A significant leap of faith

So, I’ve been running this blog since January 2012. For the last year or so I’ve been promoting it on Twitter, and on Google Plus for a few months (not that anyone would notice – that’s a joke). I’ve hesitated to promote the blog on Facebook, and I think the reason was that I didn’t want those closest to me to know that I was blogging. Call it a lack of confidence.

Well, I’ve decided that’s ridiculous.

So, to all my friends and family on Facebook, welcome to The Sound of One Hand Typing.

This blog started when I fancied myself a fiction writer. As time went on, I realized I’m not even much of a fiction reader, and one kind of goes with the other. So, while I try and figure out what to do next, I blog every day, and maybe something will bite me in the butt come to me.

My regular followers (and I love you guys, and thank you for reading) could tell you what goes on around here, but let me give you a quick guide:

• A lot of what I do is respond to blogging challenges, such as A Round Of Words In 80 Days, in which I set goals for myself at the beginning of a quarter and report in every week about how well or poorly I’m doing; the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April, where I choose an overall theme for the month (say White Sox players) and write a post every day (except Sunday) starting with each successive letter (April 1 would be Sandy Alomar, April 2 is Angel Bravo, etc. through April 30, which would be Richie Zisk); Stream of Consciousness Saturday, hosted by Linda Hill at her blog, where she assigns a word each Friday, we riff on it and post the results on Saturday; and Battle of the Bands on the 1st and 15th of the month, where I pick a song, find examples of a couple of performers who have done it, and let you, the readers, choose which one is better.
• I have a couple of regular features here: Two for Tuesday, where I select an artist, find a couple of videos by that artist (I love YouTube), and post them on Tuesday along with a little something about the artist (lately it’s been jazz guitar players); and The Thursday Ten, where I pick a topic and come up with a list of ten things about that topic. A new feature is Blue Monday, where I feature a couple of blues videos, in the spirit of the Blue Monday jams that take place in the bars on Chicago’s South Side. I haven’t decided whether to do that every Monday or just once a month.
• The rest of the time? Just about anything: music, classic TV, “link-o-ramas,” memoirs, commentary on stories I read on the Internet, reblogs, things that make me laugh, everything but politics.

That category of “things that make me laugh” reminds me of this…

So, welcome, and, as they used to say on The Beverly Hillbillies, “Set a spell. Take yer shoes off. Y’all come back now, hear?”