What do you write when you have no readers?

I want to build a little time capsule here. Later, once this blog has actually become whatever it's going to become, I can come back and see whether it became what I thought it would become, and have myself a little chuckle about ain't-life-strange and wasn't-I-funny-back-then. And then I can rewrite this post to say what I'll think it should have said when I originally wrote it, back when I thought there were actually weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and Congress would do anything I wanted.

See, there I go again. Everything's a political allegory. One thing I want to accomplish here is to channel my frustration with this Bush guy and his "administration," to sort of focus my anger (and, lately, glee at the disintegration of Bush Inc.) and stop ranting at the dinner table and scaring my daughter. ("You angry, da-da?") Blogging seems to be the way most people do this lately, so I'll give it a shot.

The other thing I'm aiming for is to use the other parts of my brain - the ones I don't use on a daily basis. I write code for a living, which I love - I feel like I was born to do it. I also happen to feel that writing code is a very creative, almost artistic, activity. Perhaps that's a fantasy or a conceit, but it's one that I think a lot of other developers feel as well. Certainly the pride one feels for good code, the shame for bad, and the compulsion to endlessly tinker and improve, seem artistic to me. But I've felt lately that I should pursue more "traditional" creative activities - writing, photography, music, graphic design - just in case I'm kidding myself about programming and my right hemisphere is turning to mush in my head. I'm a liberal arts guy - I have a Psychology degree, yet here I am - so I've always felt that every activity you pursue informs and enhances the others. So again, the solution is clear: start a blog.

Of course, I do already have a blog, but I've used it to post code snippets and various other IT and CompSci tweakery, so it's hardly the same thing - plus I feel it's somehow inappropriate to use the same blog for politics and random musings on life and the world. That blog is for what I do. This blog is for what I think. Most people who care about the one won't care about the other. So: new blog.

There, that about sums it up. I've got the creative juices flowing now, and I've stopped staring at a blinky cursor for minutes on end. Please ignore this post if you choose - like pancakes, the first one rarely comes out right.