Why This Blog?0

2014-01-15: Every time I think I’ve lost the energy, Republicans do something new to fuel my outrage. Outrage keeps this blog alive.

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Two reasons, I reckon:

I was inspired by Steve Griffin, who has since taken down his site, who told me how he was running his website out of his home, using Linux and WordPress.

I already had a Linux box–I set it up with a long term goal of using it as a file server, but mostly just for fun.

I had already had a website on AOL for almost 10 years; one of the things keeping me from severing my connection with AOL was the labor of moving the website. Other than that, I had pretty much stopped using AOL for anything other than an email address and the AP wire. What I learned from Steve pushed me to bring my website home (and then cancel AOL–that took a month of changing email addresses and notifying friends and stuff like that there; it was like moving out of a house I had lived in for a long time).

And then add this blog, following Steve’s lead, using WordPress. Its feature set was the most attractive of all the software packages I looked at.

So reason one is, I enjoy making things work on computers.

Reason two is this: My mother used to tell me that I didn’t start talking until I was almost three. In fact, my parents were worried enough to take me to the doctor. He counseled patience. I eventually started. And my mother told me it seemed then like I would never stop.

I am quite willing to talk away, even if no one’s listening.

And I will talk about almost anything, but I am especially interested in history, sociology, and the weird quirks of day-to-day human behavior.

Update, 2013-01-12:

This website is now hosted on a commercial hosting service which has served me well.

This website runs on

WordPress 1.5