Come look in my cranium.

Ideas.

I have ideas. Sometimes they come to me while I'm out on the street, heading to whatever appointment I have, which always seems at the moment extraordinarily pressing. Of course when that happens I don't write the ideas down and they get lost. Other times they float into the alert segment of my brain while I'm sitting behind my desk at work, trying to get done whatever has to be done that day, which also seems at that moment to be extraordinarily pressing. Usually I don't remember them once the task I'm really supposed to be thinking about reimposes itself at the top level of my awareness. Those get lost, too. And the ones that appear while I'm on the exercise machine, perspiring through my attempt to stave off early death through regular cardiovascular exertion? Those certainly get lost. Who the heck remembers what they think about when they're in the gym?

If I had a reason to remember these ideas I probably would. The one common thread they all have is that when they come to me I simultaneously think to myself, "hey that's neat. I wonder if anyone else ever noticed that before!" In my more megalomaniacal moments I delude myself that these are true insights, observations about how the world and people work that are totally original to me and would gain me great recognition if only I could remember them. Once rationality reasserts itself in my addled mind, I realize again that I'm just one guy, certainly nothing special relative to the millions of others in this great city or the billions on this planet -- so what can I have to say that would warrant other people's attention? But who knows? Maybe I really did think of something new. I have no way of knowing unless other people tell me that yes, that's a pretty cool idea and no, they haven't heard it before.

This blog is my attempt to find out. If I commit to writing stuff, I might just remember things so that I'll have material. If I actually do the writing I'll find out whether anyone else is actually interested. Who knows? Maybe I'll learn something. Maybe you will. We won't change the world, but we just might find that every now and again, by participating in this blog we can get that little spark of pleasure from being engaged intellectually. Or maybe we really will change the world. It's nice to think it's possible.

So: welcome. Please feel free to comment on my words of dubious wisdom. All I ask is that you be polite, refrain from personal attacks and behave like a civilized human being. Also, I won't tolerate any form of bigotry around here. And since Plato's guardians aren't around right now, the only guardian of this blog is me - so I'm the one to whom it falls to decide what is polite, what is bigoted and what is civilized. If policing that starts to be too much work, I might decide to close comments, but that would really be a shame because part of my objective in doing this is to learn from all of you.

Let the conversation begin.