Here and There

I fought the urge to have a blog for a long time. Apparently, it was the right move, evidenced by the few friends who, upon learning I had thrown in the towel on my resistance, laughed in disbelief, then immediately questioned my intentions. Rightly so.

One of my aforementioned friends went so far as to suggest, “surely I’m not your only friend to give you shit for this, Jeff.”

So let me lay it out here for all of you, whether you’re a believer or a skeptic.

There’s a lot wrong with blogs. First, the name. Too close to “blob” and “log,” two things I don’t want to spend a lot of time either producing or consuming.

Then there’s the implicit self-centeredness to them. One of my push-button defenses is to explain to my detractors that I refuse to discuss mood or what I did today or what that girl in science class thinks of me. Basically, this blog is not meant for posts such as the one you’re reading right now. You won’t find any mood icons here.

I aspire to do journalism. I want to write about people, things, places. I want to learn about the world and the gazillion things going on in it every day. I often write about those things, those people and places, and try to get those pieces of writing published so that people can read them and respond, and a dialog will be born.

Setting my stubbornness aside for a moment, I see that having my own forum for such a dialog isn’t such a bad idea. Plus, I have total and ultimate control over communication in this little space. Fun.

As it says in the tagline, this site is meant to discuss topics both serious and ridiculous, from the salient to the absurd. Many topics run the full range, of course, and they’re all the more compelling because of it.

So basically this will be a space for two types of writing: those I would never dream of trying to get published, and those that no one in their right mind would print. Other than that, I’m excited to say I have no idea what I will write about. I never do.

Some of it will be heavily researched and edited, some written off the cuff. Some will be time-sensitive, meant to be read the day or week they’re posted, while others will be evergreen. Some will be long-winded, my attempt to go in-depth, perhaps, or, more likely, me rambling on as if I knew anything; others will be short and to the point. I consider this post you’re reading an example of mid-length, for your reference.

So, for what it’s worth, enjoy. Like I said, my main goal is to create dialog, so feel free to leave comments, especially lewd ones.

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