Welcome

Welcome to my online journal. For the next couple of weeks I will be trying to accomplish two goals. One, I need to work out the kinks and become comfortable using the site before I leave for India and Pakistan. Two, I want to begin adding comments and photos related to the preparation for the trip.

Forgive me if in the beginning my entries seem a bit disjointed– hopefully that will not last long. I need to practice adding text, photos and audio files (although I am not sure if Bogger.com supports audio file). With luck by the time I leave on January 23, I will have mastered the technology of the blog.

From here on out I will make an effort to use ‘journal’ instead of ‘blog.’ Blog is an ugly depressing word – despite its popularity. I can not understand why people aren’t running away from it with their ears covered. I recently learned that ‘blog’ is a shorten from of ‘weblog’ – logical, but for me blog, bogger, blogging, blog monitors, news blogs, the obnoxious list goes on endlessly, are all perversions of the language. But, being the techno nerd that I am, I love the idea of online journals, personal podcasts, virtual galleries, etc, etc.

Marilyn, whom for the record is my wife, has not to my knowledge taken a position on the terminology, she does, however, hold most of the technology of personal communication in contempt. Since I do not share nor understand her views, it would be unfair to attempt an explanation of her beliefs. However, I believe that privacy and social alienation are the core concepts of her argument.

The reason I have brought up my wife views is that one of the major reason I am creating this online journal is for Marilyn. I wanted to have a way to share my trip with her while I was experiencing it. Of course, I also wanted to learn how to do it, have a means of writing regularly - sort of ‘old man casting.’