My grand debut! Herein, I explain some things.

Perhaps the biggest factor in my reluctance to start my own blog is my perfectionism, particularly where the written word is concerned. I’m afraid that I’ll never like my writing enough to publish it. Or that I will take so long trying to craft these entries that, when faced with the time-consuming prospect of writing and editing a few paragraphs, I’ll just watch TV instead. I’m the same way about my music, but in music I have deadlines to force me to publish, whereas with a blog it’s all on me, baby.

I don’t expect my overly self-conscious musical practices to be much of a barrier in this particular medium. But the text problem is very real. For instance, the sentences you have just read have taken me ten minutes to write. And though it flows better than my original work, dang, that’s 10 minutes of re-writing. For a damn blog. And it’s not THAT different.

But it does flow better.

So I’ve decided to (this is another re-written paragraph, by the way) edit my writing less. I tell you this not because, as my blog-reader, you particularly care, but rather because by stating it up front, like a thesis, I will be more likely to hold myself to it. (I just wrote and deleted the same sentence three separate times. Clearly I have a problem.)

Anyway! The other, and most important, reason for the blog is to stay in touch with friends who I no longer see. I tend to read my high school and Oberlin friends’ blogs with stunning regularity, and as such I feel that I know how they are doing and thus do not necessarily need to speak with them. I’m not much of a phone person, either, and this too contributes to my failure to keep in touch, though phone conversations only do so much anyway. What I miss about my friends is that which cannot be effectively replicated through infrequent, lengthy conversations: inside jokes, sarcastic running commentary, falsetto singing, drunken salsa dancing, conversation at The Feve, and the frequent ridiculousness of shared experiences. Describing the events of one’s life in a blog can’t really do this either, but it comes closer to group dialogue than telephoning, because everyone can read the same thing and leave comments, which, by the way, I hope you, the reader, do with some frequency. But not if your name is Jill.

Ha, ha! Just kidding, Jill!


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Happy reading, ya’ll. Over and out.