1. I'm lazy
2. I'm not a good writer
3. Things that are interesting to me are not to 98.7% of the population
4. I'm more entertaining in my head than in real life
5. I often use my free time watching "when animals attack" clips on YouTube (see here)
With those things out of the way, I feel that I've given ample warning to all my potential "followers". I'm not being egotistical or pretending to be a prophet... that's the term that Blogger uses.... judge-rs.
So why would I even start a blog? Well, it is no coincidence that the first entry would be on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. In contemplating the sacrifices I would make for this Lenten season it occurred to me that perhaps instead of "giving up" my usual vices (which are usually food-related... making my "sacrifice" resemble more of a diet) that perhaps I should take something on. One specific thing that I have struggled with in both my faith as well as academically is truly absorbing what I read. Though my current lifestyle is hard pressed for free-time, I am blessed in that I have an hour and a half commute every morning from my home in Spring to my job in the medical center of Houston. In the past, this somewhat involuntary "free time" has been a source for recuperation of missing hours to meet my ideal 7 hour sleep quota. However, relatively recently I have been trying to get more sleep at night (or pump myself full of coffee... if we're being honest) and have used my quiet time for meditation and reading of the spiritual books that have long collected dust on my bookshelf.
So what does this have to do with a blog?
Well seeing as how I've been in school for 18 of my 24 years of life... I have come to realize that the best way to learn something...and I mean learn something... is to apply it. Be it writing it down forty bazillion times, word association, note cards, or even just talking about it. That is how information is committed to memory... at least to my memory.
If you don't know me very well, then you probably don't know that I have an uncanny knowledge of all things canine. I'll have to blog more on that later, but the way I became so well-versed on my furry friends were exercises similar to this ...and also in the less insane form of journaling.
Though upon further consideration... journaling on dogs is probably not something I would put in the "completely normal activity" category. But I did... I loved them and wrote in my journal what kinds of dogs I wanted when I grew up, ones I didn't want, and which ones were at the park that day. I also drew pictures of what I imagined a dog would look like if you combined different breeds. No... you cannot see them.
The point is... that I LEARNED them!... to this day I can still cover up the breed names in my dog book and identify the pictures correctly. Yes... I have a dog book.... SHUSH.
So with this in mind... along with my research interests in all things Web 2.0, I am going to try blogging to more fully absorb the incredible wealth of information that I think is often lost on me in the spiritual books that I read. Of course... I'm not going to just limit myself to books...I'm also open to the daily readings... life lessons, etc.
So there it is. That's why I'm doing this. I can't promise everyday, but I'm going to try most days. I'm both excited and nervous; excited because I like new projects but nervous that I'll come across inane and that I won't be able to convey everything I'm thinking into words. That's ok ... an insecure blogger I will be.
The book I am reading is The Interior Castle by St. Teresa Avila. I have read the first chapter already and will blog on that later. IT IS AMAZING!
God Bless!
Jenn
