Nova nota

I've finally decided to start keeping a blog. I resisted for years, mostly because I'm not sure there's really an audience for my opinions. But we'll soon find out, won't we?

The blog name--Percontatio--is Latin for "a searching inquiry." I hope that the thoughts and opinions I record here will justify the title. I've been thinking about a pseudonym, but I haven't settled on one yet. Never said I was a quick thinker.

A little about me, just so you know where this rambling is coming from. I teach in the English Department at a major university--I will not say which one, because while I have good reason to complain about it, I do want to keep my job. Even though I live in the "big city" now, I grew up in a very small rural town in the midwest. When I'm not teaching, grading papers, or mumbling to myself about the inequities of life, I enjoy chess, woodworking, reading, baseball, and a very few television shows. Other than the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, the Simpsons, M*A*S*H*, Futurama, Stargate, and the occasional episode of South Park (and can you believe this?), there's just not anything on TV I want to watch anymore. I used to be a CNN junkie, but I got so sick of every network failing to actually ask hard questions and do the kind of journalism that Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and similar "old-school" journalists did--you know, actually try to get at the truth--that I won't watch any cable news anymore. I get what news I need from Google News and the BBC, and that's enough for me.

I've got another post in me, but it'll have to wait a few hours. I want to spend some time with the wife, and when she goes to bed, I'll be back.