A Preamble

This is my first entry on this blog. Or on any blog, actually. I've never blogged before. So I thought it would be appropriate to start my blogging with a little preamble.

This blog is mostly Aubrey's thing for two reasons.

The first reason is simple: Aubrey is more attentive and thoughtful than I am, so she'll remember to add relevant, informative entries more frequently than once a month (which is probably as often as I'd add those kind of posts). She's the one who takes almost all the pictures (because she's the one who remembers the camera). She's the one who remembers special occasions (although I do try to remember the important ones, like our anniversary and her birthday, which is work enough for me). This is also the reason we tend to allocate special event card-buying duties (for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) the way we do. She usually buys the cards, or at least reminds me that I have to buy them when they're for my family. That way I get to look like I'm thoughtful, she gets to be the good person that she is, and the person who gets the card gets a nice chuckle or some warm fuzzies. Everybody wins. This arrangement has worked well so far, so why change it? Nothing succeeds like success.

The second reason is also simple: I am a megalomaniac, and I know it, and I'm trying to be sensitive with other people's time. I have an enlarged ego, and I've been cursed with an insidious belief that most people actually want to hear everything that I have to say, or hear about everything that I find interesting. Well, most people don't. And most of the people who do want to hear at least some of what I have to say (my family, my in-laws, my close friends) don't want to hear nearly everything I want to tell them. I'm very wary of posting too much, because I'm afraid that there might be no telling how much innane and useless crap I'd eventually put up. Like Bono says in the song, "All Because of You": I like the sound of my own voice / I didn't give anyone one else a choice. Now, a blog is a particularly easy way to let myself go like that, but I don't want anyone going all Vincent Vega on me (although, that would give me a chance to go all Jules Winnfield on that person, which would make me a badass, so maybe it wouldn't be entirely bad). So in respect of other people's time, I've kept from blogging much.

But I keep getting asked questions about what I think of Korea and about why I don't add to the blog, so I thought I'd make a cameo appearance, which will probably turn into something of a reoccurring role, on the drama that is the Asia Trail blog.

My posts, when they show up, will probably tend to be pretty long. I'll try to keep from rambling too much, but given how much I like to hear myself talk and to read what I've written, I can't promise that they won't often include philosophical ramblings, political commentary, and sports analysis, among other timewasting information. If the people who read what I write like it, great. I certainly won't mind having my ego stroked. If they don't like it, well, they only have to put up with it for a year. They can just suck it up.

So you've been warned.