Hello!  I am coming out of hibernation in response to a sudden uptick in readership because of this post on Steampunk I wrote in September 2011!  Someone posted it on Facebook and evidently it is making the rounds and causing a bit of a stir. It gave me my busiest day ever yesterday, with 931 views on my blog from 704 individual visitors.  Today I already have over 350 views on the blog.  This is a lot  for me, especially since this blog has been dormant since the fall!

When I wrote that post in 2011 I obviously intended it to cause a stir–I was making a statement that I knew would not be popular in some circles, but it was how I felt at the time.  A few people commented on it and that was that.  Now, two plus years later, I’m really bemused that the article is having its moment.  Obviously I am thrilled about the new readership, but I wrote the post over two years ago and I am really far removed from the emotions and experiences that inspired it.  Because of that, I’m not really in a place to engage actively in the conversation–Steampunk, in my current world, is just a thing that exists that other people do that looks cool.  I don’t feel strongly about it either way anymore.  People can do what they want, there are lame individuals in every fandom, and one for all and all for costumes!  Basically all I can say to the new readers who have stumbled on this blog because of an article I wrote a few years ago is welcome, and thank you for the comments, the clicks, the links, and the shares.   I really appreciate it!

In this spirit–sincere appreciation for the uptick in readership and a general welcome to my corner of the Internet–I wanted to let new readers know a bit more about The Dilettantista in 2014, and some of the major differences between the author of the Over Steampunk article and the author today:

1) In the fall of 2011, when I wrote that article, I was unemployed and pretty bitter about it.  I got a great job in my field of choice later that year (and am soon leaving that job to start another great job, also in my field of choice, but I’ll post about that later!), but being unemployed left me a lot of time to poke around and snark on the Internet while seething about minor injuries.  Because unemployment is the worst.

2) When I wrote the article I was living with my boyfriend, Jon.  I still  live with Jon, but he is now my pre-husband and we’re getting married this summer (yaaaaaaaaaaay).  I’m super excited to be marrying My Person (baaarf yes I am one of those people now).   If you are sappy and like engagement stories, here is ours! Wedding planning has taken up a lot of the free time I kept for blogging and playing on the Internet, which is another reason for the radio silence on this end.

3)  About a month after writing the Steampunk article I got my second little black cat, Minion.  Before that we’d only had Dexter.  Twice the kitty is twice the fun and twice the litter boxes!

4)  I haven’t been to a convention since 2012, so I haven’t had much reason to costume since then.  I still love looking at other people’s costumes and have booked my ticket and hotel room for Dragon*Con 2014, so costumes are not over for me!  I already have some great ideas for what to wear this year…and no, it will not be Steampunk.

5) I still really love Captain Eo and I FINALLY got to EPCOT to see it (for the first time since I was a little kid) a few weeks ago.  Behold:

I should probably post about that soon too.

So that’s me, in a…in a really abbreviated nutshell.  I hope you poke around the blog some–there are lots of fun articles on nerd culture and Dragon*Con and pop cultural things.  You might not agree with this little corner of the Internet, but it is mine, and full of odd and sundry things.

Thanks, again, for visiting, and thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoy what you see.