Well, I'm getting off my butt and putting this weblog together. My friends and I debate with some regularity via e-mail usually by utilizing the borderline tactless mechanism known as "reply-to-all." Well, maybe this weblog can be a repository for our little debates and one that will be strictly on a "want to know" basis.
I'll apologize right off the bat on the chance that somebody reads this who is friend of mine that does not get all the "inside ball" that may come up between me and the commenters who are likely other friends of mine. Speaking of those friends I may get in heated discussions with, if you have something lengthy to say, or something you'd like to post to START off a conversation (you know who you are), then simply e-mail it to me and I'll post it with a lead-in something like "My Friend Steak sent me this article and has some comments."
And if someone reads this whose actually a complete stranger, well welcome to the site and don't spill anything on the carpet.
When I have this thing in satisfactory condition, I'll send out a link to pretty much everyone I know, including family so that they can see what that nice boy, Russell, is doing with himself.
My ground rules for comments to the various things I post are simple:
Keep the salty language to a minimum, but don't be a Puritan or anything. Sometimes, a particular 4-letter word really does convey the proper tone. In general, use asterisks to get across the word you want to say while keeping the site semi clean so that it doesn't get blocked from any parental software or corporate proxies. Is that f***** clear?
My Posts will vary widely in length, content, seriousness, and taste. Within reason, try to make comments that match the tone of the posts.
When getting in the ring to join a heated debate, please offer something of value, and since this is the web, put links to articles and websites that illustrate or add to your points. I love to debate. It's good exercise for the brain. Hopefully, you'll share that opinion and enjoy this exercise as much as I do.
Other General Site Notes:
This may be a temporary location. I've registered www.chickenwhisperer.com and I have a professional business-class webhosting account already. When I get some spare time (probably in May when I start my sabatical) I'll put together a little bit more indepth website and host it with my webhost, but that will require building from scratch and more creativity than I can muster right now (not to mention that it'll require some coding. Ugh). Right now, Typepad.com will work fine.
Is this a vanity project? Damn right. I like to talk. I like to write. I like people to listen. But, I also like the give and take that comes with debating everything from the state of the Atlanta Braves to the state of the macro-economy.
I did pretty good in school. But, I hated English class. I have read perhaps 30 books front to back in my entire life. (not including all those Dr. Seuss books I read back in 1st grade). But, I have read literally volumes of magazines, newspapers, e-zines, weblogs and what have you. So, I'm well read, but not in a literary book smart sense. My grammar will probably suck. My spelling almost certainly will too. Me and run-on sentences get along real well. I know how to use a spellchecker, but that will require copying my stuff into Word and back into this little tool that Typepad uses. I will when I'm motivated. Other times I won't. It's my site; I can mispell if I want to.
Lastly, I'll post what's known as a blogroll on the left as soon as I can. This will be regular links I enjoy visiting, many of who will be many of the webloggers who have really opened up the internet to me as a news resource of near limitless depth. Please, keep an eye for those and check them out as they will have far more interesting things to say than almost anything you'll read here.
Enjoy!
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