Third Time the Charm?

This is my third attempt at a blog in less than a year, after several years of simply refusing to be drawn into what I saw as a self-indulgent, narcissistic outpouring from the Age of New Media. But with the rapid demise of newspapers from around the world, and the apparent ascendancy of e-media of all types, such thinking is obviously hazardous to one's (career) health.

Both blogs failed, I think, because I tried to be too thematic: the first, an attempt to drive Internet traffic to my work Web site, The Antarctic Sun; the second, a memoir about my attempt to go a whole year without buying anything made in China. The former seemed too much like work, and the latter, while an interesting experiment, didn't provide much fodder since I'm not a very good consumer of new products. Of course, one must post more than twice a month for any blog to work ...

This latest attempt offers freedom for random ramblings (the "musings") and an arena for griping (the "rumblings) on just about any subject, though my proclivities tend toward the cultural and political, the environment and entertainment, entropy and epicurean delights. I've come to realize that blogs, Twitter, Facebook, et. al., aren't simply for inflating the ego -- though plenty of that sort of plastic pollution abounds (by "plastic pollution" I mean the worthless crap that circulates around the virtual and real world, like the Pacific Ocean gyre that contains a Texas-sized trash heap). Instead, many of these tools seem to represent a new way to converse in a world grown both smaller yet more fragmented.

Hopefully, I can add something useful to the conversation.