Blog?

Since this is the first entry for my blog, I feel a certain obligation to make it sweet, preppy and nice. This is, however, proving to be quite an awkward experience-that is, blabbering myself silly and having it exposed to the vast sea of the internet, available anywhere and at anytime wherever the net is up and running, and not knowing who or what is reading it at any given moment. Yes, it always seemed easy to just talk and rave in the private little egotistical corner in the world known as the blog, but I guess even raving takes time and thinking.

I’ve read a few blogs here and there, and I’ve always envied how their authors really seem to express their personalities through the blog entries they write. I could almost feel and sense the knowing smile behind a nicely crafted pun, the hot cadence riding out of the raging, capitalized chain of frustrated insults, the sarcastic smirk. It is a very rewarding experience to read good, honest writing by people you know that is not made sterile by the rays of academia. This is what brought me to want to start a blog.

For one thing, I want to be a better writer–better not only in terms of knowing the craft well, but also in terms of developing a certain style and rhythm unique to myself; building the proverbial “voice”, so to speak. A blog also helps me discipline myself as it keeps track of the days I have or haven’t been able to write. Not to mention, I get to experiment with a stash of funny words I never really got around to using, like smörgåsbord, gamut, dotage, perspicuity, peremptory, etc. In short, blogging seems like a good strategy to keep me off the slovenly path of summer lethargy and on the yellow brick road to finding my ‘voice’.

I must pause here to thank my friend Selena for having inspired me to pursue the blog. Her advice, the ordinary adage of “Practice makes Perfect”, came as a simple reminder of the virtues of solid skill building . In the competitive world today, the tendency to take shortcuts too often comes under the guise of being ‘efficient’ or ‘effective’. Unfortunately, I too have been under a dry spell of wishful thinking and spent much time thinking about writing well rather than actually doing it. It’s time to truly be efficient and effective–it’s time to blog.