Five Years a-growing

Ah women in science and what I've written about them.

On the 5th of January 2013, a Saturday, I [R with ironic placard in training for the March for Science last April] posted my first Blob, with the intention of blogging the process of transition to a new job in The Institute. That transition must surely be complete now: I know where the t'ilets are, I can direct visitors to the Library, I know what I'm expected to teach in two weeks' time (mostly). But The Blob has acquired a life of its own, and I've written about things which have nothing to do with The Institute, or teaching or science. Although the rubric is Science Matters - because it does - I'm much more comfortable with it as The Blob. I've noted a few milestones:

• 1,000th post where I reflected on the Blob word-count compared to classics like Moby Dick and Ulysses.
• Millionth word = Zeugma

I didn't note the day when I had written more about what floats my boat than JK Rowling wrote about Harry Potter. That is a long while ago now. Because the word-count is about 25% longer than Harry Potter ever will be, Rowling having turned off that tap. I also failed to note the 2,000 the post at the time of posting about 2 months ago. But it seems appropriate to flag the fact that I've now been writing in this medium for 5 years, I don't know about you, but it's been grrrreat for me: all that stuff found out; those leads followed; those wwwabbit-holes that pop you out in the most surprising places. Every 200 posts, I skim it all off the www, paste into MS-Word, reformat and print double-sided on the colour printer at The Institute. That archive is now 12cm thick. I browse through it on rare occasions and sometimes find myself completely bemused: "Who wrote this shit? Oh, it must have been me. What was I on, when I wrote it, then? Because it makes no sense". I am not, therefore, without a sense of empathy for you Dear Reader, who have to struggle through something that would greatly benefit from a good Copy Editor.  The new term starts on Monday; I'm stoked and ready to trip along the Frontiers of Science with a pair of scissors and a basket for new copy.
What about Islands, I do love an island: Wordclouds courtesy of wordcloud