September 15th, 2005
Here is the text of the Introduction to the printed version of my new book, Brian's Rant-o-Rama:
This document represents two years' worth of my blog entries: September 16th, 2003 to September 15th, 2005. I called it my Rant-o-Rama when I first set it up, and I also made sure to say that I would "never get too personal" ... but that hasn't always been the case. It has seen me through a layoff, a hiring, a job description change, lots of angst about some people I now have to work with, the arrival of my fiancé in Canada, and getting married to her, and the hospitalization of one of my sisters. There are always lots of things going on in any life, so it is not surprising that two years' worth of entries would reflect that.
Along the way, I've had a vague idea that I was writing a fair bit, but I never expected that the total word count would be over 95,000 (that's an average of more than 600 words per blog entry at a rate of 6-7 entries per month) ... and I most certainly did not expect that I would have something approaching a readership (however modest: currently about 60 to 65 "regulars") that occasionally send emails or make entries into my guestbook.
With all these words, it is inevitable that I have repeated myself. For this I apologise; I sometimes have trouble remembering what I ate for dinner last night, and so remembering that three weeks ago I already made Point X, or stated Fact Y is too much of a challenge for me. At least I can be reasonably sure when I say that I am at least consistent: I know I'm a somewhat stubborn man, and any changes I undergo are long and slow in coming. As a former –er– friend once said, I am like the wheels of God: I "grind slow but exceeding fine".
There are some blog entries that I originally wrote, thought better of, then removed from my website. For those I always substituted a "Censored" page instead. Once my anger or other feelings (usually frustration) died down, I would realise that in order to avoid small minds' hurt feelings or even smaller minds' actions against me about a blog entry I would have to remove it and replace it with the "Censored" page. I've restored the entries in this document, and I even put up the "Censored" entry as the first entry—just so you can take a look at it.
Finally, I hope you enjoy reading these, and seeing the progression of my writing—there is definitely an evolution in them and their scope—and if you are interested in reading more (i.e., the entries that come after these), please see:
http://www.brianporter.ca (then click on the "Rant-o-Rama" link)
-Brian M. Porter, September 13, 2005
If you want a printed version for your very own—or just a PDF of it—please send me an email (click the link below).
Sign my guestbook - Email me - Back to the Rant-o-Rama index