I am back to save the universe

Is there anything more breathtaking than those first few chords at the beginning of "OK Computer"?

Right now "Airbag" is playing on my computer. Thom Yorke's beautiful, tortured voice floating out of speakers not 10 inches from me. If I had any sense, I'd be asleep. But of course, I can't.

It occurred to me for a brief second to claim this whole venture as a late-night whim, an unfortunate offspring of boredom and insomnia. The truth though, is I've been weighing getting back into the blogging game for a couple of weeks now. I've done this before, what, three times? Four if you count that one thing, but I think everyone who was around has more or less forgotten about that one, and I'm not particularly inclined to remind them. So yes; I have some blogging experience.

It never seems to last. This is not just true of me; so many of these things taper off and eventually die within a few months. It seems to become a chore for most people, or a nuisance. However, I personally think that this is more a problem of application than an inherent flaw in the medium. (This kind of thinking is fairly typical of me-- when something doesn’t work, I never think it’s because it can’t work, only that it just hasn’t yet. I place a great deal of stock in willpower.)

In the past I've used blogs for a number of reasons, ranging from editorial to informative to therapeutic. I've done the thing where you talk about your personal problems and share way too much with complete strangers, and I've done the thing where you write about the events of your day-to-day life, as if the Internet just wasn't complete without the tale of your Friday nights. I never particularly cared for either. The times I really enjoyed blogging, and the times that I've most enjoyed the blogs of others, have been the times when they've been used as tools for expression.

i.e., Blogging as art.

The Internet, in theory, is a forum for the open exchange or ideas. Blogging, then, has immense potential value as an artistic medium. It's beat poetry, it's underground art, it's indie film or jazz. It's good and bad, original and derivative, insightful and banal, exciting, mundane, shallow, deep, upsetting, thought-provoking, and most of all, real, in a way very few mediums have the ability to be. The best blogs that I’ve seen are great because they hold nothing back. They’re personal, while still universal. They’re anecdotal, but still artistic.

Of course, they’re also the product of men and women far more talented than me.

I have no illusions about creating a masterpiece. I don’t plan on making something that people will flock to, and don’t think I’d be successful if I tried. I’m an artist. I’m blogging, as always-- as everyone should-- because I want to, because I have things that I want to say about my life, and life in general. I’m not trying to break new ground. Frankly, I’m not convinced that there’s new ground to be broken. I just wanted to toss my hat back into the self-expression ring.

Here goes.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one already.