Potato Chip, v.,

in skydiving, to experience bodily undulations during free fall (similar to the shape of a potato chip) as the result of being too rigid or nervous

Welcome to potatochipping.com.

I’m a third-year graduate student, en route to receiving my Ph.D. in sociology. My primary interests are youth, education, technology, deviance, and social networks, particularly the ways in which these aspects of society interact with one another.

Although school currently takes up most of my time, I have many interests, such as skydiving, biking, reading vociferously, spending way too much time online, and having a life every now and then.

This website will serve as a host for my academic work, ranging from published articles or presentations to cursory literature reviews and preliminary sketches or proposals. You can access these products via the Writings link in the top menubar.

This site will also host my informal thoughts on a variety of issues related to my sociological interests. These posts include previews of upcoming academic projects and musings on topics I’m currently too lazy, busy, or underqualified to address more substantively. My goal at all times is to provide a sociological perspective and scientific outlook without slipping into the familiar Internet fallacies of hyperbole, diatribe, and selection bias.

Although I may be distracted for a week or two at a time, I hope to write at least semi-regularly. You can subscribe to the RSS feed via the Subscribe link in the top menubar.

In addition, there are a number of features in the sidebars that you may find useful.

  • The Recent Posts, Archives, and Categories sections provide easy access to previous entries.
  • The Blogroll lists the links of blogs I follow regularly. Although a few aren’t relevant to the content of this site, I believe strongly in rewarding exceptional blogs with paltry shoutouts whenever possible, so I hope you’ll visit all of them and revel in their excellent products.
  • The Articles section contains my most recent shared links from Google Reader. I subscribe to more than 50 RSS feeds, including all the sites listed in the blogroll, some mainstream news sources (CNN, NYT, etc.), the social news sites (Digg, Reddit, etc.), and a few others. Of the hundreds of articles I skim daily, I usually at least 1 or 2. Clicking on the Read More… link will take you to my full Shared Links page.
  • The Find Me section provides links to my profiles in various social network sites, if you’re inclined to inflate your friend totals and/or stalk me. Stalking capabilities for Twitter and Last.fm are conveniently provided onsite.

Finally, you can contact me using the Contact link in the top menubar. I welcome comments or questions about anything not spam-related, whether in the Comments or via e-mail.