A Not-So-Brief Introduction

I've long resisted the idea of a blog, for numerous reasons. I find it hard to believe that with the advent and proliferation of Facebook that anyone really bothers reading individual webpages anymore. Why spend time jogging between one person's site and another in order to catch up on everyone's comings, goings and most recent profound or (as my mom puts it) not-so-profound musings - requiring (egad!) having to remember all of those different URLs, or have them all cluttering up the handy little tag bar in your browser - when all that can be accomplished, more or less, through a single handy little website like Facebook.

Well, I guess I've finally caved: I need my own site. I need to express myself in more than just "Notes" and "Current status" headlines in which I describe myself in the third person. (This point alone creeps me out enough to consider striking out from the cozy confines of FB into the wider, scarier, more personalized beyond of blogs and personal webpages and whatnot).

I also need to do so without the temptation to just casually (and "quickly" - ha!) check in on all of my far-flung friends, old acquaintances, acquaintances of acquaintances, etc., peruse their 23 photo albums, rouse my jealousy over X's travel photos or Y's hiking adventure last summer... so maybe this will do it. On the other hand: maybe it'll just be one more way for me to avoid attacking that monstrosity of a data file I constructed last summer during my research project in Peru.

In any event, I can't promise it'll be profound, informative, or even interesting, but I'll aim for at least a two-out-of-three sort of average and see how it goes. I've gone with Ecolophilia; as both a nod to and a departure from Biophilia - okay, maybe a lame attempt to be original (or just to pick an available blog name) - but also recognizing that the human fascination with the natural world is not stirred solely by things biological, but by the entire system in which they function. Furthermore... since I'm busy talking and thinking and learning about ecology, it seemed a more appropriate way to go.

When I return I'll be writing about the superb debate I was privileged to attend last night in Calgary's southwest Good Companions Centre, hosted by the North and South Calgary chapters of the Canadian Federation of University Women. Featured were the Pembina Institute's oilsands specialist and policy analyst Terra Simieritsch, and Shell Canada's public affairs spokesperson Janet Annesley. Kudos to both women for keeping it both civil and professional on a pretty heated topic that is raising a lot of attention in Alberta, Canada, and around the world.

'Til then!