Malignant Narcissism?

 Ok, I guess it's time to address the elephant in this blog.  Why did I decide to start one, and perhaps the better question, what made me think anyone else would care?  And what's with the title of the thing? In Mike's Humble Opinion.  What's even remotely humble about linking every published word you eek out to Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else it may show up in the interwebs.  Some of these questions and also the technical term interwebs come from a good friend James, who asked me quite directly about my thoughts and intentions as a newly minted blogger feigning humility.

 I do hope this comes off more as a simple response than a defense.  It's not like I'm trying to justify some reckless or unethical behavior.  But it's also my hope that at least not too many people view me as a completely ego driven hypocrite.  First the easiest answer...regarding the title I chose for my blog.  As most people who spend any time texting and social networking know, our language is slowly getting boiled down to a growing collection of abbreviations and acronyms.  One such is IMHO, which is often inserted just before responding to a question or issue.  It stands for "in my humble opinion."  As I sat in my favorite seat in my favorite coffee shop poised to release my blog into cyberspace - lacking only a title, it dawned on me. My name does in fact start with an M and my blog will probably be made up mostly of my opinions, so eureka, we have a winner!

 But there's still the problem of the H.  As I stated in my very first blog post, I'm doing this more for me than for you.  I enjoy writing. I'm not talented enough to do it for a living, or even for a meal, but I'd love to get better at it none the less. It's simply my nature to strive for improvement in my passions.  Be it writing, running or 'rithmetic. (not really 'rithmetic, but I'm an absolute fool for alliteration)... By maintaining a blog, I have a defined place to go play, which is also a place to keep my musings organized.  By posting to social networking sites, it is my hope that I'll receive some feedback along the way that could help me improve and grow as a writer.  Not a famous or influential writer, but a writer just the same, simply defined by the fact that instead of watching reruns on TV tonight, I'm writing. No big deal.

So if you stumble across one or more of my blog posts and have a thought or two about how I might have expressed something more effectively, or if you are offended by an affront to proper syntax, please feel free to let me know.  That's what I'm fishing for when I dangle my line in the waters of your news feed.  If you return not to comment, but just to again get a peek at the oddity of my thought process, that's fine too. We all need someplace to go for a little distraction, and sometimes reruns just don't do the job.