To whomever is out there ... welcome

Well ... here we are.

Sorry. I'm not exactly sure how to start this thing off. I guess I'm still skeptical about the whole blog-as-entertainment concept. I've been resistant to the idea of getting involved with a blog ever since I first heard of people creating them. I kept thinking, "why would anyone want to spend their time reading some stranger's online blather about things that, frankly, aren't particularly unique, exciting or interesting? Don't people have better things to do with their time? And the people who write these blogs - do they think they're special or something?"

I still harbor these doubts. But within the last two days, I've had two good friends of mine from out of state tell me that I should consider starting a blog to help keep them abreast of what I'm up to. And, of course, what's new with my wife and two boys.

So, I've thrown apprehension to the wind and have started this blog. This is it. "Black Sox Nation," I call it. Why that name? Well, if you know me well enough, you know that I am a fantasy sports nut - especially with baseball. For almost every year that I've had a team, that team has been named the "Kodiak Black Sox." The Kodiak part isn't real important to explain here, and Nation was added to be in the same vein as "Red Sox Nation." If you don't know what THAT means, you need to stop right now and look it up. Shame.

But before we go too far along on this journey together, we need to come to an agreement on some things, to allay these concerns I still have about blogging:

(1) If you're here, and you're spending your time reading this, thank you. I'm very flattered that you are here reading my stories. I know your time is valuable, so I promise to make my stories as unique, exciting, and interesting as the law will allow.

(2) I don't think that I'm special because I have a blog. I'm not doing it to gain popularity or notoriety. I'm not interested in being famous. I don't have any delusions about this thing being published as a best selling novel someday. It's not for that. It's for keeping in touch. It's for sharing. And it's for fun.

(3) When writing this blog stops being fun for me and becomes more of a chore, you can rest assured that I will stop writing it and move on to something else. I'm sure there are some folks who use their old TRS-80s every day because they love that tiny monochromatic screen, and get a real rush from running their fingertips across the black, flat keys designed by the great minds at Radio Shack. Creepy? You bet. But it's someone's idea of fun.

I guess that's it for now. I'll try and write some more tomorrow. There's a lot going on in my life right now - lots of things in transition at the moment. There's a lot to catch you up on, but I'll leave that for future posts. In the meantime, take care.

Maybe we'll learn something about this medium and about each other.

Good night,
Charlie =)