Straylight Run

I am nothing if not timely. 

Last month, Chris Shiflett proposed an excellent blog revival idea, wherein I am to write a blog in the month of March about why I like blogs.  Of the ones I managed to read, I liked this “Ideas of March” the best. As for me, well, we are halfway through April – but I started this draft in March?  Here were the rules:

1. Write a post called Ideas of March.
2. List some of the reasons you like blogs.
3. Pledge to blog more the rest of the month.
4. Share your thoughts on Twitter with the #ideasofmarch hashtag.

So here goes…

Way before I had a technology blog, I had a blog about local issues.  Local politics, sports, development, you name it.  I started that blog because I had a lot of opinions about development that was happening around me and issues that were balloted, and I couldn’t rob the world of my enlightened positions by keeping them to myself.   Blogs allow anyone with something to say to say it.

Blogs are ultimately social.  Before there were tweetups, there were blogger meetups. And it is very easy to have something to talk about when introducing yourself to someone (“Hey, I really liked your blog about…”).  Twitter has taken that “breaking the ice” concept to new levels, but it I’d much rather have someone come up to me and say that they’ve read my blog rather than say that they follow me.

Blogs are written, and writing is a good skill to practice.  If I have to write to explain something, then I have to know it well.  And with practice, the explanation gets better and clearer. Then other thoughts get better and clearer.  Then the world just gets better and clearer.

Oh, and blogs contain a crapload of useful information that solve all sorts of problems, or just spread interesting news.

In summary, I like blogs because:

1. They give everyone a voice.
2. They help people be more social.
3. They help me improve my writing.
4. They contain a crapload of useful information and news.

To round off the requirements, I pledge to blog more in this month of March, er – how about I just pledge to blog more?  And hopefully my RSS tweeter should get out the hashtag in the title.

🙂

Welcome coders to my little technology presence on the net.  Lately, I have been feeling like less of a professional because I could not give an appropriate online tech presence to those who’ve asked, other than my Twitter account.

So straylightrun.net was born.  The domain pays homage to the original cyberpunk novel, and one of the best SF novels of all time: Neuromancer, by William Gibson.  Unfortunately, straylightrun.com was already taken by some band.  Must be a cool band.

Thanks for reading!