Welcome, new readers

I logged off for a couple months, come back to post a couple new entries, and realize that suddenly the readership numbers are well above anything I've experienced. It took this blog about 13 years to notch its first 250,000 unique visitors, and it may take less than a few months to have 250,000 more. That's an unexpected and hopefully pleasant surprise.

I don't know how much word of my working on a book has spread, but if so, the secret's out. It's still very much in the beginning stages. I still have a little more groundwork to complete before I really get rolling, of course. And naturally, I am going to need a bit of release time and a sabbatical to really get the book to completion. Maybe it'll be a pretty good story. We'll see. If nothing else, I think it might be a bit of a cautionary tale about one facet of the social psychology literature. And cautionary tales tend to be the best ones to learn from, at least in my experience. I will share more about that project in due time.

I suppose I will feel more obligated to add content here. I have posted irregularly for the existence of this blog, and I've always been surprised that it had any readership. I suppose I only post when I believe I have something to say, and I do go through long stretches where my muse is nowhere to be found. I doubt that will change too much. In that sense, I am very much set in my ways at this final phase of my career. The one thing that has changed is that I went from accepting the orthodoxy in my area of specialization to questioning that orthodoxy, to ultimately striking out on a different path altogether (that's the phase you have stumbled upon). 

Anyway, I've always been a bit reclusive and not much one for the spotlight, so bear with me as I try to get used to a bit more attention than I have had before. Perhaps what I have to say going forward will keep you sticking around. Perhaps not. We shall see. There may still be some value left to being one of a small handful of psychologists who have studied the weapons effect (something Berkowitz and LePage pioneered around the time I was born), and arguably one of the last who still actively contributes to that specific research area. I've certainly had a few things to say on the matter in the past, and have more to share in the future. It was, after all, the phenomenon that shaped the most significant moments of my career, and it has consumed my time, energy, and almost my spirit. Pull up a chair. I'll be around.