I've recently finished reading a fine post by Steve Yegge urging anyone and everyone to start blogging. I took the bait and am struggling to figure out what exactly, of all possible subjects, to write about. A few candidates that come to mind:
- mentoring: this is something I think everyone should do and something I've been doing weekly for the past 3 years. A truly life-changing activity.
- fantasy sports: a subject that's a little (ok, extremely) over-worked in modern media, but as the current owner of LaDanian Tomlinson and Paul Pierce, I feel I'm qualified to spout off about.
- software development and the business of software: this is my profession and primary subject of blog-consumption. I'm a particular fan of Joel Spolsky and, as mentioned, Steve Yegge. Not coincidentally, they write in similar blog-o-spheres.
- entrepreneurship: this is a subject that fascinates me, was my major in college at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, but is not an area in which I have much working knowledge. Perhaps I can throw a few opinions out and see if some decent comments bounce back.
- parenthood: as the proud papa of a soon-to-be two-year-old and an upcoming zero-year-old, I have loads of working knowledge but very little wisdom.
- community wind band: I play tuba in Grand Symphonic Winds, a community band in St. Paul. Strangely, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about how to make this group better. I'm sure there are people out there who participate in similar groups and can offer some insight into how to grow such a group (and an audience!).
- church/religion: Yikes! Tread carefully! Actually, I'm a "level-headed" Christian and my mother is senior pastor of a small congregation in southern Minnesota, so there must be some somewhat-sane thoughts going on in my head that can be written down without generating a Flame War To End All Flame Wars.
- travel: another hobby of mine that seems to have slowed a bit, but surprisingly not a large bit, following the recent explosion in the size of my family. Bill Bryson I am not, but I might be able to spare you from a few miserable nights on the streets of Munich.
That's all that come to mind right now. I've got my work cut out for me trying to narrow things down and make subsequent entries more interesting than this one. If you've made it this far, you must be a close friend or family member. If not, hopefully you've already read a later entry...otherwise, give me another shot at that first impression thing. Either way, greetings. Welcome to my mess.
