I've hinted before that I've been puttering away at a book, and the latest hint is that there is a possibility of some very serious interest in it—no promises yet, merely the whisper of potential, but still…this could be a big step. At the same time, that potential comes with things like serious pressure and deadlines of some urgency and a great deal of work thumping down on my head abruptly. I'm also, of course, plunging into a new term, and the first few weeks (and the last few weeks!) are always the most work, so I'm facing a traumatic time-crunch. And there's a new Seed column due in a few weeks.
So, the blog. Hmmm. It takes up time I can scarely spare right now.
I'm going to have to re-prioritize for some indefinite time in the near future, and unfortunately, Pharyngula has been pushed down in the stack a ways. Don't worry, I'm not going to pull a Bérubé and yank the plug on it; I have a grand time with it all, and it's not for a lack of interest that I'm going to have to cut back. I'm also counting on bouncing back up once the howling maws demanding my time are sated, and I won't be able to resist occasionally indulging in a little substantial blog-writing. I just need to be able to say now and then, "I will not even look at the interweb for this 12 hour period of time, because I need to write eleventy-seven thousand words right now."
It seems a shame, because there's this great big audience coming here every day (you know this, you're part of it), and I know you're a fickle lot and if I'm not constantly throwing out bloody bits of raw meat you'll just wander away, won't you, and find someone else to pay attention to your appetites. Well, I'll help you.
I'll keep throwing new material up, as long as you send it to me. I already get lots of links in email; I'll try to be more assiduous in dumping those links in short posts to the blog. If you don't have a blog, but you've got some wonderful rant you've written up and would love to post in a prominent place, send it to me, and if I like it, it'll appear here, with your name. Just keep on sending the stuff to me, and I'll use the soapbox to plug your ideas. Maybe my current audience will stumble over to your site as the next Pharyngula (do come back someday, though!). Just to help me out a little further, you might try letting me know the general subject in your subject line, and you should be aware by now of the Big Three topics I tend to favor: Biology, Godlessness, and Creationism.
This will be temporary, and I'm not going to go cold turkey on the blogging business—just be sympathetic while I hammer away at some rather important behind-the-scenes intellectual infrastructure here.
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As opposed to normal, when we have raw meat on tap.
I often wonder how you find time for anything else, such is the quantity of posts on this very interesting blog.
Best wishes to you on the aforementioned venture. I always start my morning with you and have been amazed by the prodigious volume of your offerings. I always suspected there were twelve of you (one to lecture, one to write, one to endlessly post, and nine to grade papers!) I hope you can keep up with the Friday Cephalopod! I look forward to the little cuties!
Great to hear about the opportunity, sad to hear that we're the ones that will have to pay for it!!
On a side note, when I was spending the night at a hotel this past weekend, I went out of my way to post a (pre-made at home) sticker in the Gideon bible in my room stating:
"This book contains stories about the supernatural appearance of living beings on Earth. These stories are fictional and should never be misconstrued as truth."
It was great fun, and I would never have done it if it wasn't for this blog, which I read at least twice a day.
Good luck with the writing!!
Uh Oh! I can see the rumor mongers having a field day with this. "PZ has officially declared he no longer has time for his science blog." Oh well, that Astrobiology reference over at Bad Astronomy wasn't too bad. Even if it means I have to go back to school to bone up on the math, physics and chemistry.
Well, tell your potential publisher that you have at least one pre-sale to count on. I look forward to your book!
I officially have less time for the science blog for a while. I'll still find time to post something every day (Friday Cephalopod will continue, of course -- it's easy).
I suspect that the amount of stuff I get done at work will increase roughly in proportion to the decrease in post volume here, and I suspect I will not be alone in this escalation of productivity.
Will PZ's book have stickers on it?
"Warning! This book contains the knowledge of a godless atheist who will speak his mind. It may contain Unsound Science. Consideration should be given to all other possible myths whether or not there is any evidence or reason in them. Have an open mind so your brains fall out. This sticker is authorised by the Bush Administration."
Actually, get the publishers to put this on the inside flap, will you?
Best wishes on meeting all the upcoming challanges. Have you considered having 2-3 "guest contributors", you get editorial control. Would mean simply reading x number of entries a day then copy / paste to the site. I'm sure you could find takers in your audience. It may be more reliable than send 'em if you've got 'em.
PZ, go forth and build that infrastructure - we'll miss you, but you have to take care of business. Having just completed a similarly large project that kept me away from blogging as much as I wanted at UTI, I know full well how demanding it can be to try and do both - and mine was just revising a novel, not writing a new book. I'm always astounded that people like Berube could be working on a book, teaching, and maintaining the level of blog postings...and look what happened to him.
