Sunday, October 7, 2012

First Milestone!


The blog has reached an important milestone today - it now contains five entries! My emotions oscillate between the joy and relief of receiving a prematurely-born infant into my arms after being discharged from the hospital, and the feeling that I am over-hyping a rather mediocre accomplishment, like a college freshman triumphantly waving his index finger during a basketball game and screaming "we are number one!" despite the fact that his team is not even ranked.

Regardless, this occasion feels like an appropriate point in time to articulate what it is exactly that I am hoping to accomplish with this blog.

1.   Produce and not just consume.

I like to read and learn new things, and the process of writing out thoughts and impressions helps to synthesize and to process information as well as to develop and to refine my own thoughts. 

2.   Keep focus on reading.

Ideally, I want to always be in the process of reading a new book. In reality, my reading habits go in spurts of intense bouts with books followed by prolonged periods of idleness. In a sense, this blog is my own way of keeping myself responsible for staying on course with my reading goals. I hope my manager-me is a total hard-ass.

3.   Improve my writing.

There is no better way to gain a new level of appreciation for beautiful writing than to attempt to write something yourself. I have forgotten, or perhaps I never truly knew, just how difficult writing is. What sounds like a Churchillian sonnet in my head inevitably comes out as barely discernible drivel on paper. Let's see if I can at least get to a level where I can publish a trashy romance novel. Not saying I would, but I want to at least have the capability to carry out the threat.

4.   Create a “safe place” for creativity.

When you are a child, the adults spend a great amount of time making sure you develop your critical thinking through creative endeavors and gain an appreciation for delayed gratification by ruthlessly rejecting your pleas for urgently needed toys. When you become an adult yourself, you immediately dispense with those lessons, and daily buy yourself the latest iteration of Apple toys while slowly sinking into the dullness of the daily grind. This blog is my attempt to reverse that pattern in my adult life. This is a momentum shift. The buck stops here. Right after I buy a retina-display everything. 

Your marketing psychology PhD thesis: I dread being an early adapter, but after two months, I  balk at making the purchase because I am now waiting for the next new thing. What to do?

5.   Capture memories and create a method for self-assessment.
Do you remember when, back in your younger days, you met your friend for brunch after a particularly heavy night out? Your friend would pull out her cellphone and play the voicemail that you left her the night before. As you listened to the message, your eyes widened in shock:  “I can’t believe what a moron I am!”. Or perhaps, after the initial tense moments, you thought in relief: “That was actually pretty funny even though I do not fully recall leaving that message”. In that vein, I started this blog because I want to find out what my future self will think of my past self. Of course, this is a two-way conversation, so listen up, future old me - please do not end up spending your retirement in front of your television in your under-garments, overweight, and with body hair entwining your back and arms like a shedding werewolf. Also, don't be that old guy at dance clubs. That's really weird. You are better than that.

6. Entertain my friends.

Although this blog is my own project for my own purposes (die rich or live trying), there is no greater pleasure than to hear a friend* send a note of a blog post well-received. One "I enjoyed that!" or "well said, I concur", or even a "please take me off this distribution" warms my heart to no end and validates the effort I pour into the blog.

*Friend - actual friends from all four tiers, acquaintances, Facebook "friends", Twitter followers, whoever has enough patience to maintain both a Facebook and a Google+ account, the one person who happens to Google search for "Ayn Rand" and "Karate Kid" in the same query, and all the Russian spam bots.




Daniel Craig gets an immediate Tier 1 friend status because he is so freaking cool. It takes a man to rock a Speedo. Like a boss. 

1 comment:

  1. A healthy passion encourages you to grow into a better person. For me, photography prods me to travel, explore, and see the world from a different perspective. If you look at my photographs progressively over time, you can also see a huge change, not only in my artistic approach, but also in my outlook on life and what I value.

    What is my photography appears to be your blogging. Over the course of just five blog posts, I've seen an enormous change in your writing. Your thoughts are more structured and your diction has improved substantially. Your wit, which comes through verbally (in person), has become clearer and sharper with each post (read through your earlier ones if you don't believe me). If you continue on this path, I could easily see many folks following your work! Of course, I know that you do this for the pleasure of doing it (and not for the groupies).

    Keep it up, I love reading your blog!

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