Introduction

“It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit. And when I multiplied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they’re all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke my heart.” - Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

So, I am going to attempt one of these blog things. Not that I expect it to be read - rather the opposite, in fact! However, I have come to the regretful yet inescapable conclusion that I need to write more, and that writing a blog is probably the best way to do it.

When I was younger, I used to write hundreds of words a day. Every night I would be eager to get home so that I could log on and scurry excitedly to the dozens of internet forums I was a part of. There, I would while away the hours writing about politics, about history, writing fiction in the form of forum RPGs with other citizens of the Internet, plotting strategy in online games, just generally chatting. Words poured from my keyboard all evening, almost every evening.

But not anymore. Time has passed. I have grown up. Those old forums are long since lost into the depths of the Internet, likely never to be seen again by a living being. And I find that I scarcely write at all anymore. Not a good sign, for one who aspires to someday write history!

Well, enough with the somedays. I'm going to write history NOW, dammit, for my own pleasure, if no one else's. And along the way I'll muse about current events, politics, religion and theology, philosophy, and whatever else takes my fancy. I have no real plan for this endeavor, other than using it to discipline myself by writing a few hundred words every day so as to continue to improve my abilities. Right now the general outline is to use this to write the rough draft of the history of the world I hope to create some day.

So, starting tomorrow, I'm going to dive right in to ancient history and begin to recount the tale as I understand it, lingering on the bits I find interesting, passing over quickly the parts that bore me or that I know little about. It won't be unbiased, it will not be objective, but - maybe - it will be a pleasure to someone to read someday. For now, though, it's enough that I read it.

That's the plan, then. The history of the world according to Brad. Tomorrow, let's burn down Ninevah.