Introduction to the blog itself

In which I attempt to explain why this will be a thing this summer.

So yeah. I've been debating about this for a little bit.

I was joking with a friend a while back about writing a blog this summer about stuff. Mainly things that are deep and thoughtful, answering life’s questions that are near and dear to my heart. Then she realized that my phrase for the semester " deep and thoughtful " could be acronym-nized (we're pretending that’s a word) to DAT. And my blog could be called True DAT.

This relates to a previous conversation of ours. We were have a textual conversation about…I don't know, something important at the time, but the point isn't the conversation. My phone auto-corrected “true dat” to “true DAT,” which I guess DAT is an acronym for something. Give me a moment and I'll Google it.

(By the way, I do realize the three of you who are reading this don't actually have to wait the moment I needed before reading on. This is my tone when I write casually. I type as though I am speaking " I feel as if my blog needs to be casual, because it speaks to my slim audience that is about my age. At the same time, if I were to read these passages, I would want my voice to be accurately depicted. It’s just the way I am, I guess. Now, what was I doing? Oh yeah, I was Googling something.)

Well, DAT is an acronym for Dental Admission Test, Digital Audio Tape, Design and Technology, and a load of other things that sound important enough for my phone to know. The more you know!

Anyway, this is what I'm doing. The debate of whether or not this blog should be a thing raged in my head for a couple of weeks and I decided in favor of it. I set my iTunes library to shuffle, opened Microsoft Word, and started to type. I'm actually doing this.

I’m writing the first passage of my 2013 summer blog entitled “True DAT.”

 Honestly, I don't care if anyone reads this. In a way, this blog is for me. I'm writing this because I would like a lovely little reminder of what I was thinking about this summer. It’s always nice to think back to how ridiculous your mind was back in the day. It also might be nice for others to read in the future. You never know when you’ll type something deep that will impact someone.

Don't get me wrong " I'm not looking to be overly deep or analytic, although I’m making the early prediction that this will happen often. I'm not typing these words to impress anyone in particular, although if a reader or two learned something about why I act the way I do sometimes, that would be nice. And, under no circumstances, am I here to give solid scientifically-backed advice about things that go on every day. But if I helped someone somewhere along the way, that wouldn't be so bad either.

Obviously, I won't be helping anyone on the subject of grammar. My grammar and sentence structures (the latter in particular) will be atrocious. I guess I'm not here to be grammatically correct.

I’m here to type some words that reflect some of the thoughts I was thinking during this summer.

And here you are, reading this passage. I can only wonder how bored you must be to want to read my blog.

Details, details. I’m not here to speculate upon what my readers think. (That’s what the comments section is for.)

However, I’m setting ground rules. Anyone who has heard of or has read my previous blog should understand why I’m setting ground rules.

This might come up later as a subject of why mistakes can be the worst and best things ever. (I’m already coming up with ideas? This might be a blog filled with lots of passages. Get ready, I guess?)

All right, ground rules (in no particular order, just what I think of first, which is actually a particular order now that I think about it, but I digress):

1. Try not to cuss. If I do, inform the general public of the existence of these words in my blog.

2. I believe the readers would prefer appropriate material. I’ll try and stay away from subjects that are unsettling.

I don't like that word in this context; I can't think of another one, though. I feel as if you will read the word “unsettling” and think of a definition different than the one I want to convey. Some of the subjects I choose might be unsettling in your sense of the word. I guess all I can do about that is apologize in advance.

3. I'm not going to talk bad about people. The two previous rules (and the ones following) might be broken now and then, but this one will not.

I will not talk negatively about other human beings. Period.

I might criticize ideas, scenarios, or words these people might have said, but I will NOT make a judgment on who they are as people in a negative light. To my core, I believe that everyone on this planet has at least one good moral fiber in his/her being (yeah, I understand this can be debated, and I might lose that debate, but right now, I believe this is true. Bring up Hitler, and you just fulfilled Godwin’s Law, so good job!). I am in no position to tell you the bad qualities of a person. The good qualities, sure, but the bad qualities? I played with that fire in high school and it brought nothing but frustration, shame, and pain for me. So no, I will not talk bad about the character of a person within this blog.

Which brings me to…

4. I’m going to try to be pretty positive in these passages. Sure, I'm probably going to break this rule quite a bit. I would really like to remind future me that there is a possible chance that people will read this. If I’m depressing all the time, I could worry people. I could come off as whiny or ungrateful. I’ll attempt to keep the posts pretty positive.

I can't promise funny passages, though. I don't think I'm that funny; I believe I have lucky moments sometimes. Above all, I don't think my writing is funny. (I actually think my writing tends to be dark and borderline wry, but this isn't the point I'm trying to make.) Sorry, dear reader(s); I can only promise you something that is honest and what I consider the truth.

5. I'll write when I please. I will have no deadlines, no quotas, and no minimums. I think this is good to set in place because my deep and thoughtful passages might only amount to a handful. (At the same time, I might have a lot to say this summer). Nonetheless, I can’t be deep and thoughtful all of the time. It’s a sad fact of life.

6. Input from the general public is welcomed and appreciated. If you like it, tell me. If you don't like it, tell me. If you find a spelling error, PLEASE tell me. If you have a question you would like me to answer, let me know! I would love to actually write about questions that people want to know the answers to. Granted, I am in no position to give advice or to successfully answer your questions, but that doesn't mean I won't try.

Seriously, if you have a question, ask me, and I will answer it.

7. I would like to discourage the future me from editing passages. If there is a spelling error or a major (read: really major) grammatical error, then by all means, please go and correct said error. If this is because of the content, I really think the words should speak for themselves, NOT the hindsight. They say that hindsight is 20/20, and I agree with this, but the truth can also be considered 20/20 in ways I can't even see sometimes. Therefore, I think editing content in or out of a passage should be discouraged.

...

Okay, that’s all I can think of. Following rule #7, I probably won't add any other rules.

I'm running out of things to say, so I guess I'll wrap it up.

Thanks for reading! You, good sir or lady, are one more person I thought wouldn't read this. I don't include myself because I'm sure I'll be reading these things a lot. Not because I like to read my own work, but because I'll be frantically searching for the sentences that doesn't make sense.

When I speak, I have a tendency to not make sense. This is the way the world works. Because I type how I speak, my sentences tend to be longer and are probably considered run-on. Get ready for this.

I’m sure the future version of me will be slightly embarrassed that I did something like this. I'm speaking directly to my future self now: This is not nearly as embarrassing as it could be. I guess all I’ll say to you is be grateful this isn't something worse.

In my slight game plan for this, the next thing will probably be an introduction of some sort. The people reading this will probably already know me, but I better keep all my bases covered.

I'm sure I'll find a coherent ending of some sort (can you tell I'm trying to not end this awkwardly? Can you also tell it’s failing miserably?) but for right now, I'll say the following:

Let me know if there is something you would like me to answer. It could be about me, the world I live in, the things I surround myself with, previous passages in this blog, my word choice, politics, music, animals, the official animal of Scotland, the sky, or window panes. I don't really care what you ask me.

This is me ending my first passage. Let’s hope for the best.

 

Reviews

[David W Moore III]

I like the casual tone. And as for grammar, you don't seem to be having issues with that yet (to your credit!)