Bedrock.

A note on the blog url: in 2009 a coworker asked what he could do to win my friendship and I answered honestly - he could give me a pony.  Unfortunately, he did not procure an actual horse for my amusement, but instead he bought a toy zebra and laboriously covered its black stripes with whiteout.  I guess the effort won me over.  He was christened "Cubicle Pony" and he became our unofficial mascot.  Although the pony itself has moved on down the road, that gentleman is now one of my best friends in the world.  This is just another example of me being blessed with better friends than I generally deserve.

I had a blog once.  Okay.  I've had about five blogs once, and in some cases, little more than once.  I'm a flake. I'm impetuous.  I'm lazy.  I have high expectations.  Really, I'm kind of an ass.  These qualities are not beneficial to sticking with something, especially something that requires work and discipline, something like a blog.  But here I am again trying to flex my long-atrophying writing muscles.

I enjoy writing, I really do. One doesn't succeed (wildly, dare I say) in six years of history coursework without being able turn a phrase.  In retrospect I was much better at that part than the research, inquiry, and analysis that truly make up the craft. Regardless, I think it's fear that has kept me away - fear of the rust, fear that I really don't have anything to say, and fear that I don't have the ability I'd like to think I do.

I need to say that although I try to use punctuation, there are few things I hate more in this world. I use it as I see fit and I make no pretense that I'm using it correctly.  In my dreams I'd write like a slightly more whimsical Cormac McCarthy; short, direct, hurtling ever forward.  So before we begin let me say that I'll pause when I want to pause, I'll continue when I want to continue, and at all times I will hurtle.  Oh, I will hurtle.

My goal with this internet oasis is to flex my compositional (probably not a word) muscles and take you down the rabbit hole with me.  This fall I hope to craft at least one post a week while traveling middle America, writing as I spread my own brand of hate and discontent, my unique bouquet of giggles and grins, all over Northeast Missouri and central Illinois.  Buy the ticket, take the ride.