Or to put it another way, why am I blogging here?
The answer—admittedly not a terribly complex one—is that I enjoy it. I already have one personal blog, and a second relating to my freelance writing and I’ve no qualms about adding a third.
Blogging for me is a lot like letter-writing, and I like writing letters (ditto email). If I’d lived about 150 years ago, I’d be one of those Victorian writers who have their collected letters put out after their deaths in three volumes (let’s assume for convenience that I would have actually accomplished enough to make publishing my letters of interest).
Posting a blog is a lot like a letter, but one sent out into cyberspace rather than to a particular person (my personal blog, with a readership of maybe a dozen, is an exception). There are pluses to this: I can blog at length about something like buying a backpack or a weekend getaway, knowing that anyone who finds it boring will just skip the post, whereas in conversation I’d be worried people were just feigning interest (”No, please tell us more about what you had for lunch in Normandy, it’s … fascinating.”).
For anyone who likes my column at The Destin Log (or hates it), this will probably turn out a lot less political; I spend enough time being outraged as it is, and I don’t need to brood here as well. Though this might be a good place to post really brief topics that deserve coverage, but can’t carry a full column.
And I won’t be tackling local politics. Since that’s my regular beat, it wouldn’t be good form to both report on it and write commentary.
I’m thinking of this blog more as a patchwork: Some personal stuff, some politics, something about writing (which I love), something about reading (which I love to). We’ll see how that works out in practice, I guess.

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