*coughs in an embarrassed fashion*

Well, I originally created this blog because I was so enjoying writing for Vulpes Libris that I felt I needed another outlet for my Russian related enthusiasm.  However, I’ve since discovered that the heady idea of having my own blog as a kind of extension of the Russian series was well meant, but not very practical.  You see, the Russian series works for me because I have to write something every two weeks, and there’s nothing like a deadline to (a) concentrate the mind and (b) give one a healthy sense of perspective.  Whereas left to my own devices I sit here and worry about whether I could say anything anyone would want to read, and whether it would be academically sound enough even if they wanted to read it.  Gah.  Besides, there are days and even weeks where I’m so mired in whatever I’m translating for money at the time that once the work is done, I don’t want to pick up anything even vaguely research related, and would much rather talk about Iron Man (seriously, how cool was that suit) or how terrible the whole Russian thing was in Indiana Jones or the greatness of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series or Katie Fforde or whatever “frivolous” non-researchy thing happens to be amusing me the most at the time.  (NB:  I’m actually quite opposed to the word frivolous when it comes to books and films and TV, but you get the idea).

In view of all this, I hereby declare this blog Not All That Serious, and will modify the tagline accordingly.