Lately, I’ve been keeping up with the various blogging sites of which I’m a member.  Blogsoldiers was recently sold and has been relaunched by the new owner who will be rolling out some new features.  It seems like some changes have already gone through, because it looks like a problem that had plagued me (where after a handful of sites, the frame would stick on the same site over-and-over) has been repaired.  I look forward to the new features.  BlogExplosion has also been attempting a sale and is still available for purchase.  I’ve also recently joined BlogVillage and BlogBurst.  While updating my profile on BlogBurst, I was asked to write something about myself.  You may have already seen something like this in my Mission Statement and Biography, but I thought I’d share what I wrote just in case.

“It took me a long time to take the plunge and setup my own blog.  I had read a lot of blogs and followed some regularly.  After a while, I started to detect a disturbing trend at one of my most-visited blogs (which shall remain nameless): the author seemed to be getting nastier.  His posts went from providing interesting and funny stories and links to spewing angry gripes and diatribes.  At first it was subtle, just an occasional post taking a pot-shot at religion or politics.  Then it seemed to become an every day occurrence.  Finally, I found myself hard-pressed to find anything that wasn’t cynical, snide, or mean.  I didn’t enjoy the site anymore, so I simply stopped visiting it.  But, it got me thinking about how often I had run into people like this, people with a list of grievances and a loud voice with which to shout them.  It’s depressing.  It’s boring.  And it’s entirely lopsided.  I figured that the best way to combat this constant onslaught of cynicism was to spread some information about some of the good things in this world.  I don’t write about my political or religious views, although I’m ashamed of neither, but I do write about things I enjoy, interesting people I meet, or things I’ve read.  My only hope is that you enjoy what I write and if it makes you happy for only a minute, it’s a minute in your day that I’ve won from the cynics.”