A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

I suppose that this initial post would be a good juncture to lay out my plans for this blog. Sad to say, however, that there is no real plan. Like many things in life, I'm more or less winging it. I admit that such a recipe has been the spawn of many things not worth reading, viewing, etc. But it has also been the root of many works that have changed minds, given people a glimpse of how others see the world, and altered the course of history.

The definition of a blog has become (or perhaps it always was) a bit low-brow. We have people who create one and leave it to wither on the vine. Some see it as an opportunity for gossip, braggadocio, and social networking, updating with a line or two about this or that. The image that comes to mind is the cartoon strip Doonesbury, where the longtime Washington Post reporter character, Rick, is laid off due to newspaper budget-slashing, so he starts a blog and struggles to find content, especially when he can't say "... from the Post" anymore. Likewise, I hail from J-school at the University of Connecticut / UConn / UCan't / University of College Basketball / UConn - Snorrs / etc. My niche there was copy-editing and newspaper layout, booming at the time I declared my major and dying by the time I graduated. Never did get a start in the real world, I suppose because for every job that actually did come open, there were 300 people with 10+ years experience ahead of me. But enough of that sorry story for now. No time for moping, we're moving forward.

Why am I starting this? Don't rightly know. Several people have told me I should. They've said I should write a book (that's about what I'm doing now, as you scream, "Get on with it!"). At the very least, I expect it'll be something that I can point to as a record, to know that I exist, that I have created something that will live on in Google.

I intend for this space to be an active discussion (probably mostly one-sided) with me as your humble correspondent. This is simply a digital format of the time-honored diary --- a place for our thoughts of our living day's events, our family goings-on, current affairs, some sports talk, mini-theses about books, television shows and movies, perhaps a poem here and there. I hope to keep this blog updated fairly frequently and with good, quality content that will give you "something for the grey matter" as Roger Ebert says. So be prepared for the journey, grab a good walking stick, and I hope you enjoy the conversation and the occasional picture as we go.