Why I am sooooooo important

It's true that back when I was a grad student griping about the MLA convention and whether to wear flip-flops to class, no one gave two figs about my blog. I hesitate to say now that anyone gives a fig and a half about it, but as part of my transformation from grad student to professor, I now have more students, former students, colleagues, deans and trustees interested in my whereabouts, my professional activities, my spare time, my interest (or lack thereof) in faculty meetings, and my general state of contentedness, lackadaisicalness or disgruntlement. I was quite aware of this, and had made sure my blog was not "searchable" -- that is, you couldn't stumble upon it through a Google search -- and also that it wasn't slanderous to friend nor foe (the SJBlog merely strives for humor and transparency, you see).

Then, yesterday, I caught wind of a rumor that a former student had found it. I'm not sure how, I'm not sure where, but if one of 'em finds it, they'll all eventually find it. And I just can't maintain my professorial poise 24-7, 365 days a year, online and in real life. It's hard enough not wearing jeans to campus 5 days a week, people.

So, the blog's on lockdown. That is to say, it is a blog open by permission of its author, who is quite liberal about who reads it, as long as the reader is not a) a student, b) a stranger, or c) someone who will be voting on my tenure case.

I know some of you applaud these extreme measures and some mourn for a simpler time on the interweb when we could let it all hang out, but these are the times we live in, and this is the lot we have been given. Other than that, not much has changed.