I've decided to start a web log to record the progress of my life/dissertation. After returning from Papua New Guinea I found that 1) people really liked getting the monthly emails I sent about living abroad. It may be that my life in Chicago will prove to be much less interesting to people than my time in Porgera. But those letters ended up being a great record of my time there, and of great interest for me. So 2) even if no one else is interested, writing for a pretend audience will prompt me to record a little bit of my life. At least in theory there are people all over the world who are interested in my dissertation/life. This leads me to 3) my enduring interest in making my work, information about anthropology, and Porgera-type stuff more generally available to a non-specialist audience. So this is one way to do it.When I got back in the country I gave myself until 2002 to get settled, buy furniture, relearn English, etc. My wiggle room can now be measured in hours rather than months. At midnight tonight I am making myself a martini and writing the first lines of my dissertation. Wanted to get the weblog up before then.In the next couple of days this site will start looking less and less like the vanilla greymatter install and more and more like the start of the Ipili Web Ring.