What I'm working on ...

So, I thought I'd better provide a little proof that I really have been working on a new blogging venture, like I said I was:

Whenever I do get it up and running, my new blog is going to be called Taming Paper Tigers, and it's going to be a chronicle of my journey into the wacky, wonderful world of graduate school.  *slow applause*

"Paper tigers" is an expression that was Westernized in some distant century from a Chinese expression, basically meaning something that looks frightening and threatening, but actually isn't. At the moment, I have to admit - grad school looks pretty frightening and threatening. But I've been talking with mentors and friends who keep reassuring me that it's not quite as bad as everyone says it is, and that they think I'll do just fine. So my hope (delusion?) is that this will turn out to be just a paper tiger - frightening from far away, but manageable once I see it up close. And that I shall tame it. (It's also a play on the word "paper," since grad school is 90% writing, and every paper and report looks scarier than the last one!!)

There are some themes that I'm going to try to stick to in this blog. The first is chronicling my grad school journey through the lens of my journey with Christ, and recording the ways He helps me grow stronger and closer to Him. The second is talking honestly about the challenges of grad school and how God and my support system are helping me adjust and thrive, so other potential grad students can see what it's really like. And the third is to encourage myself and others to keep pressing higher, not to get bogged down in the valleys, but to look up and stay positive and keep climbing toward the Son.

So ...  yeah.  :-)

There are a few other schematic ideas I have - showing off practicing with my new DSLR camera, *whispering* blogging under my own real name which is not decided yet but which is something I would very dearly love to do if I could work it out, moving to Wordpress or another hosting site - but none of those are quite set in stone yet. Also, I have a different header/theme in the works besides that unnecessarily minimalistic one pictured above (an early prototype). Topic-wise, though, I'm pretty decided on what I'd like to do.

So, I'm not dead.  :-)  And this is what will be coming sometime in the (hopefully near) future. Thoughts??