Past is Prologue
When contemplating my first post, I strayed from outlining my goals for writing to my background, giving context for this style and type of writing I begin to explore. After considering my potential audience, I decided that perhaps a better topic would be no topic at all. A random smattering of ideas, smeared together by my current state of mind should properly introduce both my writing and the context to be expected in future write-ups.
Where it got started
The culmination of two curiosities—one of writing combined with web technology—berthed “Delusions of Grandeur”. It is my hope that this will eventually grow into a regular periodical where I can combine prose and ideas into thoughtful commentary. The title comes from a popular space western, quoted during twenty of the best minutes in cinema. The current design is an adaptation of Derek Powazek’s wordpress theme, DePo Clean. I felt this was a good style for wireframing a future web publishing system. You could say that this writing exercise is learning the ins and outs of a regular writing regimen and the type of infrastructure desired for the various topics I hope to publish.
Food for Thought
I wanted to have some meat to this first post, so I’m offering these open thoughts on the current state of society, culture and technology in my little corner of the world called the United States. A true poverty in the US exists in the mind of the common citizen as they struggle to realize wants dressed up as needs. In a society filled with iPods, sport vehicles and oversized houses, oftentimes the wrong questions are being asked. Wanna-be pundits wax philosophical about where it ends? When can we return to normalcy?
Instead, one should ask how it began. Why did this start and is it really that contemporary? The brilliance of our representative democracy —the hopes and aspirations of so many before us— has been reduced to the mere purchase of a home. The American Dream we are told is a house, with a white picket fence. We are a society so starved for adversity that we attempt to fabricate it in its absence. Homogenized by the perceived prowess of American superiority, we assume the freedoms and opportunities afforded to us for being born. We tolerate mediocrity, when we should be setting the hills on fire demanding greatness.
Will you accept the choices provided or invent new ones?
Random Parting Thought
This post was written mere days after the greatest upset in college (american) football history. Using a sophisticated system of satellites I was able to see exactly zero minutes of it live. With all of the talk of global communications and on-demand experiences of the modern age, I was unable to listen/hear/experience a live feed of the game. 30 years ago using the most primitive form of radio technology (Amplitude Modulation or AM radio) I could have immediately tuned into the Michigan radio broadcast transmitted from over 1000 miles away. The wifi connection signal in my house barely reaches past the backyard and in the case of the Michigan/Appalachian State football game, its beaten handily by technology that is over 100 years old.
