I've often commented that I should at a "yet" to end of every sentence I utter that begins with "I don't". Particularly sentences that start with "I don't like".
It seems as though I'm steadily talking myself into liking everything. I get into these strange modes where I have to try something, even though I've tried it several times before and I didn't like it. After a while, I start to appreciate it, even if I still don't like it, and then I start to actually enjoy the very things I didn't like about it in the first place.
Take mangoes, for an example. Couldn't stand them. Couldn't even stand the smell of them. But, felt strangely compelled to try them, over and over again, and now I quite enjoy them and look forward to mango season. I'm slowly starting to do the same thing with capsicum and zucchini. And beer. I never particularly liked beer, but I'm beginning to gain an appreciation for it - to the extent that I'll spend good money on the stuff.
It's not just food, either. I have a tendency to default to the intellectual snobbery side of things and refuse to engage in certain behaviours because everyman and his dog does them. Then I'll start dabbling in them, realise why they were so popular and jump in feet first.
Like blogging. I always thought blogging was a bit sad, really. Everyone posting their thoughts on the net without benefit of editor or publisher to sort out the people who really shouldn't be writing. Now I'm one of the blogging masses. And not just one blog in which I dabble. Oh, no. I have two personal blogs, two blogs I contribute to as part of my job and no less than four blogs I run as a "professional librarian" that are separate from the ones that belong to my library (so I can keep contributing to them regardless of who I work for, and use them to help sell myself to other organisations). Fortunately, I can "talk" under water, so I have little trouble in supplying enough dribble to keep 8 blogs ticking over.
Oh, and then there's the sports pages. Now, I have a very poor opinion of the print media in general (especially at the local level), and I've always felt that the reporting of sport was particularly obnoxious. I mean, sports reporters seem incapable of writing an article without padding their sentences out with ghastly mixed metaphors and other such atrocities. Now, along with the comics and the TV guide, it's one of the first things I look at when I pick up a newspaper. Heck, with the Townsville Bulletin, it's often the *only* thing I'll look at when I pick up the newspaper.
It's not because of the writing (that's still terrible) but - dare I say it - because of the *sport*. I'm actually interested in finding out who won last night's game, and whether the Roar will make it to the playoffs. The other day I actually bought a ticket to a basketball game. I don't know why. It makes no sense to me at all. Sport bores me. It always has. But, come next Friday, I'll be watching the Crocodiles take on the Taipans.
Pity me.
I seem to be the victim of strange whims and fancies - but, since I invariably end up having more things in the world I enjoy and appreciate, I have great difficulty steeling my will against these temptations. It's not like I loose anything that was worth keeping. I might gain things I didn't originally think were worth having, but then I'm glad that they're a part of my life.
So maybe you shouldn't pity me after all.
But you should read my blogs. I need to know they are getting some sort of audience.
My personal blogs are:
"Sharon's Rambles" - This one. You seem to be reading it already. Well done.
"Circus Geek" - More or less my "proto-blog" where I was working out the kinks, this charts my current obsessions with circus related things - including my progress in juggling and unicycling. I don't update it as often as I should.
My work blogs are:
"SoCA Highlights and New Discoveries" - A current awareness service I run for the School of Creative Arts that points out websites I think would be interesting to Creative Arts students and practitioners.
"Social Sciences & Humanities@JCU Library" - A blog run by another librarian which I contribute to occasionally.
And then, my showcases - "Sharon's Electronic Research Blogs"
"Information Literacy and Other Research Skills" - One of the only blogs I run that's sort of a "teaching" blog. All of the others are current awareness blogs just like the one for SoCA
"Resources for Creative Arts Students" - Actually, at the moment this is a carbon copy of the SoCA blog. I gave myself permission to copy myself verbatim while I was writing about the same things for the same crowd.
"Resources for Education Students"
"Resources for Humanities Students" - both more of the current awareness stuff, but for Education and Humanities students, obviously.
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