Introduction

Hello World!

It seems like a fitting way to open my blog with that line.  Back in high school, that was the first thing we were taught in programming class.  After Day One of computer programming, I could press the F5 key and QBasic would dazzle my eyes with something like this:

Awesome, right?

I feel similarly right now as look at this blank screen and think about how to share who I am and what my goals are for this blog.  Just to keep things simple and quicker for this first post, I am going to copy/paste and answer the Day One questions from the Zero to Hero blog prompt-challenge thing.

• Why are you blogging, rather than keeping a personal journal?

I am not, and have never been, the kind of person to keep a journal.  Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy the act of writing, but I just haven’t ever done it for its own sake.  I’d write a term paper or research project for school, but to write regularly for myself?  Nah.

Once, when I was about 12 years old, my grandma gave me a small, spiral bound notebook.  More of a stenographer’s pad really.  She told me that if I wrote down every transaction I made for a month (Action Figure…………$4.99, for example), that she would give me something special.  I think she wanted to teach me something about managing money…every twelve year old’s dream.  I did it for about two days and then tossed it aside.  That’s definitely not the kind of content I plan to include in this blog (my broken finances as an adult), but I think that lets you know how serious I am about commitment when it comes to documenting anything regularly.

• What topics do you think you’ll write about?

I plan to write about my hobbies, specifically learning to sing in the barbershop quartet style.  Yes, people still do it – I promise!  I also love to play computer games (all the time) and doodle (from time to time).  Additionally, I’m a father of three monstrous children, so I’m certain I’ll write about them occasionally but that is not my intended focus for this blog.

• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?

Ideally, I’d love to meet four kinds of folks:

1. People who actively record themselves at home, vocal or music.
2. Anyone who likes to listen to music.
3. People who want to kick back and play computer games on Steam.
4. People that push themselves to be creative regularly (blog, music, art, anything!)

• If you blog successfully throughout 2014, what would you hope to have accomplished?

After blogging this year, I hope that I will have developed as a singer and at learning recording techniques.  I would also be thrilled to have met new people online and learned about blogging in general.  *Bonus stretch-goal*  If someone learns anything about the quickly vanishing art of barbershop quartet singing, that  would be amazing.

Whew, first post complete.  Thanks for reading!