Bottom line, we'd rather you were doing less for a while than have you get burned out and lose you altogether.
Good luck!
Hey, just yesterday you said that publishing a book was easy!
Hey, can't wait to buy the book! And the remaining 52 SciBlings will try to pick up the slack, if we can....
Y mn y r ctlly gng t pblsh rthr thn prtnd tht blg s pr rvwd ltrtr.
nd 'll bt tht yr bk wll nt b pr rvwd.
PZ, hp y r cmfrtbl s n SSCT Prfssr.
If you post less, will there be less trolls (like Bailey) you'll infect us with?
"I'll keep throwing new material up, as long as you send it to me."
That was the sound of Pharyngula jumping the shark.
Just hand the blog over to Skatje for the time being. She'll take care of it.
So, who's the sock puppet? I've seen posts by "Train" and "Bailey" offering the same type of single-digit IQ comments...
Dang! Now I'll have to rely on coffee to get my blood pressure up to operating levels in the morning.
Good luck with the new ball in the juggle.
Are there any quiet hints you can give about the book's topic?
Only that it will get your blood pressure up to dangerous levels. You might not want to read it.
Best of luck to you with the book! You know, with the amount of material appearing on this blog, I've always wondered how the hell you manage to do anything else. You must write as fast as you can type... which, of course, makes you a right bastard.
I suppose now a lot of us will have to get lives of our own. Bollocks!
Martin
Looking forward to reading your book, Professor PZ. In the meanwhile, I guess I'll just have to read Bad Astronomy. I've already got his book--now you're playing catch-up.
PZ: Only that it will get your blood pressure up to dangerous levels. You might not want to read it.
That can only mean one thing: It is a book length definition of "Gene"
But seriously, congratulations on having a book on board. Hope the labor goes well!
I'll make sure to e-mail you every single post I post from now on!
But..but...I'm HOOKED on Pharyngula. It's addictive. What am I going to do with myself if you go and get all noble and goal-oriented and productive? The next thing I know, you'll be telling me to get off my duff and finish one of MY interminable projects. (audible long-drawn-out sigh)
But...(brightening)...there's always the prospect of provocation. I could make it my business to forward as many piece of slack-jawed creationism or (alternatively) tony, pretentious attacks upon godlessness. I take enough shots, surely I'll hit one of PZ's nerves, thus engendering the blog equivalent of a spinal reflex. Alternatively, I could prank call Ken Ham's museum...ah, so little life left to me, so much deviltry to do....SH
It will get your blood pressure up to dangerous levels
Squid porn?
With the recent emphasis on basics, perhaps it would be a good time to start bringing back some classic posts on what you consider to be basic topics.
OK......
So whats the bad news ? ;)
Would it be presumptuous to submit my Zombie Courtier's Reply for a timefiller, considering that Orac has already linked to it?
I realize that I probably spend more hours at work than PZ, given patient care and research, but even so I don't see how he can manage a full teaching load, a blog, and a book. Something has to give, and it did--for the moment at least.
Actually, if I ever decide to follow PZ's path and write a book (and I've been toying with the idea of writing one about alternative medicine for a while, although I've always wanted to write a novel as well), I'd probably have to take a near total blogging hiatus for a few months. There's no way I have enough free time to write a book and blog, and I don't know how PZ does it. In fact, I should probably cut back on the frequency of posting to my blog anyway; it's taking up too much of what little free time I have, to the detriment of my ability to read books for pleasure rather than work, and I have two grants and two manuscripts to finish.
I am feeling very lonely - first I am convinced to delurk, next I am abandoned in the public sphere with no Pharyngula.
Good luck. ;)
it will get your blood pressure up to dangerous levels. You might not want to read it.
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
I'll just double up on my Toprol. ;-)
If you need any volunteer perfessional editors, PZ, you know where to find me.
And while we'll miss the rough-and-tumble a bit, the book is more than enough incentive to put up with it, and thus not at all bad news. Now a deathbed conversion... that'd be bad news. For two reasons.
You could always make things simple and revive a previous strategy.
Bob
Billmon, Berube, now this. What's a blog addict to do?
Where to turn?
Certainly not to NoGodBlog.com
http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/
Where posts like this turn up:
So... why the three-day break from posting? ONe answer -- FOOTBALL.
And yesterday, my Patriots beat the favorites to win the Superbowl (San Diego), demonstrating for sure that the all-powerful ruler of the Universe is a New England fan.
