An Introduction/An Invitation

Usually after I finish a biography, I have an unusual (and often inconvenient) tendency to try to emulate the person that I just read about in some way. I finished a good-not-great biography of the underrated James K. Polk a few weeks ago, and I am currently going through Doris Goodwin's outstanding Team of Rivals, which chronicles the political lives of Abraham Lincoln and three of his cabinet members. Something that struck me in both of these books is how many successful Americans that were involved or associated with politics in the mid-1800s kept private journals or diaries. I suspect that the relationship between journal keeping and political success is ultimately correlate and not causal, but there is definitely something to be said for being sufficiently self-aware and self-disciplined to keep a journal.

So I thought about keeping a journal during the upcoming school year. September would be an appropriate time to start this for a few reasons. For one thing, I'm taking graduate classes for the first time this semester, and a journal would be an interesting way to chronicle my journey through the next two years of being a graduate student. And for another, summer, especially recently, has usually been the most humdrum time of the year in my life.[1] The onset of fall marks the re-enterence of the eclectic cast of characters that surrounds me at school.[2] There's just more going on and more to write about.

But I quickly abandoned the journal idea because I know myself well enough to understand that there's absolutely no way that I would keep up with a daily (or quasi-daily) thing like that. Additionally, the journal medium is pretty dull and awfully private. Maybe some private writing would be a hugely beneficial thing in today's age of catering to likes/favorites/retweets/etc. and sharing thoughts, pictures, and creations, but at my core, I think I like sharing my thoughts with others.

Hence this blog. I hope this will give me an opportunity to put together cohesive thoughts on a frequent, but not constant, basis that I can also share with you if you're someone who's interested in being a part of such sharing. I'm not sure exactly what you can expect to find here, but I promise that I'll do my best to be interesting. I would imagine that posts will vary tremendously across the serious-humorous spectrum from week to week, but only time will tell what the universe has in store for this. Heck, I might get bored and stop doing this almost right away. The unpredictability is part of the fun. Whoopee!

It's probably in everyone's best interest, though, if we set up some rules:

1. I must post every Tuesday. Depending on how the semester is going, etc., I may also post on Fridays, but I make no promises regarding the matter.
2. Posts must stay reasonably on the topic indicated by the title. Off topic rants/musings must be contained in footnotes.
3. All posts must end with a link to something cool elsewhere on the internet. These cool things may or may not relate to the post. Knowing my internet habits, I would imagine that most of these cool things will have to do with music. Prepare thyself.
4. The body of the post (i.e. excluding the title, footnotes, the cool thing, etc.) must be between 400 and 800 words. No more, no less.
5. If you have a comment, question, or snide remark, you must comment.
6. No cursing. References, implicit or explicit, to foul, sexual, or otherwise questionable material that do not involve cursing are fair game.
7. I'll try my best with grammar. Stay relaxed about it, though.[3]
8. My failure to comply with any of these rules must be punished. Each time a post breaks one or more rules, someone will have to decide what my punishment will be. If anyone has ideas about this, contact me. Otherwise we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

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[1] Not that the people that I've been with this summer are humdrum at all. The issue is that most of what my core group of friends and I talk about usually amounts to nothing. We are a very Seinfeldian group of people and could probably give Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer and run for their money. This type of banter probably doesn’t translate well into blog topics.

[2] For whatever it’s worth, I’ve found that the key to keeping life interesting and exciting is to spend as much time with weirdoes as you possibly can. Normal people are all well and good, but you’ll never forget the eccentrics. I think I’ve done a good job finding strange people and keeping them around over the years.

[3] I’ve sort of come to believe that grammar is at least a little bit overrated. Grammar is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Its purpose is to facilitate the communication of ideas, but if someone can communicate an idea without strict adherence to grammar, then there is little use for rigid grammar in that situation. It really bothers me when Grammar Nazis say, “That’s not a word,” after someone says something like Seinfeldian or alot, for instance. If I say something like Seinfeldian or alot, you probably understand the idea that I’m trying to convey with it. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. Thus, Seinfeldian and alot fulfill the purpose of words and are words. There is also a huge social component to grammar, too, but that’s another footnote for another time. 

Today's Cool Thing

This dude on YouTube, Rob Scallon, has been doing crazy things with guitars and other string instruments for some years. I think that his recent banjo-ballad, A Westbound Train is definitely a cool thing.

Peace and luck to you and yours.