Is this thing on?

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Long break, that. I'm clearly never going to become one of those impressively consistent bloggers, on whom I, for one, depend for my daily fix of humor, insight, charm. Me, I post only when the mood strikes, which seems to come in waves. Can't promise that this is the beginning of another wave, though. We'll see.

Random Bullets of Things I've Been Thinking About, and Hope, Someday, to Blog About in More Depth than a Bullet Point Allows:

• Can I get the intellectual stimulation I need outside of academia?
• What, exactly, is the "intellectual stimulation I need"?
• Why is it so hard to get my book club to talk about the book we all read, beyond "what I liked, what I didn't like"? Why isn't this enough for me? (Well, I know why. But I want to think more about the difference between what I value in fiction vs. what "regular people" value.)
  
• Why won't my mother visit me? Doesn't she like me anymore? Doesn't she want to see her granddaughter?
  
• Do I really want to have only one child? What difference will it make for my daughter not to have siblings? Will she one day resent us?
  
• Does my desire to build a hay-bale home in the country (after selling our small but still way-overvalued Bay Area house) reflect my growing environmental consciousness or my desire to be perceived as having an environmental consciousness? (Ditto, buying a Prius.) Does it matter?
• Phantom recently wrote an insightful post--which I can't seem to locate, sorry--about what it means to be a writer, and got me thinking about how I conceive of my own writing. Why is it so hard for me to identify as "a writer"? What is it about academic writing that feels, to me, as if it's not real writing? Is it that one isn't paid directly for it, but only indirectly? Is it that one's audience is so specialized and tiny? Or is this just another instance of Margi's refusal to value/legitimate her own work?
• Is it possible that half of the lowest recommended dose of Zoloft is actually making a difference? I began with the lowest dose, 25 mg, and felt incredibly jittery and manic; the 17.5 mg dose has no apparent side effects, but I'm quite certain I'm feeling significantly better. Placebo effect? Does it matter?
• Obama or Clinton?