Blog: Introduction

I don't consider myself a writer. Yet, I find myself writing in a blog, or journal when I get the free time, or writing when I need to work out a problem, personal or otherwise. For a time, I published my writing on myspace. For various reasons that account has fallen into disuse, though it still exists. Sometime ago, I started playing with the idea of publishing my writing once again. I have also been considering publishing videos on youtube to hopefully engage others in a larger debate. I don't know how committed I am to this project. In theory, since I write on a fairly consistent basis anyhow, I should, at the very least, be able to post online in place of writing in my journal. Video publishing is more tenuous due to some technological restrictions, and nervousness about the different format.

In the long term, it would be great to make a living as a writer. Discounting pay, the lifestyle of a writer has a lot of appeal. They can work from anywhere, and set their own hours. Popular writers have a fame that can be appealing. However, like musicians and other artists, there are far more who are never able to make a living in the market, than those who do. This is why, in part, I am working toward an engineering degree while pursuing this interest on the side. And in fact, many other writers (professors for example) work in other ways while still writing on the side.

I decided to go with blogger, rather than something like livejournal, or go back to myspace for aesthetic and practical reasons. First, blogger's page layout has a cleaner layout than livejournal, and is roughly comparable to myspace. I actually prefer the default setting in myspace to blogger, but myspace requires that those who wish to comment have accounts. Although many may still have myspace accounts, it is enough of a hassle for dissuade me from publishing on their site. I like the options that livejournal has, and the community that has grown up around the site. But, again, to my knowledge, commenters have an account with livejournal, and I don't like how the pages have been formatted. Finally, I have an email, and youtube account that are linked with the same name. This will hopefully make it easier for others to find me online.

My current plan is to publish something once a week that is roughly 500 words. For some reference, the word count of this post up to the words “500 words” is 411 words. This blogs content will mostly be about the various political, economic, and philosophical topics that are on my mind. I hope to try to keep the writing related to whatever is in the national discourse. I will probably foray into religious and ethical subjects. Time will tell, whether we want it to or not.

Till next time,

Ryan