I'm not sure why I want to start blogging. Maybe to pin down some thoughts that tend to pop up in my brain from time to time. Thoughts that I don't entertain for very long, but by putting them off, they grow more insistent- clawing their way from the back of my mind, and demanding my attention. I dont' know whyI stuff them there. They obviously don't like it.

Maybe I want to start blogging just out of curiosity. What will happen when my ideas move from my mind to the computer screen? It's interesting. I have no idea right now how this blog will turn out, but the thoughts in my head ( that i never really consciously knew were existent) have now made themselves evident because i've forced them to become words. Readable, tangible, concrete. This amazes me. It also amazes me that the words i write seem to fill up so much space, and yet what exactly have I written about? Ironic how abstract the concrete can be.

But to be brutally honest, I want to blog because my handwriting is garbage. I've kept a journal for years, and I've noticed that with time, the words I want to put on paper-which take on the ideal form in my mind- mutate into a mush of scribbles by the time they hit the paper. What is that all about? There was a time back in 4th grade when cursive writing was something to be proud of. Now? My letters have rebelled against convention- t's pass for l's, r's are hopeless scribbles, m's and n's have turned communist with their equal distribution of 'humps' and any long words are cut in half thanks to 'filler letters' that embody the essential curves and lines necessary for the brain to make the connection to a word and its meaning. Efficient? Sure, if I didn't need to hire someone to decipher my journal.

I guess those are the three main reasons to start this blog. But if those were the only reasons, I would just type letters to myself, and that would be dumb. So for my 4th and final reason, I really want to keep my family and friends posted on my life, thoughts, and whatever else compels me to write- and as a side note- Doug, i hope you do the same!