Blog # 114,272,998 debuts

Greetings all. "All"?! How can "all" apply to a new blog? My readership is exactly one . . . more like .64 if I am caffeine deprived.

I'll be bold and lead the introductions. My name is James. I live in Northern New Jersey. I have lived in this area all of my life, starting with six years in the Bronx, and with a four-year detour for college in Boston. I am a graphic designer, primarily in the field of newsletter typsetting. (Stalkers, you now have some facts, so pick a clean wall and an intact crayon and begin scrawling.)

I have had an on-again, off-again relationship with writing. This blog is an attempt to flick that switch to "on." I have taken writing classes in school and with Gotham Writers' Workshop, and I gave 100 Words a try, but I haven't developed the consistent habit. When I read over the work I created via these methods, though, I feel satisfied with it, and I always feel like ought to return to writing more regularly, to exercise the muscles that I let degenerate for long lapses. Despite encouragement and enjoyment on the part of instructors and friends, though, I haven't given myself the proper time to develop, practice, and write past the junk and begin laying down clear prose.

I am starting small. I am new to HTML, much less blogging, so I am wading in tentatively. The most important thing is to get my ass down in a seat and keep writing. I'm sure this will expand to quoting others, links, even photos, but let's learn to crawl before we walk, or perhaps even undulate before we crawl. More details about me, my likes and dislikes, inspirations and anathemas, as time crawls (or undulates) along. Anything to fuel the writing fire, because that is what I need to let it do: smolder, burn, even flare out of control.

I plan to enable comments, where I hope the waters will be tempting, frothy, occasionally even piping, but not scalding. To quote one of my poker/boardgaming pals, "Let's all be friends now!"

All right. It's damned late and I am ready for sleep. As that eminent English protoblogger Samuel Pepys used to sign off, "And so to bed."