By way of introduction, let me offer an excuse.
Second, crafting entries for this project would help me sort through the massive amounts of data I had accumulated in years of personal historical research, and actually produce something useful with the all information I've been hoarding. A blog would be a useful forum not only to help me make ideas concrete, but also as a neat outlet for those items I found that didn't end up part of a paper/article/dissertation (I thought).
Needless to say, none of that happened. School "got in the way." But I've hung onto the idea, and I continue to think it a good one. Now, as the semester draws to a close, I hope that I might have more time to devote to it (I think).
That brings us to right now. I'm taking a quick break from frantically trying to finish papers for the semester to put these thoughts down on paper. Here's my thinking: if I post this handy introduction, it will motivate me to keep working on this project over the winter break. And if I can get into a habit of blogging, with a bunch of entries under my belt, well then I shouldn't have any excuse to let this blog lapse next semester, should I? (I think.)
In the next post, I will lay out some of the goals I have in mind for this project.