New Year Post - late, as usual

I suppose, depending upon your point of view, we are either quickly approaching the Mayan apocalypse or it's a new year and new resolutions. A time for reflection or a time for resolutions. Or, in my case, a time for both reflection and resolution as well as writing up a new blog entry - a task with which I've been seemingly lax as of late. I average may a post or two a month lately, and sometimes even that is a bit of a stretch. It's not that I lack for any number of topics upon which to write, more often it is the time and the desire to do so (at the same time).


However, part of it has also been some reflection on my part about the purpose of this blog. Unfortunately (or even fortunately, depending upon one's point of view), I have a variety of interests and that means that many of my posts are all across the board in terms of subject matter. Politics, history, China, philosophy, technology, social commentary, international relations, science and anything else in between that happens to catch my eye/ear is potential fodder. But that seems to clog up this blog and render it interesting to only a few people at any given time. To make it worse, I would not classify myself as an expert in any given matter. Instead, I have some knowledge on a great number of subjects that allows me to sometimes see things through a very different perspective than others but one that can occasionally be moot to the subject itself.


So I've been pondering if perhaps I should be more focused in this blog - or to perhaps create an entirely new blog or series of blogs to cover each of my varied interests. The problem with that is that I will likely update those even less frequently than I update this one and that would make me into a rather poor (or, in my case, poorer) blogger. Besides, I already blog occasionally on the technical forum LessThanDot (disclaimer, I am one of the owners of that site) though I've not done anything there in a while (though I have one or two that I am in the midst of putting down on paper in order to post), either. And while that should handle at least one of my passions (technology), I can't go looking for others to do the rest of my various ideas (well, ok, I could do guest posts on SeeingRedInChina - the only blog I read with any real regularity and the best China-related blog in my very humble opinion) so I wonder if anyone can offer suggestions or ideas on how I should approach this conundrum.


And thus ends my reflection for now. As for resolution, writing more is at the top of the list and I guess this post is a good start. So now my new year (well, ok a little over two weeks into it) is off to its proper start and hopefully will continue to roll on at a good clip.

Oh, and just noticed that this is my 100th blog post. Woohoo! Over the course of the last 2 1/2 years I've managed 100 posts. I'm not going to do the math average for that number since I'm pretty sure it's pathetic. But that's what resolutions are for!  :-)

Everyone has an opinion

...but not everyone can offer valid proof and evidence to support their opinions. Or the proof they do offer is of dubious origin, lies or urban legends among other things. And normally this is not a problem as everyone should have the right to openly express their opinions in my opinion. Heck, I know I have ideas and opinions that many other people cannot necessarily understand or agree with but the joy of being able to express them is rare in many parts of the world and should be appreciated by those who have that ability.

In some ways, that is why I have this blog. It offers me an opportunity to express ideas and opinions to a wide range of people who then have the option to read and either agree, disagree or even argue with me over them. However, to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes regarding the internet - well, I saw it on the internet so it *must* be true! That statement is very apropos when discussing blogs in particular as it is usually rather difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what you read online. In my own case, I tend to read various news sources to get my news - regional, national and international as well as from varying political angles. The great majority of those news sites are reputable (if not always deliberately propagandistic as in the case of certain sources from countries with less than free media) and there is a clear distinction between news and editorial commentary. And I do read the editorial commentary but at least I have the knowledge to distinguish facts from opinions.

I read very little in the way of blogs when it comes to facts. There are a few I read and most of those have very deliberate political opinions but I read them for what they are - opinions with occasional facts thrown in. I have one favorite that I have mentioned here before - Seeing Red in China - by an American living in China who does the best of any I have yet come across at explaining life in everyday China, without undue praise or criticism, to people who may otherwise never get to experience it. But it is still a blog with the opinions of a single individual and his experiences.

I was recently treated to the antithesis of that blog by another China-related blogger posting ideas that minimized responsibility for Mao for things that happened during his time in power. Against my better judgment, I responded asking for more info to support the writer's hypothesis and instead received the sort of conspiracy theory spouting that is, in my experience, far more common to blog writers who can write whatever they want without any sort of vetting prior to publication as would take place at more reputable news media or research outlets. In the end, I stopped responding as it was simply generating troll-like responses from others on the blog and, quite frankly, I have much less patience for that than I have when I was younger. While I was frustrated by the negative power of such ideas, not to mention the power of the internet to spread such bad ideas with no proof to support them, it did serve to remind me that I am still fairly lucky to not be inundated with such tripe and that hopefully the good will still outweigh the bad when it comes to the power of ideas and the internet.