how did I get here? (non-existential version)

Thanks to all for the supportive comments yesterday -- after writing out my negative thoughts about the conference proposal, I actually had a breakthrough to what I thought was a strong justification for my proposed paper. So I scribbled down some ideas and when I returned to them after teaching, lo and behold I still thought they were viable. So I wrote up a proposal and sent it off by the end of the day, in time for the deadline. And I feel better for having given it a try at least.

Guess what? if you google "tenure track depression" my blog comes up 3rd. Who knew? I discovered this because I got a lovely email from a new reader who'd stumbled upon the whole world of academic blogs via this search. It got me wondering about other people's stories about how you came to blogworld. I knew what blogs were several years ago, had looked at a couple randomly but was not particularly interested. Then last spring the Chronicle had an article which linked to Barely Tenured -- and once I was there and started following other links, one thing just led to another. Though I spent many hours trawling through Crooked Timber before eventually discovering more of the quirky, personal folks I like to read. And then about 2 weeks later I started my blog. I was amazed when I got my first comment. More amazed as the list of people I read and commented to grew. And I'm still amazed now ten months later.

so that's how I got here. you?