Starting Up

This blog, like any other I suppose, is an experiment. I'm in transition between being a Scientist and something else. Maybe an educator, maybe a journalist, maybe a drain on society. The idea for starting the blog came from watching others doing this and feeling that it could be a useful outlet for me.

I find myself stranded, so to speak, in a small city without an actual research community, attached to a partner who has a good position at a local college. We've done the distance relationship thing once, which almost killed our marriage, and damaged my relationship with the kids, too, and tried the long-distance commute pattern, which was only slightly better.

So, as I wait for the current genetics/biology faculty at the local college to die (apparently this is the only option for getting a position), I need to find another way to exist and feel productive.

While I'm waiting for this to happen, I'm going to try to post here on things that I find interesting or annoying. Along the way, I might report on my experiences with the job search and career reorientation.

Anyway, welcome to my blog. Thanks to Terry Pratchett for the title, taken from his description of where humanity's speech centers derived: evolved for shouting at monkeys in the next tree.