When I started blogging for the Nth time...

To anyone who might be reading, hello and welcome to my new blog, which I've started in an effort to keep my writing and thinking skills sharp. This is, depending on what you count, either my fourth or fifth attempt to start and maintain a blog, but contra previous failures this time I intend to make it stick. Previous blogs have been largely personal in nature, and were updated only on a haphazard as-I-felt-like-it basis, and as a result had a tendency to sputter out whenever my life entered long periods of "same old, same old", so this time, I'm taking a different approach. While I'll still write posts occasional posts about what's going on in my life, I'm going to focus on less personal topics, and plan to follow a strict regimen of updating the blog at least once every two days even when I don't have anything particular to say, in order to establish better work habits. If you are kind or bored enough to start reading this regularly, please reprimand me should I fail to uphold this regimen.

In order to keep the tap flowing during creative dry spells I'm going to do as the pros do and rely on some regular features which provide ideas for content when I'm too busy, tired, or bothered to come up with my own. Some such features I intend to include are:

1.)Quote of the day. As anyone who knows me knows, I tend to rather promiscuously salt my conversation with a variety of aphorisms, epigrams, and one-liners I've absorbed from various sources over the years. I have a distinct sense that this sometimes annoys people, but what can I say, I love quotations. Occasionally (not literally every day - I'd quickly run out of quotations) I'll post one, with or without my own thoughts on the subject matter appended, as food for thought.

2.)Song of the day. I love talking about music almost as much as I love listening to it. If there's a song I'm really loving on a particular day, I'll post about it, perhaps noting what I love about it, perhaps not.

3.)Random top X lists. It works for Letterman, why not for me? A good way to organize otherwise cluttered thinking.

4.)Book/movie reviews. As a growing cinephile and a long-time connoseur of the written word, I both watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books. I'll share my thoughts on both.

5.)Links. A lazy blogger's best friend.

6.)Photos. Taking photos has become one of my favorite hobbies, maintaining and organizing my flickr account being one of my others. Occasionally I'll post either a photo of my own that I like or one taken by another person that I admire.

Etc. etc...

That's a start. I'll probably come up with more in the future. I'd love for anyone who reads what I write to comment, even if to disagree with or criticize my opinions. The friends I've met in my travels are so numerous and far-flung that it's difficult to maintain regular personal contact with everyone who's touched me emotionally or stimulated me intellectually over the years, and I'd love for this blog to be a way for me to continue my conversations with people.

With that, I hope you enjoy reading it -

Signing off on my first new post,

Greg