I have been in a (blog related?) existential conundrum for the last few weeks brought on by the election and financial crisis and amplified by some reading/viewing/thinking I have been doing. I never intended this blog to be (or become) a personal historical zeitgeist. I have been troubled since beginning my blog that it had no editorial vision, as my twitter feed clearly does.

The trouble is that I currently am not, and do not wish to become, a pundit, commentator, or advisor on political, economic, or similar issues. I do not have the degree of education (formal or informal) on any of these subjects that I feel is necessary to be a responsible writer on the subjects. This isn’t to say I have no thoughts on the subjects as they stand, or that it takes a degree and a “mainstream” opinion to make a valuable contribution, far from it.

The question I pose to myself every time I attempt and fail to write a coherent post about a topic like the presidential “debates” is “What the hell am I doing?” As a cynic, it goes without saying that I doubt my tiny, paranoid rants will be effective in making a difference. I’m not writing for kudos or to change the world, I’m writing because I’m a frustrated, overly-critical cynic and if I don’t vent that steam somewhere: kaboom. If I can make a difference in the thinking of a few readers, great.

But that still leaves my question unanswered. I could write this all in a obscenely titled text file found only after my death as my children sort through my affects trying to make sense of my life, but that isn’t what i am doing. So why?

I don’t have an answer to that question yet. I am a little closer to an answer to the how/what questions for this blog, which is the opposite of how I like to work, but at least it’s something.

Aside: For those of you interested in a post on the “debate,” it is coming.

Other than my recent tirade I have been unable to post here as frequently as I would like. It’s not for lack of anger or indignation. Rather I have been using my writing powers for good (for a change?) over at the NoiseTrade blog.

Knowing is half the battle.

I had a few minutes while I waited for the girls to finish eating, so I wrote an extensive About Josh Oakes page which would only be interesting if you don’t know me, so if you read this blog and do not know me, you should read it. I know there are a lot you.

I also noticed that my category menu (the drop down…over there…in the sidebar…to your right!) doesn’t work at all. That’s my bad. If you are trying to browse my categories, I apologize. I’ll fix it sometime.

Mostly, this is a website. My “personal” website. My beautiful pictures, impressive bio, and other updates will be posted here. And there’s the first post. In a nutshell.