Hello, World.

"Why would you want to do that?" seems to be the most popular response when telling friends that I'm starting a new blog. It's not unlike the response you'd expect from showing your grandma your new face tattoo.

I usually respond with a noncommittal "I don't know," then change the topic. Being the first blog, I figure now is probably the time to explore that question and see if I can get to a deeper meaning of life, this blog and everything.

About ten years ago, I had a blog at a different domain name. It was my first attempt at blogging, and over the course of several years, it transitioned from a platform into a community. It was as much of a place to write about life as it was a reason to go out and do things so I'd have something to write about.

Right before Facebook took over the world, I was getting frequent requests from readers to make a website that would enable them to have a similar blog. A friend of mine and I started a company that did just that, and my blog's community moved to the new site. Life happened, and several years later, I found myself without a blog, without a community and without a direction online. Everyone and their brother was on social media, and if you wanted to reach them, that's where you had to be.

There had to be something other than Facebook updates and tweets.

My interests take me sporadically through the fields of photography, creative filmmaking and website development. I also like to write. Not fiction, just stuff. Like this. And I like to share things I'm working on. And photos I take. And videos. And while there are a million and one tools out there that let people do that already, none of them feel like they're "mine." And for an anal control-freak like me, there's nothing quite like having complete control over every aspect of your own website.

Rather than writing a particular type of blog or to a specific audience, this is primarily a platform for me to experiment with. I'm looking forward to sharing thoughts, photos, drawings, videos and anything else I can figure out how to put in this thing. The motivating factor to post content will be the little bug I have inside that frequently says "this would make a good blog." Despite my best efforts to squash it, that bug has never gone away.

It'd be great to build up a community again, though the internet is a different world than it was ten years ago. It's largely out of my control (or interest) to try and grab new readers. But if you see a blog on here you'd like to share, I would encourage you to do just that. Blogs go through cycles, and there's nothing quite like a strong audience to help you through the hard times.

So, welcome to my new blog. It's great to be back. Hope to see you again.