General thoughts on Blogs, Upcoming Posts & Stuff

It's a beautiful Saturday here in West Hartford. Moderate temperatures of about 83 degrees and sunny which is just the way we like it. So I'm sitting here on the sun porch while one daughter naps in her pack n play to the sound of Mozart, and the other plays in front of me with her "kitchen". I think she makes better coffee with her play set than I do.

Last night, after putting the youngsters down, I opted to have a few Weissbiers and thought about some of the posts I'd like to put together on a variety of topics. As you've seen, I either post on something current, or some news items that warrants opinion, or just some random thoughts that come to mind. After surveying a number of blogs, I find that its pretty much the same story everywhere - although I think the blogs that do best do so because they are narrowly focused on a single topic - like fishing reports, raising a young child, or cooking. Chances are that these sites are going to attract all kinds of traffic based on a Google search on a certain topic or comfortable and consistent constituency.

For my part, I've toyed with creating a few other blogs on specific areas of interest, but I really think that these blogs would require far greater attention, more maintenance, and the call for regular content is more demanding by readers. Given the amount of time and energy that I lack by the time I get around to this blog, I think I will stick with the blog style I currently have.

I appreciate the loyal readership by close friends, and the occasional repeat visitors. I'm surprised at how often I get requests for counter-discussion and posts. Sadly, many are poorly written and often serve as an attempt to publish their own agenda - these posts are often rejected. This blog is about my views on things, and is not a public forum to exchange thoughts and debate. West Hartford Blog, where I often post, is loosely moderated and the forum often turns into a bloody mess. But it would be a full time job to try and moderate that much traffic, particularly when the topics tend to be political hot-button issues. So for my sanity, I am better off not getting involved in setting up that type of site - too much work, and what is done is under-appreciated.

While, I plan to continue my posting here on public issues here and there. I will be dedicating some time in between ramblings on things - blog filler - such as UFOs, monsters in the sea, ghosts, etc that have people scratching their heads, to more sutle discussions on Beer, Family Life, Culture, Fishing, and other matters of interest.

For now, this serves its purpose. I practice my writing skills (which have diminished since the advent of email which requires short, half-baked, poorly spelled thoughts), a retreat and hobby, and a chance to tell the world what I think.

One other thing that is worth mentioning.... is to respond to the question of why I don't include my real name on the posts. I can tell you that I would if I could. And I think that "I" as a person deserve credit for my thoughts and writings, original or not. But, unfortunately, we live in a world where people do not respect the opinion of others. And some take their dissension too far - as in the case recently where brave citizens (who I disagree with) exercising their public right and duty, took to the podium at a West Hartford Town forum on the budget, and for their efforts, received nasty cartoons in their home mailboxes.

So this is what its come to. I don't know who created these cartoons. It very well could have been someone on the pro-tax increase side trying to make some hay by taking the spotlight off the Council's inability to manage the budget and stirring things up by making it look like it was someone on the tax reduction side.

But notwithstanding, its these kinds of sick people, who make us all use screennames, and pseudonyms to vet our opinions. Some call us cowards. But I call us bright folks protecting our families and homes. It's the sickos you have to be worried about, not the average tax paying, normal working folk.