Gearing Up for a New Adventure

The prep-work is nearly done. The design is in place. The tweaking is near an end. The "About" pages are written. The category and link lists are populated.

All that’s left is to start putting in content.

Tomorrow, August 3rd, 2009, is the official launch date for this blog. I’ve chosen that date partly because I want to start the blog on a Monday, but also because it’s my 49th birthday, and this is one of the biggest birthday presents I could ever give myself.

The gift of expression.

Today, however, I’m putting in a "pre-launch" post, just to prime the pumps and get my juices flowing. I’ve been itching to put some real content here ever since I set up the site, and quite frankly, the two placeholder posts that were sitting here for the last couple of weeks were starting to look really lame.

I’m considering this my "professional" blog. I have a "personal" blog, to which I post sporadic entries about my personal journey or whatever else strikes my fancy at the moment, but I’ve had it long enough now that it’s developed its own personality, one that really doesn’t fit with my idea of a "professional" blog.

It’s also hosted on the free WordPress.com site, which is fabulous, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t allow nearly the level of customization that I need for a blog that will truly show my personality and allow me to fine tune its operation.

So what do I mean by a "professional" blog, anyway? And why do I keep putting "professional" in quotes?

Well, by "professional" I mean that this blog will be a place for me to work at the skills I consider important. Skills that I would seriously like to make a living with. And I put "professional" in quotes because, even though I possess these skills, I’m not making a living using them yet. You could say I’m an "aspiring" professional.

First on that list of skills is writing. I can’t push it away, deny it, sweep it under the rug, or turn away from it. Nor would I want to. Writing is something I do well. I’ve been doing it for a long time and have gained a lot of knowledge along the way about the English language and the way it works. I’ve also gotten enough positive comments from enough people to know that I’m not just a delusional keyboard-pounder with my head in the clouds. I actually can write, and write well.

I also have a good eye for design and layout, and I have the technical skills to put a website together. I’ve been using the design skills a bit over the last few years, putting together various newsletters and things, but the technical skills need a serious brushing off. And that’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to put together my own website.

Thanks to the incredible (and free!!) Wordpress software and the elegant and flexible Tarski theme, I’ve been able to start dusting off those technical skills and put together a blogging site that works the way I want it to work and looks the way I want it to look.

But my main focus in doing this is the writing. I’m going to be writing about topics that interest me, topics that matter to me, and topics about which I know a thing or two. It will mostly be about the arts, because creativity is my bailiwick, but I will also be throwing in a bit here and there about mindfulness and wellness, because those are two areas I need to focus on in my own life and about which I want to know more.

So this is prelaunch. Blog-minus-one. The real fun begins tomorrow.

Stay tuned.