me cranky because I felt like I hadn't done most of the things on that meme. Annoying.

So then I thought perhaps I should do a quiz or something? That seemed annoying as well.

The point here is that I don't know what I want to write about, though I'm fairly sure of what I feel would be annoying about which to write. I suppose I could take that as a sign that I shouldn't be writing, but I'd rather write here than do my actual work. And so, what I need from you, dear readers, is some suggestions. Any topics that you'd like me to write about? Any at all? That won't make me or you cranky?

3 comments:

Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D., Instructor said...

chocolate.

Unknown said...

Kitties! Kitties always make us laugh, even if it's in frustration. How big is Mr. Stripey now? Is the Man Kitty still the boss, or has he been usurped? As I type, the one known as Monster, who is about Mr. Stripey's age, is racing back and forth across the house, whacking at anything on the floor that might slide and so become a toy. The other two are in hiding, lest they become toys, too!
Barb

Dr. Medusa said...

Some possibilities:

!. Top two or three crazy tales from conference land, in David Lodge style

2. Your pleasure reading habits, which I do not think you have reported on much here and which are funny

3. You could pretend you are on "Inside the Actor's Studio" and answer the James Lipton/Pivot ten questions (or if you are feeling really ambitious, you could answer the Proust Questionnaire).