A mind lost to the æther

Everyone's first blog post is always something to the effect of "oh, I've been toying around starting a blog for some time" or "I never thought I'd write a public blog" or some musing of the like; I'm for all intent and purpose the opposite. I just sat down today and started one up. Being that I'm in the process of writing a book anyway, I concede that I'm not sure how this fits into my master plan for my literary career but for the sake of argument let's call it a tool with which to whittle my prose. It certainly can't hurt to have, and while some of the content may bleed to and from here and my printed work upon it's eventual release, I can only hope it won't deter sales.

That being said, here's what I'm about. I live in Raleigh. I have trouble fixating on the now; I'm very cognizant of decisions I make today effecting what choices I'll have tomorrow (in perpetuity). Equally as deadly, I draw a lot from human history and my personal past when I'm over-planning what I do. Basically it's difficult for me to live in the present, but it gives me what I'd call a unique perspective on reality. I'm in a constant tiff with myself about being chaotic or exercising logic. Believe me, this is not to say I can't be spontaneous. I'm actually pretty good at spooning out a big helping of random when the mood strikes; kind of like today with the blog.

Oh, and I over-punctuate. I use parens and semicolons and hyphens and words you may not have seen since you cursed over them in SAT Prep. Sorry, it's how I am.

It should be noted that while I love the minutiae of the past, current events are still a big part of my life and I like gossip. It'll be interesting to see what makes its way in here because, in all honesty, it should be pretty random.

Did you know that today in 1862, Admiral David Farragut took New Orleans in the US Civil War? Generally, being Southern, I side with the Confederacy but you have to give props to a guy who lashed himself to his ship and shouted "DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL SPEED AHEAD!" when attacking the Confederate blockade defending Mobile Bay. He spent 60 years in the navy and had balls of steel. For his troubles, he has named after him (among other things) a school in Boston and Chicago, cities in Iowa and Tennessee, a US Navy destroyer class, and two Metro stations and a public square in DC.

an excerpt from "A Psalm of Life" - H. W. Longfellow

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

Full speed ahead, chaps.