I decided to start a blog. You already know this because either a) you have received notification informing you of the existence of said blog or b) you are here reading this post right now (from this you should be able to easily deduce that my decision to start the blog preceded the actual typing of these words). Nevertheless, welcome to my blog.
Blog – noun – an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a web page; also called weblog. (Source: Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English)
Also consider.
A blog is a website in which hypertext and images (and links to video, audio and other files) are posted on a regular basis and in generally reverse chronological order. The term is a shortened form of weblog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts,” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. (Source: Wikipedia)
But, presumably you already know this. What you do not know is why I, specifically, have decided to start this blog (If you do not care, skip the next six (including this one) paragraphs). For those of you still reading here goes. I decided to start this blog for one main reason, there are also several smaller ones of which I will touch on later, but for now, the main reason I decided to start this blog is laziness. Yes, laziness. Of course, at face, one might wonder how would laziness inspire someone to begin a process that inevitably requires effort in order to achieve one’s goal. Well, I shall tell you. I have found more and more that many of the more interesting moments of my everyday life are slipping through the cracks that is the geographical distance in our relationship (assuming we have some prior relationship, if not, then this main reason really doesn’t relate to you, however the smaller reasons definitely will be of some interest).
Seeing as how some of us talk maybe once every week or so (if that), you miss out on hearing about all the little things that happen in my everyday life that I find amusing or strange or noteworthy, the sorts of things that you would have heard with a much greater frequency if we were still living in the same general location. And really, when you think about it, these are the things that are usually the most enjoyable part of any good relationship. These are the things that define us, inform our perspective, and best explain who we are. Unfortunately, unless I happen to speak to you on the day that one of these such things occurs, or shortly thereafter, the likelihood is that by the time we speak I will either have forgotten the incident, or more likely, because we haven’t spoken in a while and have a lot of other more general catching up to do, it is lost or sacrificed for the sake of time. Example: How many of you have heard the story of when I had to go to the emergency room in South Carolina as I was driving from NJ to FL last summer, because Socrates (my cat) scratched me across my right eye? I know for a fact, not many of you, and yet this is a really good story, even better then this brief (albeit promising) description might indicate (note: I will retell this story in a future post).
So, back to this blog, the way I see it is that if I want to try and bridge this gap that now exists with me living far away from many of you, there are really only two options. The first would be that anytime something like this happened that I thought was really amusing or strange or noteworthy, I could call and/or email every one of you to tell you about it (the problem in doing this is two-fold. First, it would take a really long time, which as you can tell based on the answer given for my main reason in starting this blog is not something I am looking to do. Second, the people who I emailed or called first would be more likely getting a better, more complete, version of the story. As naturally, given my tendency toward laziness, I would be less inclined to go into such lengthy detail with each subsequent telling). The second thing I can do to bridge this gap is to make each of these stories and incidents available in one central location for all to come and hear about in their best, and most comprehensive form, which from here on (given that this is clearly the less taxing and time consuming option) will be this blog. I will also continue to relay these stories to you in other forms (i.e. on the telephone, in person, through personal email), however I will do so knowing that others will not miss out on hearing about the details of my life (on a side note, I would strongly encourage each and every one of you to start a blog for the same reasons that I have just listed above, this way our relationship would continue to include you being able to share more frequently with me these same sorts of things that are happening on your end, or if you prefer taking the non-lazy route start emailing and calling me more often).
Now, perhaps, some of you are saying this is really a rather presumptuous and solipsistic belief, to think that everyone would want to hear about these things, and you might be correct, which brings me to the other reasons I have decided to start this blog. The first of these reasons is to give me a forum to more easily share some of the writing that I have been doing of late. Many of you have asked to read some of my work, and rather than sending it out one at a time, this will be a lot simpler. So in that sense it really is not necessarily an entirely new reason, but rather a corollary to my main one.
The next reason is that, seeing as how I’ve been doing a lot of writing of late, I spend quite a bit of time at my computer. For those of you who spend quite a bit of time at the computer, or for that matter doing anything for an extended period of time, know that the need for distraction and procrastination is great. In starting this blog, I hope to provide myself with at least one slightly more worthwhile form of procrastination. If I’m bored from working and in need of a break, I can just hop on over to my blog. If I’m not sure exactly how to start my next scene, I can just hop on over to my blog. If I’m having trouble thinking of a funny line for a character to say, I can just, you guessed it, hop on over to my blog.
Finally, the last reason I have for starting this blog up is the fact that I am extremely enamored with the concept of blogging in and of itself, as a sort of online journal, a recording of myself (this reasons is definitely solipsistic, but I think in a good way). I have on several occasions tried and failed in keeping an everyday journal. I’m not sure if there is any one particular reason for my inability to do this (if I had to wager a guess it would probably be laziness, but I think also something about the way I hold pencils and pens causes my hand to hurt after a short while, I’m much better at typing), but it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. I think that years from now it would be great if I had something to look back to, to see what kind of person I was when I was who I am now. And further, something for perhaps my children to read, and their children too, to get a better sense of me.
So there you have it, the reasons why I decided to start this blog (of course, if none of this interests you in the slightest, or sounds like reason enough to continue to read, then I have no idea why you’re here). Anyways, to those of you that skipped ahead, welcome back (of course you got here before everyone else, so that’s really just being used in the loosest figure of speech sort of way). I’m just about finished with this, my first blog entry, and I hope that for those of you who skipped ahead this isn’t too disappointing to find that this post isn’t really going to have too much to it, other than all the stuff you didn’t feel like reading (if you’d like, feel free to go back and read all the stuff you initially skipped). To be honest, if you decided to skip ahead, I cannot promise that in the future my blog will contain more of the kind of stuff you will want to read (other promises I cannot make concerning my blog: I cannot promise that my blog will help you sleep better at night, I cannot promise that my blog will help you get or maintain an erection, I cannot promise that my blog will help you get better credit, I cannot promise that my blog will help you with your allergies, and I cannot promise you that my blog will quench your thirst. However, if you are in need of any of the aforementioned services, you are in luck, as you are fortunate enough to live in a world where access and information regarding these and many other products are made readily available and easily found by just simply turning on your TV).
Also, a quick note regarding those of you who get a notification informing you about the existence of my blog who I haven’t spoken to in a while, and who for whatever reason decided to spend the time to read this post, even though you haven’t really had any other contact with me in years. First off, let me say, hi, I hope this blog finds you well. Sorry, if it’s been a while since last we spoke. If you have read this far, you might be able to figure out that the reason behind your notification is that it would have taken a lot longer to sort through the list of names and pick and choose who gets notified and who doesn’t then to just hit send to notify everyone, as you are now well aware I’m pretty lazy when it comes to stuff like that. Rather than get into the reasons behind our sporadic contact, let’s just move forward and vow to renew our friendship, or if you have no desire to renew our friendship then we can just continue our present course of being someone on one another’s friend list that helps to protect us from friendster inferiority complex and assure us that in fact we are friends with a large amount of people. Either way, it’s your call. Just know that if you are on my friends list then at one point in time I considered you a friend, and I hope that you do choose to maybe drop me a line and let me know how you’re doing. Regardless, feel free to check on my blog from time to time, to find out what’s up with me. You’ll get notices every time I post, Friendster is cool like that.
Alright, everyone, thus concludes, my first official blog entry. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me. Until next time…Happy New Year (note: if for some reason this post is ever read outside it’s original context and location it was written on 12/31/2005, thus explaining the whole Happy New Year sign off).
