First Post

So I’ve finally launched (wing-and-a-prayer style) into the blogosphere. I made about 3 entries in my little Myspace blog a couple years ago, and then got sick of it. I write reviews about the books I read on goodreads.com, and that’s been the extent of my internet exposure…UNTIL NOW!!! My wonderful wife recently started a cooking blog and I’ve decided to give this blogging thing another go.

Here are a couple reasons for my trepidation at entering this realm:

First, I hate reading blogs. I have a really tough time reading other people’s thoughts about current events, their rants and laments about lost/unrequited love, or their “expert” opinions that pretend the internet is a prestigious research journal. I voiced this concern to my wife and she suggested I actually read some different blogs as “research” into our new endeavors. I did, and my disdain for any post that takes me more than 3 minutes to read STANDS.

Second, I have vanity and entitlement issues I need to work through. I ask myself, “Am I so vain to think that the entire world–or anyone in the world, for that matter–cares what I think?” Sometimes I feel so not humble when I write down what I think. What’s so special about my ideas versus anyone else’s? On to entitlement. Several blogs I’ve read (and I’m no blog connoisseur) seem to demand that people pay attention to them. There are so many combative blogs that give you the impression that you’re stupid, evil, or a Martian if you don’t agree with the author. Nobody is entitled to have others listen to them; I’ve no fundamental right to have people pay me any mind whatsoever.

With these issues swirling around in my nebulous noggin, I’ve come to this conclusion about blogging that helps me cope. It might make me a raving hypocrite, but that’s for you to decide. I’m aspiring to be an aspiring writer someday, so this is my start in writing stuff that real people–not just my mom–might read. Furthermore, I’m a teacher. When I instruct from my “expert” perspective, there’s probably only a moderate percentage of students that really pay attention, much less enjoy what I say or how I say it. Let’s suppose my “fans” in the classroom add up to 10%. Extrapolate that to the approx. 1.4 billion internet users and I end up with a subscriber base of about 140 million! And that’s only IF my writing is as boring as my teaching.

My audience exists…somewhere!!!