200

Hey hey hey. This is my 200th post on Blogger. It all started on May 19th, 2006 when R and I found ourselves in a new town and I was figuring out what to do with my life. It’s funny how things haven't changed all that much. I blogged on a homegrown web site before that and filled up a large number of notebooks with some slightly more personal journaling before that. The bottom line is that I enjoy recording my thoughts. The writing is good practice--it has helped immensely with communicating in my job--and I like being able to look back and see what I was doing on some random weekend years ago. Plus, although it's usually a one-sided conversation, it's an easy way to keep in touch and share photos with people no longer in close proximity to us. If anybody wants to follow along, they can. If not, that's fine too. It's just here and it will continue to be here either way.

This is an exciting time to be contributing to the blogosphere. Whether it's a pompous waste of time or not, the idea of "life casting" has taken off around the world. There are a number of blogs that I follow, a few of which have links posted to the right. I enjoy looking through the window into the personalities and adventures of friends and sometimes strangers. If you don't already blog, I encourage you to start. Use a fake name if you're insecure about privacy or only post about impersonal subjects... Just get your thoughts out there.

I feel a reinvention is an order. Here are some goals I have for my little corner of the web moving forward:

• Design a new layout -- Expect it shortly after we get settled into our new house. My current look is simple and easy to read, but I'm getting tired of it. And being that it is a preset Blogger template, I don't think it reflects my personality. I've got some ideas for a more representative appearance and am planning to implement it soon.

• Don't record everything -- Let's face it, if R and I go to the grocery store, you don't need to read about it. When I list what I did over a weekend, the completist in me wants to list everything I did that weekend, but that can make an entry long and boring. From now on, I'll try to stick to the more interesting things going on and less daily minutiae. We do laundry and groceries every weekend. I'm not going to mention them anymore, unless the wash overflows and ruins our floor or we're held hostage at the grocery store or something.

• Start Twittering -- This is where some of my daily minutiae may end up. I've been going back and forth about whether or not I want to start micro-blogging. I've been giving status updates on Facebook and been surprised by how much fun that can be ("Jeffrey wishes they all could be California avocados" anyone?), but I'm worried my regular blogging will suffer if I join another website dedicated to recording one’s thoughts and happenings, even if they are limited to 140 characters or less. Will I be repeating myself if I write on both? Will the need for this blog be gone? I would hope if I had to choose one, I would choose Jeblog, but keeping up with Twitter would require less of a time commitment... Let's see how it goes. Notice the new link to the right.

• Post more video – Aside from the two editing projects I have on deck (a music video and some Ultimate Frisbee action), I want to make use of this amazing video camera I have and shoot some spontaneous, less perfected videos. I hope to show you more of Santa Barbara, maybe record an occasional cooking piece with R, and do some short experimental work just for the fun of it. Part of what's been holding me back is my lack of high definition editing capabilities. My camera can shoot some sharp, colorful footage but right now most of it is lost when I copy it to my computer. Part of me wants to wait until I upgrade to an HD capable system before attempting to edit something like my music video, but I don't know if I can wait that long. Actually, I know I can't.

That should cover it for now. We're having a busy week moving into the new place, on top of working full time jobs, so hopefully this entry (and continued Twitter posts) tide you over for a little while.