The best teachers I've had all shared the ability (and good sense) to make connections between research and literature and the lives of real people. Even in my field, which is ostensibly all about the user, sometimes exciting theory and shiny new technology can make us forget about real people outside the profession. It's great to be reminded of the reasons people develop their research interests and the impact that research can have. Pink Cupcake recently learned of one researcher's inspiration.

I also found something that I utterly didn't expect. The first google hit containing the reference was the author's page on his university department's website. Nothing unusual in that, except that along with the usual list of publications, contact details etc., the author wrote a paragraph about his inspiration for his research (which has spanned a long and very successful career). I haven't seen any academics do this before (certainly not in Law), but that wasn't why it affected me. It was the inspiration itself.

Kathleen of Planned Obsolescence admits she hated doing research, but seems to have found her own inspiration recently.

And it occurred to me this morning, for the first time, that I’m seriously enjoying the research, in and of itself. Reading new stuff. Putting ideas together. Figuring out what other stuff I need to read in order to deepen the point I think I might be trying to make.

And I’m beginning to suspect that the point I might be trying to make will extend across several articles. And might, in fact, turn into something book-like.

It ain’t over yet—in fact, it’s barely begun—but I’m getting the slightest little glimmer that I might make it out of the sophomore slump. That I might be in the right profession after all.

Last week I linked to StyleyGeek's post on Fumbling Towards Geekdom asking if there's a Carnival for grad students. Well, she posted about starting one herself and I admire her DIY spirit. Check out the Carnival of GRADual Progress site.

On a slightly different topic, Dr. Crazy's "Reading for Pleasure Wednesdays" is really taking off. I should have pointed to it last week, but didn't. It's really fun and I should jump on that bandwagon myself. This week, she writes "Kids Books about Pests," about some of her childhood favorites. Continuing the Wednesday theme over at The Paper Chase, Lisa reviews "An Unsatisfying Read."

I'm tired of effortlessly gamine heroines with usual eyes, for Chrissakes. Give me a ballbuster with plain old brown or blue eyes for a bloody change. Hint to fiction writers: if the clueless Dr. Chaser has noticed, then the piercing eyes routine has become, officially, trite. Every hero and heroine has "piercing eyes, of a color somewhere between brown and yellow" or "piercing eyes, of a shocking blue." Stop it, already. It's like all of modern fiction is populated by people who look like those creepy-ass kids in Village of the Damned.

Check out more excellent posts in the theme from PhD Me, New Kid On the Hallway, and Another Damned Medievalist.