I’ll tell you now I have nothing to say, but last weekend someone asked me if this blog was dead, and I realized it’s been a while since I’ve written. I took three weeks off for Christmas, then I was behind at work, then preparing for ALA, then being at ALA, then catching up afterward. Also, I’ve been asked to present and write more than I usually do, and free time is taken up with these extracurricular projects. Then suddenly people are asking if I’ve given up blogging. I don’t think I have. I don’t consider this blog dead, nor even dormant. It’s just resting.

Oddly enough, I even have some stuff to write about, but haven’t had the time. Over Christmas break I was reading Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment and enjoyed the chapter on libraries and the Enlightenment. Through that I got to Gabriel Naude’s 17th century book on establishing a library. I thought it might be interesting to compare the nascent days of research libraries to today, but that would require that I actually read the book, which I haven’t had time to do yet despite its brevity. The great thing about a blog is that it issues no demands or deadlines. At least I’ve proved I’m not addicted to blogging, which no one probably ever suspected about me.

To fill the space, I considered posting the "25 Random Things" thing, which I’ve been tagged on in Facebook a couple of times. So far I can’t think of 25 random things that I’d want the world to know about me, but for the especially curious among you I’ll give you half a dozen from my list. For the not especially curious, just ignore these.

1. I’m big for my age.
2. I play guitar. In high school I wanted to be Eric Clapton. After that I wanted to be Bob Dylan.
3. I grew up in the south, but have no trace of a southern accent. When people say, "you don’t sound like you’re from Louisiana," I tell them everyone in Louisiana sounds like me.
4. I’m built for comfort, not for speed.
5. Dogs and children tend to love me.
6. I’ve studied both karate and aikido. Not a lot, but enough to hurt you if you attack me. So don’t attack me.

 Oh, and according to the Typealyzer, this blog is INTP.

"INTP – The Thinkers

The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about."

Personally, I prefer the description of INTP I got when I took the Facebook quiz ( though this one isn’t too bad, either):

"Logical, original, creative thinkers. Can become very excited about theories and ideas. Exceptionally capable and driven to turn theories into clear understandings. Highly value knowledge, competence and logic. Quiet and reserved, hard to get to know well. Individualistic, having no interest in leading or following others."