I'm "Moving"

A few months ago, I started an account at a site called “Hubpages,” posting past blog entries to see if they could find some more readers. Click here for my Hubpages profile page. Recently, I have been getting more traffic with my Hubpages account than on this site, so I have decided to shut down this blog and publish exclusively over there. Some of these “hubs” will be (slightly revised) past blog posts, but I plan to keep writing new stuff as well.

If you scroll down on my Hubpages profile page, you will find a list of the articles that I have posted, with some of them arranged by general topic. You can also search my profile for certain topics, follow me, and subscribe to an RSS feed just like you might be doing with this blog. I also appreciate any comments, and if you click on ads or buy stuff from Amazon through my site, I will still make a little money. As always, thanks for reading, and I hope to “see” you over at Hubpages.

Facebook Dialogues (#2): Just How Divided Are We?

Here's a classic song from the 1960's about the social changes of the time. The video is a slide show of images from the Vietnam War.

Writing only comes to life when it finds readers. The most fascinating aspect of this whole blogging experiment is seeing the different ways that people respond to what I write. Every posting is an adventure, and when I read new comments, it’s like opening a package on Christmas day. Positive comments, of course, are always encouraging, but the more critical responses are often the most useful. Sure, I sometimes get a little frustrated and defensive when people either misunderstand what I was trying to say or simply disagree with me. But if I allow myself to “listen” to their comments, I sometimes see ways that my writing could improve, and I am forced to further develop and clarify my thinking.

New blog posts, in fact, have often been generated through dialogues I have had on Facebook, Hubpages, or on this blog. Occasionally, I “borrow” ideas from others and see where they lead. More often, however, in the course of either arguing or trying to clarify my position, new concepts, topics, or techniques for expressing my thoughts emerge. I used to feel that online discussions about controversial subjects were generally a waste of time. But as time passes, I realize just how productive these sometimes frustrating conversations can be.

One of these recent dialogues started a few days ago when I put a link to my last blog post – titled “Individual Responsibility” – on Facebook. Five or six Facebook friends would eventually get involved, and it was not long before the discussion drifted away from the main topic of the original blog post. We eventually had two separate discussions going, with one focused on religion and the other the seemingly intense divisions between political factions in the United States. I decided to include snippets from the political discussion that I had with one of my Facebook friends here. Too often, after all, some thoughtful discussion just disappears into the Facebook void.

Michael Ferguson is someone that I (virtually) met earlier this year. He is a blogger and an ambitious visionary who is starting a new media outlet called “Polymathica” (in which I hope to play some role). Here are links to The Polymathica Institute blog, the Polymathica Facebook page, and the Polymathica website. They are all worth checking out.

Michael:  Paul, you ask in your commentary, "So given this fact, why are there so many people who drift toward extreme views regarding individual responsibility?" Because, Paul, as I have told you before, America, and the West in general, is headed for a divorce. We are at the stage where the husband and wife have abandoned all pretext of reasonable discussion. They are simply flinging outrageously over stated invective at each other out of anger. They polarize beyond any point of reason. The other is no longer just wrong; they are stupid, moral reprobates and evil. Are the two sides overstating their case? You betcha. In both cases, they have a vision for their 'nation' and believe that the other side is trying to thwart them and take it down the path to ruination. In an effort to demonize the other side, they make themselves sound ridiculous. That is the current state of the marriage in America. As most of the world wise know, when it gets to this stage, there is no going back. The irretrievable breakdown in the marriage has already happened and the marriage is simply waiting for the two to get tired of the futile arguments.

Me: …..Fortunately, most people don't spend a lot of time thinking and talking about politics anyway. They have other, seemingly more important things to do. So maybe we should not make too much of the screaming and shouting between the small percentage of people who actually get riled up by political issues. Few Americans are likely to come to blows over this stuff.

Michael: Yeah, I'm sure that is how King George and Louis XVI the got themselves to sleep at night. I'm sure that people are far more complacent now than they were in the sixties. Riots, shootings, assassinations of major politicians and religious leaders….such things won't happen, couldn't happen. Nope, today we are too evolved to find ourselves in those situations again. Ahem....... Actually, Paul, as you may have guessed, I was there in the 60's. I saw it as it happened, more often than I would like, in person. Today is spookier.

