Starting Now

First!  I remember the earlier days of the interwebs when folks would take great pride in being the first to comment on a post.  Even if it was just to say First!  How times have changed.  But this IS the First post on Cochran's Collage.  Yea me (as my sister would say).

Yes I have started at least four other blogs, and they are all gathering dust.  So why a new one you ask?  Or was that just me asking myself?  What's that they say about when you hear voices in your head, and lose the argument with them?...

Three of my other blogs were politically oriented, at least that's they way they ended up.  I have no idea why I started three of them for the same purpose.  The other one was about raising manly boys, since I only had two sons at the time.  Now I have a daughter also, so maybe I need a blog about how to raise a girl that can throw a ball and a frisbee, fix things, and still knock your socks off in a pretty dress?  Anyway, I'm sure there is some stat out there about how many blogs have been started and then languish after X number of posts on average.  Sadly, I am that statistic.

But not this time!  He declares boldly (once again).  No, this time will be different.  But why, you ask?

Well, this time, as the name kind of implies, I'm not trying to focus on one thing.  Except writing.  Everyday.  Every. Day.  I sit in front of this laptop everyday, surf the web (the same 5 sites mostly), and play a lot of Freecell (24 seconds is my best time: I really don't think I'll ever beat that). As I deal with all the normal things of life (of a Blessed life I should say: I am not wanting), I keep dreaming of escaping the grind and being a writer.  Wow, how many other folks have said that?

A lot of what I have read about being a writer is that it IS work.  You HAVE to work at it to be good at it and get somewhere.  So I am going to work at it.  Not try and work at it (as I originally wrote), but actually work at it.  Every day.

I'm going to start by just trying to write SOMETHING every day, no matter how little.  Well, I am going to set a minimum of one paragraph of no less than 5 sentences.  But I'm not going to try and have a theme or point or genre I am writing about everyday.  I'm going to start with daily observations and what not, and try and evolve from there.  Hopefully, as Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert says, I'll start being able to open the door to my inspiration.  Then I hope to start adding stories and chapters and books to this blog.  Maybe someday I'll be able to publish a book that started as stories or chapters here, along the lines of the Silo series.

I've cleaned off my desk, organized my 'office' (more of a closet with a window, but hey, it's the space I get to call my own!) and have started a new blog.  All set!

I have a lot of blogs for inspiration too.  Wait But Why, The Sandgram, and Common Sense Barrage, the last two of which are authored by my Navy flight school roommate, and fellow Navy veteran and cousin, respectively.

So I am writing for ME, no one else.  I'm working at my work, and it will be whatever it is.  Most of the time not much, but hopefully sometimes something, and maybe something great.

So it's May 28th, Memorial Day Weekend.  The national holiday when we're supposed to remember all those that died to preserve our freedoms and way of life.  Our country has experienced a lot of that in the last 15 years, a lot of men and women to remember.  Don't thank a veteran this weekend, or wish them a Happy Memorial Day.  How about we say Never Forget?  It's tied to 9-11, but seems appropriate for Memorial Day as well.  Never forget those that gave all, whether in peacetime or war.

As I swing more and more to the libertarian side, I hate the State more and more. It grows too big, takes too much power, and inevitably tries to enslave us one way or the other.  But I still think, because of the nature of man and the nature of world we live in, the state is necessary. And I think every war we've fought in the 20th and 21st centuries have been necessary in some fashion to defend democracy, or further the interests of the United States.

So those that have died preparing to defend our country or fighting under our flag have done so for us and our way of life. And I thank them and their families, for their sacrifice, and truly hope some day we can get our country back to a government that governs best by governing least, letting us live in freedom, and only doing what is necessary to defend us from external threats.