Funny how the wheel turns. I started "blogging" on Advogato long before "blog" had entered the public vernacular, but drifted away as the pressures of work and my personal life started to take a toll. But now I find myself wanting to get back into the (hobby? practice? avocation?) of writing about computers and software. I don't want to start up a regular blog for a number of reasons, the primary one being that I don't have much to say about politics these days -- I'm frankly sick to death of the whole topic.

Also, I have found that my interest in computer science has been re-fired lately -- I will be forty years old soon, and this presents me with a good excuse to perform a tour d'horizon of the field where I have spent the bulk of my life so far. I don't delude myself that my thoughts are in any way profound or even original; it's just that I find it cathartic to sit down and get some ideas down "on paper" rather than just float around and eventually dissipate. I'm often glad that I write about things that years later I think are silly or badly-considered: it helps me to understand how I've changed.

What I won't do here (or at least will try not to do) is go on long political rants, or chronicle my personal life. I intend this to be a technically-oriented space, a scratch- pad for my thoughts and ideas on computers, software, and other technology. I'm sure that philosophy, religion, and esthetics will intrude -- writing software is a human activity, after all -- but I will try to keep things centered.