Spring blog-keeping

Hey folks. My apologies for the long hiatus; I'm back now. It's been a busy and distraction-filled few weeks, with some exciting adventures I hope to catch you all up with eventually.

One of the benefits of being away is that I've had occasion to think a bit about this blog -- what I like, what I don't like, and what I'd like to do more of. Some thoughts:

*Three-week vacations aside, this is my 88th post in just under a year. (Yes, it's been that long.) Considering the shelf-life of most comparable "random musings"-style blogs, that's not half bad. I congratulate myself.

*I said when I started this thing that I hoped it would be a good exercise in disciplining my writing. How disciplined I've been, of course, is open to debate, but I've grown to appreciate blogging as a way to preserve my own voice in the midst of a day job that has me writing in a very different style. That's something I want to keep up. To that end, I'm going to try to cut down on posts like these, which -- while fun -- don't really say anything. Not that I'll leave off-beat subjects completely alone, just that when I have something to say about them, I'll actually take the time to say it.

*I suppose I'd be kidding myself if I thought I could completely avoid blogging about the election in the next few months. Still, it's something I'd like to get away from as much as possible. One of the great failings of this blog, as I see it, has been my lack of effort in giving a good account of my life in the city -- which, if I'm honest with myself, probably speaks to my own lack of serious contemplation on that score. No more. Expect this blog to get somewhat more personal in nature, but always with an eye to presenting useful insights and observations in that context. I promise not to start navel-gazing on you.

*To that end, a couple of ideas I've been kicking around for a while: One is to post more about what I'm reading at the moment, whenever I come across something useful to say. This naturally includes interesting lectures I've been to or movies I've seen (of which there have been several lately). The second is to start a bit of travel journaling. One of my favorite things to do here remains to find some random area of the city I've yet to explore, then take an hour or two just walking around. I'll start bringing a camera, too. Though I suppose I should start with a bit of an ode to my own neighborhood, which I've become quite taken with. Stay tuned.

Stuff White People Like

Barack Obama is promising to move our country "beyond black and white."

This blog shows why that will never happen.

(Hat tip: The Herald)

New journalism blog

My colleague Eric Fettmann, a newspaperman's newspaperman if there ever was one, has an interesting new blog devoted to the journalism history. It looks to be a motley assortment of thoughts and annecdotes culled from his extensive collection of historic newspapers, magazines and journalism memorabilia, with who-knows-what-else to come. Do check it out.

Guess who's blogging?

I just happened to stumble upon this treasure trove of wisdom the other day; it's the personal blog of none other than His Excellency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

Okay, the Times helped. Turns out, Ahmadinejad's been blogging for quite some time now, though he's even lazier about it than I am.

What's there, though, is absolutely fascinating. Not that it's all that profound -- or even comically boisterous. It actually has a kind of whimsical sense to it, as if its author sees himself as a sort of deep thinker who only vows Israel's destruction to pay the rent.

The most recent post, for example, is a long series of extracts from a treatise by one of the first leaders of Islam, explaining the duties of a proper Muslim ruler.

He also says he takes 15 minutes a day to actually respond to the comments he gets. Anyone want to take him up on it? I say this partially in jest, of course. But I've gotta think that having an enemy who's so up-front about his aspirations and pretensions is really a great blessing. Not that President Bush (or Lee Bollinger, for that matter) should indulge his b.s., of course, but there must be room somewhere for a kind of kitchen debate on the proper role of reason and religion in politics. Anyone?

Hello out there?

Here's the deal:

I've been blogging semi-consistently for two months now, and it's time I got a good read on who's actually reading this thing. So here's your job: leave a comment on this post. Just let me know you stopped by--it will give me a better idea of whom, if anyone, I'm writing to.

This is important to me. I started this blog to keep in the practice of writing, to keep my friends informed of my exploits, and also because I thought I might have something interesting to say. So far, it's been a mixed experience. I realized very quickly that I had little interest in maintaining your standard minipundit outlet, consisting of frequent posts of interesting and newsworthy links followed by a paragraph or two of commentary. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not something I'm especially excited about, and I found the prospect of keeping up with the proverbial Joneses tiresome.

Well, it's really been a tiring experience anyway, which is why I haven't posted as often as I would have liked. I'm doing more writing than I expected for The Post, and it takes a lot out of me.

What compounds this even further is that I have very little idea who's out there. I'm in a position where I sometimes feel like I'm just spewing thoughts into cyberspapce with little purpose or method, which is a very unhealthy thing. A writer needs an audience, and he needs to write for that audience, or else his writing is an exercise in narcissism. (Or, if you prefer, "self-liberation," but let's not go there.) And as someone who's so used to parsing his words very carefully, I don't think I like it.

So, since this is your blog (whoever you are), feel free as well to comment on what you've liked or disliked, and what you'd like to see more of. More deep philosophical discussions? Should I bother to finish up my Gatsby or my Peter musings? More New York stories? Spiritual reflections--maybe an occasional brief take on the day's mass readings? Or should I just get my act together and post more frequently on all of the above?

But if that doesn't suit your fancy, don't worry about it. Just tell me who you are, and I'll guess as best I can.

Getting started

So this is my blog. Welcome. My guess is that if you're reading this you already know me to some extent, so I will dispense with introductions. For the uninformed, I just graduated from Claremont McKenna College, a small liberal arts school outside Los Angeles, with a degree in Government. (That's kind of like a Political Science degree, only better.) I'm moving to Manhattan in a few weeks for a summer internship with the New York Post, and after that, it's anyone's guess.

I decided to start blogging for several reasons. The most immediate reason is that I figured it would be healthy for me to keep writing on a regular basis post-college. Of course, writing regularly is only a healthy exercise if one has something useful to say, and my hope is that I do. What I'll talk about will probably vary widely from post to post; I enjoy discussing just about anything, from good books and current events to theology and the latest episode of The Office. Some of my thoughts may be incomplete, and this may be intentional. I know that very soon I'll start to miss the all the wonderful intellectual banter I've left behind at CMC, so I welcome all comments on my posts, and comments on comments, and so on. Nothing would make me happier than if an actual discussion broke out once in a while. And if you don't feel like making a public comment, I always appreciate emails.

This blog will also be how I keep all of you--whoever you may be--updated on my life. I'm in New York for at least the summer, a location which is sure to produce its share of amusing observations and stories. I'll do my best to keep my posts personal without making them too personal; I will not be pouring my heart out all over the internet, and you will not become my closest personal confidant simply by reading what I've written. Call me old-fashioned if you must. If you really want to see me cry, you can come to my apartment and show me the baseball standings.

The long and short of it is that I'm experimenting here. I don't know yet what this blog will become. I won't be getting private or touchy-feely, but by the nature of the medium I'll be sharing a lot of myself. It's something I'm excited to try, but as a fairly private person, it's not something I'm used to, so I ask for your understanding.

Speaking of personal stuff, it's going to be relevant here that I'm a committed Christian of the Roman Catholic variety. As per my above promise, I won't be using this blog to explore my deepest spiritual struggles, but anything short of that is fair game. From time to time I might post a passage of scripture that I find particularly interesting or meaningful, and you'll probably find that questions about God and the Christian life intersect a lot of my thinking on lots of other topics. We'll see how that plays out once I get writing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my blog. I'll try to post again within the next few days. I just finished reading (and loving) F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and it's gotten me thinking about the relationship between literature and philosophy. Stay tuned.