First Post

So this is my first post on a blog. Ever. And it's my own. I've posted on forums and things like that, but never a web log. I actually don't even know where to begin. I guess the reason I started this blog is so that I can practice blogging for future endeavors. I just feel like blogs are the wave of the future for communication and even education.

I guess I should first start out by thanking Shauli. You inspired me. I've thought about starting a blog for well over a year now, but I didn't think anyone would read it, not because they wouldn't care what I have to say, but because they wouldn't know that what I have to say can be interesting and even useful to them. I now realize that it's all about marketing. You put your blog address in your away message. I can do the same thing. If my blog is any good, and people who read my away messages like it, then I can rely on them to create a buzz about it, and get other people to read it. This all sounds really stupid, if I'm just blogging my own thoughts or random stories from my day, but I actually have been talking to someone lately about starting a blog related to a mutually shared political outlook, only I have wondered how we would get anyone to pay any attention to us. Even Howard Dean, the first person to successfully use a blog to promote his political ideal (and for the record I cannot stand the man, so this is in no way an endorsement of him or his ideals, just recognition that he started a phenomenon that can be used by others [read: Me] for their purposes), only managed to get a couple hundred thousand people to regularly read and contribute to his blog. That is a lot, I will grant that, but when you're talking about challenging and changing the future of the American political scene, and in particular get elected to the White House, those kinds of numbers fall well short of the kind of audience you need to succeed. (Another side point is in order: I am NOT trying to change the future of the American political scene with my blog, nor am I trying to get elected to the White House - I'm not even old enough to run - I just want to be able to share my ideas with more than the handful of people I've spoken to who have asked me to write them down and share them with others. That didn't really come out sounding so great. It sounds very conceited. I don't think I have the solution to the world's problems. I just think I have ideas that some people might find interesting and/or enlightening, and the only reason I think so is that I was recently forced to share some of them with one particular person, who then almost begged me to write out for him what I had just told him.)

In short, and it's not so short anymore, I know, this is my first post of my practice blog. On it I will share thoughts and stories, Beli Neder, and it is my hope that this will give me practice in organizing my thoughts and in presenting them in a coherent manner. Who knows, maybe some day the president will read one of my posts and give me a job!

With that, I'm signing off.

Until next time,

Seth