Well, here I go again.  I’ve tried blogging several times before, in different places.  First I set one up on my own web site, then I went to LiveJournal, then to Yahoo 360, then to Myspace, then to my own site again with WordPress.  Recently, I wanted to switch to Blosxom, because it’s made of Perl and very lightweight; but it’s also very much a work in progress, and I have a hard enough time getting the writing done without the distraction of making the software work first.  So I’m sticking with WordPress, at least for now, even though it’s written in PHP, language of the damned.

Every time I start blogging again, I do it with the best of intentions.  In places like Usenet and web forums where there’s already a conversation going, I write tons of stuff in response to things other people write.  In 2007, on Usenet alone, I posted 688 articles containing about 110,000 words.  Yet, when I sit down at a blank page and tell myself it’s time to write, my mind completely locks up.  When I consider a big writing project like a book, it seems as impossible as flying to the moon.

So here’s the plan: From now on, or until I get good at this and make it a habit, I’m not going to write anything more than a quick sentence anywhere else unless I’ve posted it here first.  That might make for some seemingly out-of-context posts when I’m stepping into a conversation that’s been going on for a while, but I’ll try to quote enough to keep things making sense.  Then once I’ve written something here, I may post it at the site or newsgroup that got me started, with a link back to here.

I’m also going to start posting reviews of any books I read or shows I watch.  That alone should make sure I post something most days.

If that doesn’t get me going, I don’t know what will.  Writing comes easy to me once I get started, and I think I’m decent at it—at grammar and spelling, at least.  It seems like a waste to be scattering all that effort around the web where I have no way to preserve it, when I could have it all in one place like this—and maybe even get some good out of it someday.

Topics that are likely to show up, based on the forums I’ve been writing in, include: food, low-carbing, traditional conservatism (not the neo-kind), gardening and small farming, conservation and stewardship of nature (not environmentalism), local issues in the Quincy/Barry/Hannibal area, TV and movies, games and puzzles, books, sustainable building methods like strawbale homes, Latin (the language, not the ethnicity), demographics and sociology, and who knows what else.  That should be enough to keep me busy, right?