Why Start My Own Blog?

*3/30/2010 - I updated this post with the photo above so the URL to this photo can be used for other matters. That is all.

*11/18/2006 - I updated this post with the above picture so I could post it onto my profile. That is all.

In the year of our Lord, 1990, I turned 18 years old. My great aunt (of all people) sent me a blank journal as my birthday present. My first thought was, "I thought only girls keep diaries."

When I started college a few months later, I had a change of heart, as I began to think that keeping a journal might be a good way to keep a record of what looked to be some pretty interesting times. My first journal entry was made on October 3, 1990, and before I knew it, I had filled up the journal. I went to a bookstore and bought another one, and then another one, and so on. I kept a journal all the way to April 2001, when I got married. I don't know exactly why I stopped; too busy? life too chaotic? writing by hand too laborious? Who knows? As this decade continued though, I was introduced to the Blogosphere. So here I am. This blog will not be like my journals of old (Thank God!). You will not be subjected to the immature and meaningless material I used to write, such as boasting about intimate encounters with the female of the specie (or lamenting the lack thereof), track meet results, and the occasional current event. I like to think that I have matured and become just bit more educated in the ensuing 15 years since I began putting my thoughts to paper... or to the screen now. I will still speak of my personal and professional life, but I will also add a heavy dose of political analysis, and my thoughts about the current state of our atrocious educational system. I teach middle school, so I have the authority to speak of this subject.

An obvious question one might have is, "Why did you name your blog 'Buckhorn Road'?" Buckhorn Road is the street on which I grew up. It is where I spent my formative years. In the house on Buckhorn Road, I developed the beliefs, feelings, ways of thinking, and thought processes that helped to shape the person I am today. Have I had other experiences in my life that also shaped me long after I left Buckhorn Road? Yes, of course. But my journey began on Buckhorn Road, and that journey has taken me to where I am today. I write this blog without any expectation that it will be read by anyone. There are literally millions of blogs out there, many of them with daily readerships that run into the thousands, and maybe even millions. I don't have the time or the intellect to run a blog like Powerline, Instapundit, or Daily Kos (well, in the case of Kos, I acknowledge time, but no intellect); that is not my intention either. This blog is more for me to collect and organize my thoughts than anything else. I don't even know how often I will be able to post something, as I keep a rather full schedule. However, if some random person gets something out of reading my musings, then that is just an added bonus.

Good Day to You, Sir.