what I'm doing here

I hate writing introductions, so as you might imagine, I haven't been looking forward to my first blog post. I much prefer the part where you've already got some momentum, when some context has built up. But you can't have a middle without a beginning, so I'm going to use this opportunity to explain in a bit more depth what I see as the purpose of this blog.

Years ago, when I was beginning my master's thesis in media studies, I started a blog where I promised to write at least a few lines every day that were in some way related to popular music, which was one of the central topics of my thesis. In retrospect, I probably started it more out of a desire to feel like I was doing something, anything, that might lead to progress on my thesis. I had an absentee advisor at the time and wasn't sure how to get started, so I just needed to do something. But in the end, some ideas I developed there and that eventual commenters shared with me did end up changing what my thesis looked like. 

I had this experience in the back of my mind as a beginning student in my new program, which is a very different discipline: counseling psychology. Publishing in this field is a very different prospect than it was in media studies, so much so that I am still in the process of getting a grasp on the sorts of publications that are possible. I think these differences might be related to the disparity between how engaged both disciplines seem to be in online communities. Media studies blogs seem to be everywhere I look, but psychology blogs with an academic perspective are (from what I've seen so far, at least) less common. I don't think there's any reason this needs to be the case, though. I may not be able to discuss in great detail some of the research projects I'm currently working on in my lab, but there is plenty to discuss nonetheless. It seems like every other day I stumble across an article worth commenting on or something else that gives me an idea for a future research project. If I made a concerted effort, who knows how many I might find. 

This is also a place for me to get in the habit of writing frequently. I learned a lot while writing my master's thesis, but sometimes I think my writing skills are atrophying a bit now that I am back into coursework and doing much more reading than I do writing. This sort of writing also seems to help me organize my thoughts and think of new ones, which is never a bad thing. 

So, yeah. That's the plan. Here goes nothin'.