Frustration

Well, I admit, the whole idea of a blog was simply a procrastination vehicle. There are, on the internet, many, many opportunities available for procrastination, and thus a blog has been left in the dust for me lately. Instead I watch youtube videos, play facebook apps, and now have searched even farther afield. Looked at blogTV today, for the idea of video blogging (why? you may ask? I have no idea, desperate times my friend, desperate times) and even, get this, something called karaokeplay.com.
So why did I call this post frustration? Well, I may have picked the worst possible time to extend my procrastination purview into these previously uncharted waters. It is pouring rain with 30-50mph winds outside, and no, I do not live in a tropical storm, just Iceland. This means microphones pick up wailing winds. It is 2:30am now. Hence I'm a little sleepy. My internet connection is definitely sleepy, which I am blaming on the weather, and there's the clincher for me.
Every time something on the internet does not work the way that it should work, there is always in the back of my head that it has some built in item that makes it microsoft specific, and, of course I run a Mac, 2 Macs actually. So, I'm clueless and too old to be figuring out these weird new sites? The sites are just impossible to sort out and/or badly designed? Or for whatever hidden reason my Mac is never gonna be able to play. The first makes me feel pathetic. The second annoyed, and the third angry. I don't even knowif Apple v Microsoft has anything to do with it. Nonetheless, I have had enough experiences with websites that just do not run properly on a Mac that I have to question. And that lingering doubt prevents me from whole-heartedly digging in and rooting out the problem and fixing it.
Oh, that along with the fact that its 2:30am, I'm tired, and most of all, isn't procrastination supposed to be fun?
In the mean time, at least for tonight, I'll stick with good old words. Weather, browser, OS, none of these can affect words. God I'm getting old. And technically I'm sure a terrible storm would knock out my power and my DSL connection, so lest you think I have illusions of constant connectivity, my head is not yet stuck that far into my computer.

Who am I?

And why should you care? At the risk of displaying an appalling level of narcissism, I will begin my first foray into blogging with some description of myself.  (Besides, by the time anyone actually looks at this blog, if ever, there will be enough other posts that this first one will be buried in the archives. I hope.)

I am indeed embarking on a whole new area of procrastination with this blog.  You see, I am in the 'final' stages of my PhD research. All the data has been collected, is understood quite well, there are piles of papers in my office, and yet, I stare at the screen with an empty mind.  Having an empty mind however is rather discomforting if not downright terrifying to someone like me.  So, I do allow my brain to wander off into areas where actual thoughts return, leading in this instance, to a blog.

So, as I have alluded to I am a student.  I will finish my PhD in Neuroscience (expect plenty of ruminations on the workings of the brain) at the end of this year.  At which point I will return to medical school in the US (also to be expected is the occasional rant about the American health care system).  And many years down the line I should be found as a child psychiatrist, researching how psychiatric disorders develop in childhood. 

You will notice that I have put all of that up front.  I would like to think that my career doesn't define me, but, it certainly informs much of my thinking. Perhaps more importantly, the elements of 'me' that have led me to that career choice are highlighted quite nicely.  It would take far more than three sentences to get across everything those three sentences tell you if I chose the reflective route instead. 

What about the rest of me? I love to read. I love to travel - usually by myself.  I enjoy taking photographs, will probably share many travel photographs. I'm certainly American, but I'm also Finnish.  I've been living in Iceland for the past three years (most beautiful place in the world, you should go).  I look at the US rather differently than many Americans.  Not with the same detachment of course as a true foreigner, but certainly with an altered perspective. It will show.

And one last thing, I can't get away from the fact that I'm a single woman approaching 30.  I'll just let that one stand.