Opening Act

Well, well, well, look who has their own blog...I can't decide if this makes me cool or a nerd, and I wonder if there's really any difference between the two at this point in human history. I'm leaning towards me being a nerd, and I'm okay with that.

If you're reading this you probably know why I would choose to start a blog now, but in case you don't, here's why: in early November I left Provo, Utah, to start a 4-plus month work assignment in New York City, and I figured a few people would be interested in reading about all of the "adventures" I'm having out here (including the experience that inspired my blog's title, which I'll post about soon). Plus I have no TV in my apartment, so I have a lot more extra time than I'm used to.

Here are some things you can expect to find on my blog:

Long, rambling posts. Despite the excellent journalistic training I received at BYU, when I write I tend to be quite wordy. I'm constantly using parentheses, ellipses and semi-colons, which results in a lot of run-on sentences; however, I think my style is still very reader-friendly.

Correct spelling and grammar. I'm the kind of guy who uses proper capitalization and spells words out completely in text messages and while IMing, and I will definitely be meticulous with my blog posts. Plus, I'm one of the top spellers in all of Putnam County (a fun story for another upcoming post), so you should definitely ridicule me in the comments if you notice any mistakes.

Virtually no emoticons. I just don't like them. Which means that you may have to guess from time to time if I'm being sarcastic or exaggerating or not. Just keep in mind that I rarely take things seriously. A related point...

Constant attempts at humor. One of the reasons my posts will be so long is because when I write, I'm constantly trying to make jokes (even more than I do in conversations). Which, of course, means that sometimes the jokes don't work. For example, since I'm in New York, my original title for this post was "Ground Zero". If I ever make a joke that not only bombs but offends, call me on it, and I'll apologize and try not to repeat the mistake. To make a baseball analogy (because I know EVERYONE loves baseball analogies): when you swing for the fences as often as I do, you're bound to strike out sometimes, but hopefully my blog will be more Cecil Fielder than Rob Deer.

Random links. Like the one above, or sometimes much more random, like this one.

References that you don't get. This won't be intentional, but with blog visitors theoretically coming from my various social circles (family, current ward, past wards, work, Laugh Out Loud, etc.), plus the people that like to peruse random blogs, I'll probably make comments from time to time about things that some of you won't know anything about. Plus, just like in real conversations, I'll probably drop in frequent "Simpsons" references, and since I'm in New York, lots of references to Seinfeld or other NYC-based TV shows and movies as well. (I think about 90% of TV shows take place in New York or Wisconsin. Seriously--why are there so many sitcoms set in Wisconsin?)

Posts that are theme-based, rather than a daily journal entry. This is mainly because I've already been here for almost 2 months, and I don't see myself going back and writing about each day individually (although that was the original plan, and I have several pages of notes that I took each day while I procrastinated getting this blog up and running). Certain big events will still get the individual post treatment, but you (probably) won't see a lot of entries on what I had for lunch that day. I think it will actually be more entertaining this way. I doubt that I will ever do more than one post on the same day, but hopefully I'll be blogging at least 4 or 5 times each week, so if you enjoy my writing, check back often.

Responses to comments. If you comment on my posts, expect me to respond either with a comment of my own, a full post if warranted, or an e-mail or phone call if the response needs to be more personal. I definitely appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my blog and comment on it (I'm assuming/hoping there will be at least a few).

Few pictures. I rarely take any. If there's anything you'd like to see a picture of, let me know and I'll do my best.

Frequent reminders about my spare bedroom. Although I've made some friends out here and am, overall, having a lot of fun, one of the reasons I'm blogging is to keep in touch with the people back home that I miss being around. I have a 2-bedroom apartment here, so if you want to come hang out with me here, let me know when you're coming and I can almost certainly put you up.

And some of you thought I was kidding about the long-winded thing! I think that's all for now. Happy New Year everybody!