Dawning of a New Blog

I’m not exactly a model of conformity.

I’m far from a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.

If it is the rave of the nation and more popular than white bread (which I don’t eat), I typically avoid it.

I’ve never watched one episode of American Idol or Dancing with the Stars or the Apprentice. I’ve never used an ATM and don’t have a cell phone (of course, if someone would like to donate an Iphone, I’d gladly cross that one off the list.) I don't have a daily appointment with Dr. Phil, and I haven’t even been in a week-long funk just because Oprah’s dog died.

If I’m wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, that means I forgot that it was St. Patrick’s Day. If I’m wearing Christmas colors at Christmas, it is purely an accident. If it were "Spirit Day" in high school, the last thing I'd do is wear maroon and white, our school colors. Most of my favorite bands (Bodeans, Smithereens, Social Distortion, Levellers) are ones most people have never heard of.

With all that said, starting a blog isn’t exactly going against the tide. Seing as I’m currently employed in a dying industry, I can attest to the popularity of what W calls the Internets.

Blogging has semi-literate people all over the world sharing their thoughts and opinions - even if they don’t have thoughts or opinions worth sharing. Being the marching-to-the-beat- of- a different- drum type, you’d think I wouldn’t want any part of adding to the white noise of blogmania.

In most cases, one might be right. The last thing I want to do is follow in the path of what everybody else is doing.

However, I do like to write. It might be the one God-given gift that is marketable - even though I've yet to make it truly profitable. Some people actually think I’m kind of good at it. I also have a variety of interests (pick a topic - music, sports, history, politics), and plenty of knowledge about them. I can also be a bit opinionated, just a little. I’m kind of like a line in a Mark Heard (bet you’ve never heard of him) song “Don’t ask me my opinion, because I like to talk and I might tell you.”

So if a blog isn’t tailored-made for a smart-aleck, never wrong, know it all like myself than what did Al Gore invent the internet for anyway?

So, here I am. Welcome to Notes from SquigNation.

My ancestors provided glimpses of their life through diaries. I have a diary from 1883 while my great grandfather sailed on a coastal schooner. I also have various diaries that my grandfather kept during his lifetime. My father even chronicled his life with his own memoirs. I remember him reading them over at our cottage in Owls Head the summer after he had given us all copies. He was pretty captivated as he read his own life story even though I told him “Dad, you already know how it ends.”

I can’t promise my blog will be that captivating. I think it’s a safe bet that it might be informative, interesting, controversial, funny and unpredictable. Kind of like me.

Like the diaries of my ancestors and my father’s memoirs, my blog should provide a glimpse of the world from my slightly near-sighted eyes. The way my mind works, who knows what that might produce. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

I’ll post periodic entries about various topics whenever the spirit moves me - or whenever I have an idea in my head that needs to come out. I might even post some of the early chapters of my novel, "Sons and Daughters of the Ocean". I might even explain SquigNation, for those who don’t know. Your participation, input and interest is certainly welcome. Feel free to pass the link along to friends (or enemies).

One of my favorite remarks/joke, which would make my Dad laugh every time (even though it took him a second to get it) is “I’ve always wanted to write an autobiography, but I don’t know anything about cars.”

This might be the closest I get to some sort of an autobiography. I don’t know whether it will be a Yugo, a Lexus or a Lemon, but it could be a pretty good joy ride. So let’s step on the gas and go, driving cautiously through Dixfield, of course ...