Or Atheist Mama? http://www.theatheistmama.com/
Where posts like this turn up:
Well, now I just feel plain bad. I knew that I was slacking on this blog, but I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post until tonight. So I apologize for disappearing. :(
But, I do have good news. I mentioned a "big project" that I was working on several times in the past. Well, I'm proud to announce that The Atheist Mama is now officially self-employed [...blah blah blah...] Anyway, I've been putting A LOT of effort into this, and haven't even had time to look at this blog. [...blah blah blah...]
Seems like everyone is working on a BIG important project these days. Sigh.
It will get your blood pressure up to dangerous levels
Considering who that was addressed to, I surmise the book is a full smack-down of agnosticism as a bunch of wimps and Chamberlain-clones, who should do the honest thing and either declare themselves atheist, or join the nearest Baptist church.
Just a guess ;-).
PZ, you just need to find your own personal DaveScot to run things in your absence.
In the interest of science and parody, I propose that you have Mark Chu-Carroll write a program which trolls the internet for pictures of squid, posts them with randomly assembled paragraphs from the wikipedia article on pirates, and then randomly bans or deletes comments without regard to content.
No, no, don't get the wrong idea -- Pharyngula is not ending. My blog-fu is far greater than an ordinary mortals, so there will still be stuff popping up here...I just have to cut back a bit. No more 12 post-a-day sessions. Maybe once a day, with a sprinkling of short, easy link-posts.
Good luck with the book, PZ! I think it's only fair that those of us who will be suffering the harsh pangs of Pharyngula withdrawal should get a 15-25% discout on the book when it comes out!
Dave
Blast! That should be "discount" not "discout" in my previous comment. I know I left that spell-checker around here somewhere. . .
PZ doesn't know his ABC of his Big Three - that's Atheism, Biology, and Creationism of course.
Well, I've always suspected that PZ's limitations wasn't the ten appendages for handling everything at once, but the one set of eyes. Good luck with the new media!
It's much easier to keep tabs on a site with infrequent updates using RSS than when checking it manually every day. No worries about me leaving.
Actually, that may end up improving the blog. I discovered that when I start posting too much the quality tends to go down (except of course on those uncommon occasions when I'm on a roll, or in the "blog zone," so to speak).
I just want to say one thing: Congratulations.
Reading fewer of your entries at this blog will be a loss, but it's something I'm willing to live with. It got sparse at MuseumOfHoaxes for a while, too, but that came back.
Good luck, and I'm looking forward to reading your book.
Yea, look forward to reading the book! Thanks so much...
A PZ book! Congratulations! I cannot wait.
It will be worth having a little less Pharyngula for a while, to be able to have a hard copy. And the upside (for me) is that I'll probably get more work done, if I start checking in once a day rather than once an hour.
I love this blog.
Is that all? Larry says worse than that on slow days.
I thought PZ was talking about constructing an evolutionary tree showing that banana slugs descended from lawyers.
I look forward to reading your book. I already know it will be well written and interesting!
I second the notion of recruiting a couple of team members to help.
Good luck on the book! I eagerly await its publication.
I guess the rest of us just need to pitch in and send tips or posts. Pharyngula is a great blog community! I'm always amazed at what an incredibly interesting group of people hang out here.
Can we get dibs on signed first editions? :)
I know how it goes. I actually had to remove my Ethernet cable and give it to a workmate across the hall so I could get a major project done.
Got it back though.
Looking forward to the book!
And here I sit with nothing to say ...
I thought PZ was talking about constructing an evolutionary tree showing that banana slugs descended from lawyers.
Don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to Kirk Cameron's take on the banana slug thing.
Oh no! *runs off and hides on Pandagon*
I have always marvelled at how much time PZ seems to have access to. A friend of mine wanted to lobby for another day to be added to the week so we could spend more time together; here it looks like we need extra hours to catch up to PZ.
And following in Chris Clarke's lead: I volunteer the services of a philosopher of computing. (Since Wilkins is by far the better read philosopher of biology, I figured I should be specific.)
PZ:
Congrats! You've got much to share and I look forward to reading your book I expect that I'll be standing in line at B&N the day it is released.
Biology, shmiology.
PZ should write about what he excels at:
Myers's Manual of Time Management
PZ, at least you have realized that your rant blog is not peer reviewed literature.
Actually, this is a bit of a relief: as I pointed out elsewhere (and updated with the methodology that you asked for), you've been posting here at a frequency of about 77 µHz, which is a bit much. Maybe this will give me a chance to catch up on some of the other weblogs I try to read.
PZ doesn't know his ABC of his Big Three - that's Atheism, Biology, and Creationism of course.
Well, I've always suspected that PZ's limitations wasn't the ten appendages for handling everything at once, but the one set of eyes. Good luck with the new media!