This post will have a decidedly different bent than prior ones, but there's some things that will be a benefit for myself as the author (and perhaps others as readers).
There's a three-part topic to cover with the first two thirds discussed here and the final third in a subsequent post.
(1) Why the blog is being written... that can be best done through the blog "title", "header" and "wherefore":
like to write stuff: I genuinely enjoy writing. This isn't a new thing, but something that in the last 6 months or so, I've actually begun exercising again (really for the first consistent time since college). I'm not sure what form exactly it would take, but would like to work in a career where writing is a significant output of what I do.
A bread crumb trail towards the three Rs: reading, writing & really trying to learn new stuff. This header statement is a pretty good description of what I hope the output from this blog to be. The goal is to bring together my writing along with what I read... whether that be from magazines, books or websites (or expanding the universe further, things I view or experience). To state it simply, I hope to tie together in one place things I've found to be... interesting (hmmm... this last statement could have been taken directly from the "wherefore the blog" section).
As this has been written, I recognize that there really is another goal behind the blog. Reference was made earlier to my desire to work in a career that involved me writing... hopefully, this blog can be a vehicle to help accomplish that goal.
(2) The path to current point... this can best be summarized by pulling (in list form) some of the verbiage currently in the "transmogrification of the blog" section.
A. For several years now, I've been a "read and rip out" kind of guy. I'd come across various things I find interesting (mostly magazine articles) and rip out and save the page(s).
B. I created this blog back in mid 2006 and began posting here links to the articles I ripped out along with associated websites from said articles. This was simply in list form w/o much verbiage around what was contained within.
C. Sometime from mid 2006 to mid 2007, I added to the blog lists of both books that I've read (many of which I learned about through the aforementioned magazine articles) over the last few years and websites I've found interesting (yep, many from the same articles).
D. In March of this year I created and began writing http://ahockeyguy.blogspot.com/. Designed to be completely different than this blog in both content and approach, it's about the NHL (and my beloved San Jose Sharks) and contains mostly my original writing and very few website/magazine article/book links.
E. In July of this year I realized I wanted to bring together in this blog my writing with the notes I've taken and things I've come across (non-hockey related) that I've found to be interesting. Since that time, I've posted close to daily (32 posts in close to two months) and have tried to stay true to the goal set out... to write about things I found interesting.
(3) The path going forward... I've reached the point where I'm happy with the content I've been putting onto the blog which takes me to the next step... how to get a readership.
Ideas around this to follow in a subsequent post...
