Blog Introduction

Version 1.1, 5-1-05

Welcome to my web journal and site updates page. And now, a history lesson.

Many eons ago I ran across an online diary on somebody’s Geocities site. I didn’t think much of it and didn’t even bookmark it (which is strange for me), but I filed it away in my memory and moved on. A couple of years later a random person read my website and recommended Xanga to me. I registered and then completely forgot about it for a long time.

I didn’t actually pay attention to things like online diaries and weblogs until a few days after September 11th, when I Googled my way into a message board for online diarists. In one thread they had been discussing the attacks while they were happening. The transparency and emotional energy of their posts gripped me. But still I moved on. A few months later I was looking up Choose Your Own Adventure books on Google and wandered into an entry from a diary called urbanality. This time it stuck. The entry was so inviting that I had to read the whole thing. I read all the archives, and I discovered once again something I often forget, that people can be utterly fascinating–as individuals, not just as abstractions.

Online diarying looked so fun that I had to try it myself. So I signed up with Diaryland, urbanality’s host, and typed away. I called it Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper because I had just read the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander.

Then my friend at work April started a weblog at Xanga. This brought my attention to the large number of Wheaton students who had Xanga blogs. An online community of which I could be a part! So I revived my neglected Xanga account.

I like the blog format better than the diary format because the entries in a blog are more accessible, but I don’t like the way most people keep their archives. Blogs are typically arranged in reverse chronological order so that the most recent entry is at the top. This makes sense if you’re a visitor checking for the latest happenings. It does not make sense if you’re a visitor reading through the whole series of them from the beginning. You have to read backwards. Therefore, my archives will be arranged in chronological order! You may feel perfectly free to start at the top of the page like a normal reader of English.

As I stated at the beginning of this intro, this blog is a combination web journal and site updates page. That keeps things simple, and simplicity is something this site can always use more of! I may keep my other blogs going for now, and if so, I’ll keep everything unified by posting links to those entries in the Thinkulum blog.

Also, you should notice in my blog’s navigation links that I have a page for links to other people’s sites. There you will find some terrific people I know online and off who have websites. When you want to read about somebody’s life but get tired of mine, you can visit them. :)

Enjoy!