A first blah

So I keep thinking, exactly how am I going to start a first entry…

I mean, look, half the blogs I've peeked at start off "this is a site where I'll basically ramble on and on and maybe you'll be interested in something I have to say – or not, I don't care" – Which is more or less what I was going to say. So that's out.

Others start off something like "I'm writing this so all my family and friends know my daily whereabouts and my thoughts on all sorts of crap and I'm strapping a GPS device to my inner thigh which will send my global co-ordinates here on a continuous basis." Those in my family know this is highly unlikely. (I am not the great communicator.)

Then there's the more "significant" blogs, like Salam Pax's well-known site. Now I can't compete with that for world significance. (Not that I would desire to be in his position.) Actually, its interesting the very earliest entries I can find are comments alluding to the buildup to war in Iraq and some comments about getting the male strippers ready (!). Seriously, how can I compete with stuff like "Woke up this morning. We are being invaded. Seriously! With guns and bombs!"
Or even like on Howard Dean's weblog, "we raised thousands of dollars today, how 'bout you?"

What can I say? "Tried to print a new set of microarrays today. They look like crap. Why do I have to keep using this old array printer which doesn't even have any instructions on how to use it – or more importantly –FIX IT?!? Also, ran a few PCR reactions, but all the DNA looked degraded. Sigh. Maybe I should adjust the Magnesium concentration? Hmm… When's lunch?" Actually, that's rather revealing to those in the know.

What I could talk about is a little of my new found interest in running away to various places for a quick getaway. I used to never travel at all. Now at least I've explored a few places in the past year or two. Not counting visits to New York City (my hometown), I have at least been to (in order of increasing excitement for me) Madison, WI (for a conference and massive quantities of beer), Santa Fe, NM (for a conference and my first time ever skiing), Providence, RI (for a change of pace to the nightlife in Boston, strong drinks), Provincetown, MA (for sun and shows and drinking) Washington, DC (family and fun and drinking), Montréal, QC, Canada (for fun and a refreshing attitude toward life, and drinking measured drinks which is fine by me cuz I can drink over a longer period of time), and New Orleans, LA (you can drink there too).

But, really, with the exception of any conferences so much of my traveling ends up with "evening…ate dinner…got drunk…did other stuff I either can not remember or will not recount on a family site…woke up…took ibuprofen…woke up again feeling a bit better…swear that today I'll just see the sights and won't drink…drank."

Well, the two cities that I must talk about, so far, are New Orleans (because it just blew my mind in being so over the top) and Montréal (because I fell in love with the city and its people – in a naïve way, I realize. I've gone for weekends there around 7 or 8 times in the past two years.) – We'll see how much I talk about them in the future.

Oh there's also world events and politics. But who cares what I think about them?