Me: I'm not saying that people are more evolved. I'm saying that they are generally disengaged. We have two wars going on which few Americans can give any details about. We just had an economic disaster happen that few Americans have spent much time trying to understand. Most of the students that I see spend their time texting and tweeting, and it is not generally about politics. Times are tough, but the United States is still one of the wealthiest nations in history. (And as you have argued several times, we may soon be getting much wealthier.) Few Americans would even consider the possibility of taking up arms for some type of political cause. If anything, a situation like "Brave New World" seems more probable than violent conflict between different factions. Instead of "Soma," people have Iphones and Blackberries. And as long as enough people stay entertained and can get their hands on the latest materialistic necessities, they won't complain too much. If Americans have any real passion, it's shopping. Right now, a lot of people are just pissed off because they can't buy as much stuff. The only question is which political party they blame for their problems. I am starting to wonder if social networking and the information age in general make the conflicts seem worse. Only hardcore people spend any time debating political matters online. Since these tend to be passionate people, it can make the divisions seem even worse. Personally, I'm still not sure if the partisan divisions of today are all that unusual. We just have more mediums available to vent and to find people who feed the frustrations (Beck, Limbaugh, Olbermann, Maher, etc.)

Michael: I remember the race riots, the civil rights marches, the anti-war riots. My parents never saw them coming. It flabbergasted them. They were stunned and shocked by the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It wasn't that they were saddened. It was surreal to them. They lived in a cocoon of middle class America that simply missed the whole dynamic of cultural upheaval until it blasted into their lives through vivid news images. 30% or so of Americans support the Tea Party. That number is growing and will continue to grow. 6 percent of voters say they have attended a Tea Party meeting, rally or march. That is a huge number. You miss a lot, Paul. You are like my parents. You will wake up one day and be shocked by what has transpired….

Me: Michael, you may be right. I may be missing something. Then again, the Tea Party may become another footnote of history, just like many other political movements of various times. I suspect that if Republicans gain complete control of Congress and the Presidency again in 2012, the Tea Party will fade a bit. It's a movement that thrives on being out of power. As I have said before, governing is much harder than complaining about government. If America's problems magically fade away once Republicans gain control, there won't be so much reason to be angry. If, as I suspect, problems do not magically go away, Tea Party people, like Obama supporters at the moment, will become disillusioned. There may also be some parallels between today and the sixties. Of course, in the sixties, there was a war going on in which any young person could be drafted to go fight it. No one is considering a draft today, which is part of the reason why most young people don't care about Iraq and Afghanistan. Decades of segregation and white superiority were also being challenged, which brought about a predictable effort to resist change. I don't see any challenges to the social system today that quite match that one; although the Obama election has clearly struck some nerves. Also, you had a tremendous generation gap between parents who grew up with the Depression and World War II and their children who were raised in the greatest period of economic prosperity in American History (up to that time). We still have plenty of adolescent rebellion, but not on that scale. Also, there were so many people hitting college age by the mid-1960's due to the Baby Boom. I wonder how many young people today believe that they can change the world? As I said before, they are too busy texting to try.

100th Postiversary

Here's a happy song - reminiscent of what the Allman Brothers used to do - about moving forward.

A few months ago, a friend of ours called and invited us to go with him and his mom to see his cousin performing in a two-man show. His cousin and a friend had flown in from Chicago to perform in a festival of plays being put on in a bunch of L.A. theaters. Since we had not done anything like this for a while, we decided to drop off the kids at the grandparents and check it out. After fighting the traffic, locating the theater, and figuring out where the heck to park, we walked in a little late. The theater, it turns out, was about the size of one of my classrooms, and upon our arrival, we doubled the size of the audience.

Immediately after sitting down, I wondered what the two performers were thinking. First of all, our friend’s cousin must have wondered who the heck these people were with his relatives. Second, it must have been a little strange and disheartening to travel across the country and be performing in front of almost no one. But still they pressed on, obviously pouring their hearts out in performing this series of skits that they had clearly worked very hard to create. I couldn’t help but be impressed, and not just because it was a pretty good show. In my mind, anyone who is willing to pour out that kind of an effort in front of any sized audience deserves some respect. And the small size of the audience, rather than diminishing their efforts, made the performance all that more impressive. Whether performed in front of eight or eight thousand, there is intrinsic value in the act of performing. There is definitely something to be said for creating art for art’s sake.

