What caliber of man will you be . . ?

So, it occurred to me that my explanation for the justification of this blog was not entirely forth coming. My motives may not be any of your business, but the following may help to explain some of the ramblings to which you may be exposed in the future.

We recently began a new chronological period in time (some of us choose to call this period a "year"). I've never been much for resolutions. This has much to do with my life's mission of being too cool for anything more than 15 other people do. But I've been thinking a great deal lately about God and me and my family and life and what is and is not important. Our pastor was talking recently about a man (Johnathan Edwards maybe?) who took one year of his life and came up with like 70 resolutions by which he intended to live the rest of his life. Something in me resonated with that idea. It fit well in that part of me that ponders deep thoughts as I'm driving down the road (when I'm not commenting on the freakishly low IQs of my fellow motorists and the myriad of ways in which their low IQs impact my commute). So i decided to make a point this year of thinking about God and me and my family and life and what is and is not important.

A very good band once posed an inquiry which forms the title of this post (extra points if you can name them without looking it up). They went on to suggest that this kind of question isn't asked any more. I am inclined to agree. I feel, therefore, a necessity to pose it to myself. You may periodically be privy to my thoughts on that topic. I just thought you'd want to know what you may be getting yourself into by reading.

Board at work

So, i've been bored at work lately and I recently recieved some new pedals for Christmas. It was not enough for me to re-arrange my pedal board (twice). I had to embrace my dorkiness and and use CAD at work to draft it out. Behold:

I"m working to try and get one uploaded that you can view full size but blogger is not cooperating. This should give you the general idea in the mean time. Feel free to email me if you want the full size pdf in the mean time.

why ink would be better . . .

Some of you may recognize the self referential nature of this blog's title. It sort of assumes you know something and updates the thought related to that something. Whether you get it or not is unimportant. I selected this title because, frankly, ink is better. Allow me to explain.

I used to write letters to friends. This was an involved process. I had to get a pen, some paper, an envelope, and a stamp. I had to lick stuff then hire a courier to transport it all in the hope that my friend would get it, read it then respond in kind. What a pain. Email seems so much easier. I go the computer, click a few icons, type stuff, spell check it then send. That mystical internet then makes sure they get it in a matter of nano-seconds. Brilliant! How could email not be better than the ink based system? I'm glad I asked that.

What i learned is that there is something about writing a letter. You have to put forth extra effort. I got into that. I actually went out and bought special pens and ink for writing letters. It was fun and I felt a little more connected to these friends than I did when I emailed them. There was also the excitement of getting a letter back. Mail usually sucks. Getting a handwritten letter always brightened my day. In short, letter writing is more personal, it means more.

I haven't written a letter in years. This caused a change in the verb in this blog title. Had I started it years ago it would read "Ink is better". My willingness to join the email herd has moved the reality of that superiority to the the past tense. Now I simply lament the superiority of ink. It would be better, if I used it.

Ink would also be a better medium for this exercise. I like having a place to write and store my thoughts. I also like having a passive way to share them and receive comments. There is nothing inherently wrong with that but at the same time, the more heavily i rely on digital forms of communication the less connected i feel to those with whom i communicate. I think the best option would be for me to write these thoughts privately and then, should it seem relevant, share them with you by letter, or better, over a pint.

The question I have to answer is: Do I email and blog because i'm compromising with technology or because I'm selling out.

mmmm, narcissism

A while back I decided I'd start blogging. I typed up what would be my first blog entry. It was basically all about how blogging was basically just a digitized form of narcissism. I think my favorite part of that blog-entry-to-be was the blatant narcissism with which i discussed narcissism. It was truly a thing of beauty. This, is not that entry. I really can't bring myself to look at it again. It's just too beautiful. If i gaze again i may drown in it. We can't have that.

I opted, for a variety of reasons, not to blog at that time. One reason being I simply could not think of a good reason to. Don't get me wrong, I've got good crap to say, but I could not imagine a reason to blog that would not, in the end be a way of saying, "hey, look how cool I am." Driving home from Richmond recently, I realized that blogging is a good thought stimulator. I occasionally have thoughts about stuff that I'm sure I'd write down and explore further if only I had a place/reason to do it. Blogging could therefore be a thought promoting activity. Being a sucker for thinking deeply about unimportant stuff I decided the time had come.

So that's my justification. I hope it's a good one. Maybe my next post will be an explanation of the blog's title.