The Background

I've never been able to get beyond the suspicion that blogs are figments of a self indulgent fad that we will come to regret in the future, like bellbottoms. I know not all of us are convinced that they are gone forever, and I applaud that, it's called sticktoitiveness, and there is not enough of that going around these days. Nevertheless, for me to be convinced that it is permissible to have this blog, it must have a purpose. I kept one of these things in Vietnam, a trip away from college in D.C. that lasted 1 year. I tried to write in it when I got back, but it never took off.

In my world a blog needs a purpose, because it is basically a surrogate for the email a friend from far away sends you to keep in touch. I don't want to bombard people with emails for a couple of reasons. That I'll forget to put people's names in the "to" line is probably the biggest one. And then there will be hurt feelings, recriminations, withering glances, nasty phone messages, death threats, restraining orders, appearances on daytime talk shows... I don't need that, and frankly neither do you (the plural you, in this case). And I also won't know how often to send the messages. You can be sure I wouldn't get the balance right, the messages will either come too often or too rarely. Furthermore, when I receive a message, I feel a slightly larger obligation to read it than I do to read some blog floating out there in the expanses of the internet universe. That is what this blog is, a point in the internet universe you can use to deduce my location, a lodestar, if you would.

That was insufferable, I know, and I still haven't really told you this blog's purpose. I was fortunate enough to get accepted to Yale's MA program in international relations. This means I'm leaving D.C. for two years (at least). If I can keep it up, this blog will be the way I update all you folks who care to shoot an occasional glance over here on what is going on in my self-delusional, paranoid world. My goal at Yale is the following:

TO BECOME A SKULL

and that is all I can say. Take care everyone. - Arlington, VA