Initializing

As I find myself more often sipping vodka as I sit in front of the computer screen (what has essentially become my station in life, as I begin to feel agitated after long periods, say a couple of hours, spent without a computer in front of me) at night, I find that I have at last reached the point where I simply must give something to the unfathomable beast that is the internet, from whom I have spent years simply taking, taking, taking. I appear to have been operating under a slightly different usage pattern than other consumers that I have observed. I use the internet for hours nearly every single day, for a wide range of activities. I do my banking online, I pay most of my bills online, my primary communication channel is e-mail, I read news online, I print directions online, I make purchases online, I look up movie showtimes, order pizzas, download media, check the weather, watch funny videos, read technology blogs, read financial blogs, read my friends' blogs, read comics, read stories, look up facts, browse wikipedia articles, browse pictures, track packages, search the names of people I have met, and probably a few other things. I also use the internet as my primary source of information when I come across a tough spot at work (I am a programmer). In short, I consume and I take advantage of most of the things of which I am aware that the internet has to offer. But I put almost nothing on the internet that I am willing to take credit for. I have read thousands of forum and blog entries, yet I can count my forum posts and blog comments on a single hand. I tend to go to great lengths to avoid posting on forums or leaving comments on blogs or web sites. I often search forums for the answers to specific questions I have, but if the answer is not already there, then instead of posting my question I will continue searching elsewhere or try to use my own ingenuity to solve or re-formulate the problem. I read the published blogs of many of my friends, but do not leave any comments unless I am more or less forced to. I do have a web site, but this is almost exclusively to develop and improve my web programming skills, and I almost never give the address out or ask others to share it. I do not have a blog, though almost every single person I know in real life has one in some form or another, and they often ask about mine.

But now, I feel the weight of the consumed media almost as a physical force that is pushing information out of me, and the result is this blog. Enjoy.