Introduction: Why I'm Blogging

“Always preface what you say; there is no such thing as a big boy.” – from How to Be an L.A. Player, discovered – and embodied – by Tarun Menon

In his high school graduation speech, a friend of mine advocated keeping a diary. Like most good advice, I failed to act upon it – until last week. In my first entry, I wrote, “It disturbs me that I grow increasingly disconnected from my past – because there’s ever more of it, and it grows more distant. I have a strong, intuitive desire to remember who I came from, to not lose my experiences, good or bad.”

Now that I can remember what I did yesterday, I feel compelled to share my thoughts and experiences. I suppose there are six reasons why.

1. I want to persuade. Naturally, this desire extends to the realm of taste. De gustibus est disputandum, I say – to a point. When I consider something particularly good, I can’t help but think that others will be of a similar mind. If they’re not, then I’m inclined to imperialize – to turn “will” into “should.” We all do this, don’t we? It’s just a matter of where we draw the line. Some of us stop at “you don’t like Star Wars?!” Some of us go further: one of my friends – I know him well enough to know that he means this – deems liking Kid A more than The Bends presumptive evidence of insanity. (Some of us think that about his claim.) The idea, in grand terms, is that it’s worth fighting when the stakes are high enough even if there are no rules. If everyone too readily agreed to disagree about tastes, then I may to this day have avoided a meaningful exploration of the The Beatles's catalogue. You know what a tragedy that would be...don’t you?

2. I want to show off. (It’s okay now that I admit it, right?) I want you to think I’m even more insightful, funny, interesting, reasonable, and infallible.

3. I want to discuss. As I noted on a friend's blog, “I'm always happy to devote some time to the works of friends; there's something markedly more interesting about the products of minds with which I am familiar.” I hope you feel the same way. (Read: it's obvious that I won't maintain a readership by my wits alone.) At any rate, please don't hesitate to post comments.

4. I want to practice. For some reason I don’t get to do that much creative writing in law school.

5. I want to produce. I’m a prodigious time-waster. At least here I’ll have something to show for it.

6. I want to connect. To adapt a line from a Radiohead song, this is my way of saying hi, ’cause I can’t (bring myself to) do it face to face.

I’m going to start with a flurry of posts to stoke the fire. After that I intend to update about every other day. Expect all kinds of content.