Well, here we go again kids. I’m attempting another blog. The goal this time around is to focus more on the writing. The two attempts just prior to this one seem to have left me struggling with code and website building. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing with code and building websites. But I found it very distracting. I’d sit down to write an entry and end up spending four hours on a small, technical detail and never get around to doing any actual writing. So, although it feels a little bit like taking the easy way out, I’m going to let Blogger do all the work and concentrate on writing down the stories that keep happening to me. I hope you enjoy it.
If you know who I am in real life you can skip the rest of this post as it’s just an introduction. If you’re new, hey, how are you? There’s coffee ’round back…
By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, this is the fourth website that’s been attempted by yours truly.
The first version, Autoneuroticism, was before blogging software had become so prevalant, way back in 2000, when I first came to Japan. It was all hand coded HTML and was a bit of fun, containing stories of my experiences in that first six months. It died a fiery death when my Sony Vaio suffered a complete system crash with all data deemed irrecoverable.
Number two was the first one hosted by Blogger. Absolutely nothing bad happened to that site. The software was always well-behaved and the interface absolutely easy to work with. It’s just that I’m arrogant and decided I could do better on my own.
Version three, also dubbed Somedays, was hosted on my own website, under a different domain name and built with Moveable Type. Great software, but a little difficult for the novice user to learn and use. However, I got the hang of it was doing fairly well at keeping it up to date and putting up lots of photos and things until I found, quite by accident that several of my photos were appearing on other websites with people other than me taking credit for them. Once I got that sorted out I put the website on hiatus until I could learn photo-editing software well enough to do digital watermarks etc. That website is still on hiatus.
Blog number four, Autoneuroticism v2.0 never even had a chance. I installed the blog software, Word Press this time, and managed to never write a single entry. I kept putting off getting the site set up so that I could sit down to write and blah blah blah, as I said above, I’m now done with all that and letting someone else do all the work.
So, I can hear you ask, that’s great and all, but who the hell are you?
Well, I’m The Mighty Toad. Please forgive the idiotic nickname, it’s been around in various forms for a long time. I’m an American, living in Japan, teaching English.
I work for one of the major language schools and try to keep myself aware of it’s strengths and shortcomings equally; I live in a city you’ve never heard of.
I voted for Kerry, mainly ’cause I thought that voting for Nader, like I wanted to would have been a wasted vote. Shows what I know. Having said that, I generally avoid politics unless I know you. Or am bigger than you.
I’ve got a strong interest in Japan, surprise surprise, and try to do a lot of writing, mainly for friends and family about what I see and do and am seen to do and by who and what and when and where and, occasionally, very occasionally, I even manage to include a few whys.
I don’t drink all that often anymore, but I’ve recently developed my fondness for Shochu into a minor art form. I expect that I’ll be exhibiting far too often.
I’m too old to be an angry young man, but not old enough to be a curmudgeon and I resent both.
That should be enough about me and my blog to get us all started.
Cheers,