This is my one-hundredth post on this blog. Some have been viewed well over one hundred times and others have been read far less. And if anything, the number of views has by and large been decreasing lately. Whatever dreams I had of building a big audience and generating a little extra revenue may be impractical, and there have been times where I have asked myself if this whole enterprise is worth the time. But then I think back to those guys in L.A., and it reminds me of something very simple. Writing in itself is a worthwhile activity, even if only a relatively small number of people get anything out of what I post here. If nothing else, this blog has helped me to exercise a part of my mind that was somewhat dormant for several years, and I have been compelled to ask myself repeatedly what I actually believe about some very complicated political, historical, educational, and philosophic issues. Hopefully, a few readers have been nudged toward reevaluating and putting into words their own beliefs as well.

So the plan is to start working toward my next one hundred posts. We shall see if I run out of ideas before then, burn out, or get distracted by the oncoming basketball season. Whatever happens, I will not base my choices regarding future writing on the apparent size of my electronic audience, and if this blog, like most blogs, never makes anything approaching real money, oh well. I will think of it as an electronic journal, sitting on a virtual outdoor desk, open to anyone on the planet who comes by through cyberspace and takes a look.

A Quick Blog Update

Only the title of this song - "Time for Change" - has anything to do with this post. Mostly, I chose this song because this blues band of young siblings is fantastic.



Since I started this blog about nine months ago, I have had a lighter teaching schedule than normal. Outside of the drop in income, it’s been nice having a lighter load, and I have used some of my extra time writing like crazy on this blog. But my full schedule for the fall started this week, and I will be teaching seven classes at three different schools. So free time may be a bit scarcer, and 10-12 posts a month will be a tough pace to maintain.

About a month or two ago, I noticed that the number of visitors to this blog was dropping a bit anyway, so I started reevaluating my online writing strategy. I then discovered “Hubpages,” a social networking site and writing platform designed for people like me who are writing as a hobby and/or want to make some money from their efforts. For various reasons, I think that it might be a better platform than this blog for reaching a larger audience. So I’ve been going back through some of my old posts, making some updates and revisions here and there, and posting them on “Hubpages” to see what happens. Like with blogging, it takes some time to let people know that I exist, so it’s too early to know if this will lead anywhere. But as I invest my newly limited time revising, posting, and promoting the older material, it leads less time for brand new stuff.

So the moral of the story is that I will be posting things on this blog, at least for a while, somewhat less often than in the past. But if you are a new visitor, or only found your way here recently, I have a whole mess of posts listed on the blog archives to the right. (Or just type something of interest in the search box to see if I ever wrote about it.) I’m also sure that people who have been visiting for a while can find some stuff that they missed the first time.

You can also check out my new account at Hubpages. Here is the link to my profile page. (It can also be found at the top of this blog.) I have also put links to a couple of my “hubs” at the bottom of this post. (You don’t need to join Hubpages to read them.) Thanks in advance for any feedback that you can give. And if you like anything that you read, tell a friend. Who knows; maybe you will end up helping a formerly (and possibly future) semi-starving teacher (and “wanna-be” writer) make a little extra money. Thanks for reading.

Here are a couple of links to my "hubs":

Creation / Evolution Debate and Public Education

Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Meaning of Holidays

Help, I've Been Plagiarized!

I picked this song for three reasons. First, I have never posted an Allman Brothers song, which is just wrong. Second, it has amazing guitar work by Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. Third, it is about a man who is about to get caught cheating.



About a year ago, I started writing education related essays in the hopes of compiling a book someday. When I told people that I was enjoying this new writing hobby, some suggested that I should start a blog. While recognizing that this would be an easy way to get my writing out there, I also thought that blogs were a strange concept. You write all of this stuff, and then you give it away for free. Why would people ever pay you to write what they can get for nothing, and what’s to stop people from just taking your words and/or ideas and publishing them as their own? In theory, of course, you could “monetize” your blog, and if you ever got a decent amount of traffic, it could turn into a little money. Also, in theory, people are not supposed to steal your work. Blogs are copyright protected, and there are tools to search the web in order to find out if someone is posting your words. Proving that someone took your ideas, however, could be a bit tricky. Still, I decided to plow forward about eight months ago. After all, how else could a person with no writing experience get himself so easily “published”? I could have kept my ideas “secret” until a book was put together. The odds, however, of an unknown essay writer like me finding a willing publisher and paying readers seemed pretty slim. And so here I am, having a great time sending my thoughts out into “the cloud.”

