To Blog or Not to Blog...

I suppose that's the question. As Bill Shakespeare pukes in his mouth a little, while rolling in his grave.

I can't stand buzzwords, and I find myself reluctant to even mutter this one. It really sounds more like an Eastern European stew than a "high-tech", "cutting-edge" form of mass media that apparently generates rumors and spreads hearsay more efficiently than any old newspaper ever could!
And I should know, because it just so happens that I wrote a fluffy two page paper on "blogs" for an online Communications course just last semester. Allow me to quote myself:

"A weblog, or simply blog, is a web page run by someone who posts daily thoughts, articles or links to be viewed by the general public. These are often posted chronologically and usually have some sort of theme. Many blogs are about humor, politics, entertainment, art or really anything at all."

As you can see, I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on here. I continue:

"Pretty much anybody who has access to the internet can have a blog, which means regular people are given a voice to express themselves and their ideas who would otherwise be left voiceless. This also allows people with interests or views that may not be considered main stream to access a main stream audience. However this is also where questions of content quality may arise."

And let mine be no exception! Finally, my voice can be heard! The voice that was, until now, confined to inane and irrelevant mutterings audible only to the ears of a few fortunate friends. Let me be heard, I say you. Let me be heard!

And I concluded this paper by stating that "blogs should be taken with a grain of salt."
How prescient.
And even though I don't plan on outing gay republicans, exposing Dan Rather or contributing to the journalistic latrine that is celebrity gossip, you should still take what is said here with a grain of salt. Because nothing livens up that bland, tasteless crock of soup like a big ol' heap of the salty stuff. So please, I implore you to indulge.

But for reasons I won't get into here, let's just simply refer to this page as a "journal" or at least a "web log".
The actual reason I'm starting this journal is because I'm moving to Japan in a couple of weeks and I thought this would be a good way to keep in touch with everyone and let them know what I'm up to, or at least a good way to ignore everyone like I do now, except collectively.
So that's the deal - it's here if you want to read it, even comment if you'd like. Though I can't promise that the content will be interesting, substantive or even HERE really. I'm not quite sure how much time I'll have to devote to writing about what I've been doing, because hopefully I'll actually be out doing shit.