Getting Started...

I have joined the ranks of online blogging, something I once thought I would never do. But then again, there are a lot of things I've done that I once thought I would never do. Get an AIM screename. Be a devoted Tar Heels fan. Get married. Be unemployed. Watch The Bachelor. Stuff like that.

Why this then?

First, I'm bored. There's only so much fun I can have looking for a job; mostly I submit applications and wait hopelessly for a callback. Actually I'm just providing lunch fun for some office lackeys somewhere. "This guy really expects to find a job? He studied Philosophy!" Then someone cracks a bad joke, everyone laughs (they must be bored, only they are paid for it), and then it's off to the shredder.

Second, my brain is atrophying. I was in fact a Philosophy major in college, so I'm used to doing a lot of thinking. My mind was in great shape as of graduation, but lately it's been going the way of my body (more pillow than rock). I've been trying to read a variety of books, but it's not enough. I need stimulation. I need a creative outlet. I need something to excite me besides who will win Beauty and the Geek 2 (WB, Thursday at 9) or when my local Fox channel will rerun Friends' final season.

Lastly, I'm doing this because I believe I have something to say to the world. I've been told I have a gift for writing, for communicating, and I have thoughts, ideas and insights that are valuable to other people. I could act shocked and reply, "I have no idea what they're talking about, I didn't know I was worth listening to," but I'm not that humble. I know I am worth listening to. To myself, I'm as fascinating as can be: why not to everyone else?

I can hear my wife groaning.

In all honesty, I believe that God has given me a gift for ideas and a gift for words. This blog is something I feel compelled to do, to make some use of those God-gifts, to exercise them, even if just a little bit. Maybe it's like the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. I'd rather not be the guy who buries his master's money in the ground, only to get reamed when the master returns. I doubt I have what it takes to double the money. So I'm aiming for "money back, with interest.''

I have no idea how this will turn out. I don't know how long I'll stick with this blog. I don't know if I'll have consistent readers, or any readers at all. I don't know if anyone will actually find my thoughts interesting. But I'm going to give it a shot.

Gotta go now. Family Feud is coming on, and I want to see if I could win $20,000.