A couple of days ago, I joined “Hubpages,” a popular site where millions of users share articles with one another. After a couple of days of posting “hubs” and of doing a little browsing in order to see how the site works, I am thinking that it may be a better platform than this blog for sharing some of my stuff. (Here's a link to my profile.) There was a little problem, however. For three of the four hubs that I posted, I received a “duplicate” warning. This was not a big surprise or major issue. After all, everything that I posted had previously appeared on this blog, and posting duplicates is not against their rules. The only problem, apparently, is that it lowers something called your “hubscore.” So I decided to email the site and let them know what was happening. When I received their reply, however, I found out to my surprise that my posts were duplicates from two sites: first my blog, which I expected; and second, some mystery site with a business sounding name. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link that they sent me, and there was one of my blog posts, copied word for word on to some site called “Finance / Go for Gold.” After doing a little browsing on this mystery site, two things became clear: there was no source or author listed for any of the works on the site, and this was not the only one of my posts copied. It turns out that this site had posted practically everything on this blog that was related to either politics or economics. (Here’s a link to the site and one of my copied posts.)

My reactions varied. On the one hand, I was a little bit flattered. No one, after all, had ever cared enough to plagiarize me. I also noticed that some of my posts had a fair number of clicks, so some people out there are unknowingly reading my words. (Of course, the site looks kind of crappy, so I’m not that flattered.) But on the other hand, this was a confirmation of my previously stated fears. I have been chasing this crazy dream that writing could become a second career of sorts, supplementing my inconsistent adjunct faculty income. Meanwhile, here is a site (from China apparently) trying to benefit in some way from my hard work. How am I supposed to get off of the ground if people can so easily steal my stuff? I guess that this is what people mean when they say that they “feel violated.” Luckily, I have not been the victim of any kind of significant theft in my life, so this is a little shock to the system. And I can’t help wondering if there are plenty of other characters out there doing this kind of thing to myself and to other hard-working bloggers in the world.

I have now been officially welcomed to the internet age. Like everything else, the World Wide Web can be a great tool for good or evil. It creates unlimited opportunities for people to communicate. Some use it to publish their thoughts, start legitimate businesses, and find others who share their interests. Others use it to break copyright laws, post disgusting videos, and plan terrorist attacks.

I’m still pondering my next course of action. My first priority is to get that duplicate warning removed from my “hubs.” From corresponding with the “Hubspace” people, it seems that they are probably willing to do it. Most likely, I will start focusing more of my attention on that site when posting in-depth, longer essays on history, politics, and more academic topics. Future would be plagiarizers might be more reluctant to copy material from such a well-visited site. “Hubspaces” has also been nice enough to give me some courses of action for dealing with copyright infringement. If there are any internet experts or lawyers out there, I am open to suggestions. And if you are a blogger who writes on political or economic topics, you might want to click on the link to “Finance / Go for Gold.” Who knows? Your words may be more “famous” than you are, and you may even be helping someone else earn a little money.

Looking Back at a Semester of Teaching, Surviving, and Blogging.

This Adrienne Young cover of a world-weary Grateful Dead song does not directly relate to this post. But this song has been stuck in my head over the past few months more than any other.



Another semester is basically done: four classes down, one to go. It’s been an interesting few months. After teaching seven classes in both the spring and fall of last year – plus three in the summer – I was down to five this semester (and one this summer). With budget cuts impacting public education at every level here in California, adjuncts like me, who have no guarantee of being retained from semester to semester, have been feeling the pinch. And through the course of this semester, I heard lots of nasty rumors about how bad things would be in the fall. It was only a couple of days ago, in fact, that I finally found out what my full fall schedule will be: six classes (at three schools). So it looks like we will be financially solvent for another few months. Hopefully, the worst of the class cuts are behind us. But in California, you just never know.

After nine and a half years as an adjunct history professor, living from semester to semester is nothing new. Through most of my college teaching career, however, my schedule has been set months in advance, so I haven’t been constantly stressed out, wondering if I needed to explore alternative career options. More recently, of course, I’ve been a bit worried. It would be nice to have the job security that comes with a full-time position at one school, and I occasionally lapse into self-pity due to the “injustice” of it all. Of course, in a world where most people have far less security than I have, I try to count my many blessings. Security can often be an illusion anyway. In life, there are no guarantees.

