Been tagged by Greg, an apparent first-time internet-meme taggee. Can't imagine how I've missed tagging him in the past.

Here's the deal, fairly straightforward. List five reasons why I blog.:

Self-indulgent blather

Yes, there it is: blogging is, at least in part, an exercise in narcissism. Doesn't mean I don't have anything worthwhile to share,¹ but there is that basic human need to be heard that is a key motivation.

Keeping in touch

Almost all of my family and friends are within a day's drive, but most are not exactly around the corner, either. A blog is a good (not perfect) way to keep everyone up to speed on what's going on in our lives especially the big stuff.

Information-sharing

There are, perhaps surprisingly, some things that I discover or learn that may be worth sharing with others. You know, kind of as a community service.

Writing practice

I maintain an interest in writing---perhaps not good writing according to some standards---but I do enjoy the discipline of translating thought to words.

Connecting with others

In those dark and benighted days before the internet, the only way to foster a non-face-to-face relationship through the medium of writing was to have a pen pal. Through my blog and the blogs of others, I have had dozens, if not hundreds, of conversations about topics that hold a deep interest to me. Fleeting as some of these conversations may have been, I have actually met a couple of these people in the flesh (Greg is one) and the relationships seem somehow richer and more meaningful because of---rather than in spite of---the 'impersonal' medium in which we initially met.

That last one is perhaps the most exciting to me. Despite our reputation as pajama wearing navel-gazers, most bloggers who are at least semi-serious have stories of making a connection, of finding kindred spirits and collaborators, of enriching the lives of others as well as their own. All through blogging.

Maybe it's me, but did those answers seem too formulaic to you? Let's tag Cynthia and Stephen. I'll bet they can come up with something different.

Posted by ksmoker at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (85)

Okay, I'm flattered to have been tagged by Stephen, so here goes. The deal is to list five things that other people don't know about me, then to tag 5 other people to do the same.

1. The two houses that I grew up in no longer exist. The first house was literally blown away by a tornado in 2003. The second, in which I lived from age 10 to high school graduation, was rendered structurally unsound by the same storm and had to be torn down.
2. I saw Anna Kournikova play in her first US Open at the age of 15. I was sitting too high in the stands for that number to have had any felonious associations for me.
3. I have discharged firearms in anger. I used to hunt and kill groundhogs. I also used to hunt deer, although I never actually shot at one.
4. When I was around twelve years old, my family's dairy farm was featured in some agricultural periodical, maybe Pennsylvania Farmer or Lancaster Farming. The reporter asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I gave him the answer he wanted to hear. Not too much later, I decided that I wanted to be an astrophysicist instead.¹
5. Many people know this already, but just to be sure that the news is out: we are in the process of adopting our second child from China. Our new son, whom we will call Christopher, is two. We hope that he will be with us by late Spring 2007.

Oh, 5 people is too many... Let's just tag Derek, Ted, and Jane. Anyone else who wants to jump on the bandwagon, feel free.

Posted by ksmoker at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (252)