Stories.

Who was it that said that there's a million stories in the naked city? Was it Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, or the detective in some famous 1960's cop show? I guess I could google it, but the source of the quote doesn't really matter.

All that matters is that it is true.

If we open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds, we will see that we are swimming in a sea of story. In fact the very definition of culture is "a collection of stories that defines a group or society." If that's the case then who could argue that a good definition of identity would be "a collection of stories that define an individual." Who we are is defined by the stories we tell, to others, but more importantly to ourselves.

I've been telling "stories" online since a couple years before uncle Al Gore handed the rest of you the keys to the world wide web. I lucked out and got caught up in the third wave of Arpnet, after the military, and the government, when it was opened up to universities. This was back before graphic browsers (before mosaic,) and html. When our screens were green, and we talked to the outside world via something called listserves, and spam was only something you ate .

I even participated in a little experient called "24 hours in cyberspace," anyone remember it?

So I've been telling mine and sharing other people's stories in various forms online for quite awhile, on the Crea_Cps listserve back in the day, in obscure internet magazines, on several forums, and even social networking sites. But most of those have been internal, read by a scant few, and covering specific topics, such as sex and spirituality, homebrewing, art, school violence, music, food, gender issues, politics and culture.

This is my first attempt at a more public and a more general forum. As the header says, this blog has no specific theme. It's about whatever is on my mind at any given moment, and will get updated when I actually have a burning desire to set something down on virtual paper. Initially I may park some of my older blogs here, just to have them in one space, and so more people can read them. But I may just as easily want to share a website, or news story that I came upon and want more people to see.

Who knows?

I had a great deal of dificulty in deciding what to do with this, my very first blog here. A lot has been going on lately, and I have had plenty to say; About the economy and the "bailout" that nobody, even the senators writing it said was perfect, yet got shoved down our throats full of perks for those that got in this mess anyway. About my worries about an incredibly popular potential Vice President that I have nicknamed "Carribou Barbie," and who I fear just might be purposefully trying to drive us to an apocolyptic future that the very church in which she worships so fervently believes in, especially since the Mayan Calendar ends the very year many think she'd be elected president. I could have written lately about being single, over 40 and feeling my own biological clock beginning to tick louder, as I approach the very age my late father was, when he helped spawn me. About the joy of brewing beer, and cooking. Or my latest quest to find the perfect taco, like those I have had in Los Angeles, or Ensenada, or Kansas City, but can't seem to find in Metro Detroit. There's many stories I could tell right now, and I will.

But for right now, I just thought I'd day....Hello.