The fragility of life has been on my mind a lot this semester. My wife spent much of the last few months driving to where her dad lived, trying to help care for him as he suffered (and eventually died) from cancer. She also spent many hours doing research and dealing with insurance company bureaucrats in an effort to get him the best care available. This left me with more of the parenting responsibilities than normal. Now I am tempted to say that I happily took this on and played the part of the perfect, supportive husband and father. All in all, as husbands go, I did a decent job. Still, I managed to lose it at times, and, I am sorry to say, found more than a few opportunities to feel sorry for myself. (Human nature can be a bitch.)

In the end, however, we both did what we had to do. And though I would never wish this experience on anyone, as time moves on, I see this as one more step in a gradual journey toward greater empathy and wisdom. As my wife has said several times since, it is impossible to understand what it is like to see a loved one dying from a terminal illness until you have been through the experience yourself. The people who were truly supportive over these past months, by and large, were friends and family who had been through similar experiences. People with little personal experience with death often seem uncomfortable talking to someone who is facing tragedy. They seem worried that they might somehow say the wrong thing, and they often run away as quickly as possible. (I should know because I have often been that uncomfortable person.) Those who have been through it know that there is no right or wrong thing to say. Simply being there is what really matters.

Through the course of teaching, worrying about the future, and trying to be a decent husband and father, I also started this blog experiment. Since I started this blog at the beginning of the year, I have managed to crank out sixty-two posts. Both my motives for writing and my range of topics have expanded over this short time. When I first started writing at the end of last summer, the idea was to put together a book based on my years of college teaching experience. After a few months of composing some possible chapters, I decided to start this blog in order to get feedback from a few Facebook friends. Then, as I learned a bit more about the blogosphere, and as I received a little positive feedback, I decided to start writing this blog for its own sake. I then started shamelessly promoting this blog, using the few methods that I knew, in order to let people know that I exist. And in order to make things more fun, and hopefully to appeal to a wider audience, I began writing about more than just education. Now, I alternate between posts about history, politics, education, religion, current events, and personal ramblings like the “masterpiece” that I am composing right now.

But what am I trying to achieve by writing these blog posts? To be completely honest, I am not quite sure. Several motives seem to be wrapped up together: writing stuff that will hopefully have a positive impact on people, generating a little extra income on the side, keeping my mind sharp, creating some sort of a personal journal for the future, catching the attention of that “right person” who can help me build a career as a writer, stroking my fragile ego by looking for positive feedback, trying to gain some sense of tangible achievement, releasing pent up thoughts and feelings, and the list could probably go on.

As I look back on what I have written so far, I am pleasantly surprised by what I have done. (When I periodically go back and read old posts, I usually think, “that’s pretty damn good.”) I also can’t get over this nagging feeling that I have the potential to be much better. After all, before I started this blog not so long ago, I had not tried to write anything of any length since grad school. I have also been cranking out these posts in the midst of a crazy semester, writing in little bursts whenever I can squeeze in some time. If I manage to keep plugging away, and if am able to find more time to invest, how much better might I be in a year (or two, or three)? It’s hard to say. I may become a famous blogger and/or published author; or I may be a guy still maintaining the delusion that he can write things that more than a few people would want to read; or I may quit writing and go back to devoting more time to other (more practical) pursuits. With a light schedule over the next few months, I might have a better idea of where this writing hobby is taking me by the end of the summer.

Some would say that writing has value whether it finds appreciative readers or not. On some level, I agree. Still, I would be fooling myself and lying to anyone reading this if I claimed that I was not looking for an appreciative audience. If I just wanted to write to myself, I would keep a diary. So thanks to anyone who has read (and commented) so far. And if anyone has helpful suggestions or some kind words to give me a reason to keep at this thing, feedback is always appreciated. If nothing else, it’s nice to know that someone is out there.

How Should I Spend My Precious Time?

Here's a video of Jackson Browne singing the title track from one of my favorite albums. It's about the struggle to balance dreams with reality.

Starting a new post may not be a wise move right now. As I will discuss shortly, I have never been a person who responds well to excessive stimulation and busyness, and the last few days have been “overstimulating” to say the least. (My wife’s father died a few days ago. When I'm ready, I will probably discuss this more in the future.) However, I have found in my short experience blogging that it is generally a good idea to write about whatever is currently on the forefront of my mind. So as I sit here feeling overwhelmed, I am going to write about the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Like many kids in our culture, I spent a lot of my youth feeling bored. Today, it is hard for me to relate to that kid who I apparently used to be. I sometimes wish that I could go back in time and get back some of those lost hours when I was sitting on my ass feeling sorry for myself. At the same time, I envy that kid somewhat, and I wish that I could tell my childhood self to enjoy those precious hours when there was nothing that apparently had to get done. Now, there are so many things that I either want or need to do that I seldom have the luxury to get bored.

Boredom somewhat ended for me when I entered college. Unlike high school, I actually had to study to do well in my classes. And when I was not studying, there were often lots of people around to keep me entertained, and I was developing plenty of new interests to fill up any remaining time. Still, I was single and sometimes lonely, so I was able to find opportunities to wallow in boredom. When college finally ended, I was consumed by my struggle to survive my first year of teaching. At the same time, however, I was in the process of getting engaged and then married (just a week after the school year ended.)  This went a long way toward solving the loneliness and occasional boredom problem. Now, however, I had a new problem. For the first time in my life, I no longer had exclusive control of my time. Marriage has undeniable benefits, which is why it remains so popular. Like everything else in life, however, marriage also has opportunity costs. To gain companionship, a certain amount of personal freedom must be surrendered (which helps to explain the popularity of divorce).

Still, I had enormous amounts of “free time” during my first seven years of marriage. I just didn’t know it yet. Sure, I was busy with work and the mundane activities of day-to-day life. Sometimes, like all married men I imagine, I felt that my wife was placing unreasonable “demands” on my time. But when my wife and I were not at work or busy doing other chores, we could basically do what we wanted. We could go out on a moment’s notice, play games, watch TV, have uninterrupted conversations, or engage in other forms of recreation (in various locations) that relative newlyweds have been known to perform. Eventually, however, we made a fateful decision related to the aforementioned “recreational activities”: children. Parenting, I have found, is an amazing, unique, and highly recommended part of the human experience. It can also, however, occasionally drive you nuts. And when you hear parents complain from time to time, there is often an overriding theme: parents, particularly of very young children, lose complete control of their time. You suddenly recognize the value of all of the little things that you completely took for granted before.

For me, the hardest thing about being a parent is not directly related to parenting. My struggle has been figuring out how to get anything else done while I am parenting. And to make matters worse, the older I have gotten, the more interests I have seemed to develop. Here is a short, general list of things that I would like to do with my time: hang out with family, see close friends, read History, read current events, listen to NPR podcasts, tweak my lesson plans, play racquetball at least twice a week, swim three times a week, download music, listen to music, play strategy games, watch movies related to history, write blog posts, promote my blog, read other blogs, . . . I better stop now. I’m stressing myself out. And I haven’t even made a detailed list of the various things related to parenting, work, and household chores that need to get done on a day-to-day basis. I am blessed by having a job with irregular hours that provides me with a lot of free time. Still, I never seem to be able to satisfactorily fulfill my to-do list. Sometimes, I wish that I had a job that kept me busier. At least then I would not even bother to try and do some of the things on my previously mentioned list. I could just stay locked in to survival mode.

One of the first posts that I wrote for this blog was called “What is Greatness, and Can I Ever Hope to Achieve It?” Looking back, I realize that this was largely about my struggle with time management. Right now, I feel that I am a good parent (most of the time), husband (occasionally), History teacher, racquetball player, music collector, strategy game player, and now, blogger. This is in spite of the fact that none of these activities ever gets my undivided attention for any significant length of time. To try and be great at one or two of these things, will I have to give up being good at some others? Are the “great ones” people who sacrifice other aspects of their lives in the name of achievement? And if I come to realize that certain things need to be sacrificed in order to achieve greater success, then what specifically do I need to either neglect or throw out entirely? The economists are right. Life is largely about opportunity costs.

Blogging is my newest activity. I am thoroughly enjoying the creative process, and I occasionally daydream about turning writing into some sort of a second career. But is this worth the time and sacrifice that may be required, especially since it seems like an impractical dream? Are there other things I enjoy that I am willing to give up? One thing is for sure. I just spent some time writing about my lack of time instead of writing actual content. I guess that we could call this “metablogging” or just plain venting. So if you have indulged me this far, rest assured that I will go back to actual content in my next post. Hopefully, there was something in here that readers – especially fellow bloggers, husbands, and teachers – can relate to. Any time management advice would also be appreciated.