I've been writing/ranting/blogging/articling/journaling/reviewing off and on for well over 10 years now.

This all started out as an email op-ed about a speech of Emerson's about being, or man, or something. That email had gone out to maybe a dozen or so people, and it was well received. At the behest of a few friends and family, I got to work on my own home page (provided by my ISP at the time, which was Earthlink...whom I was eventually to work for).

Misfiring Synapses was the original name, and I used the site ostensibly to house a disparate collection of prose, rants and editorial pieces on a wide variety of topics, but I also used the site to hone my abilities with ye olde h-tee-em-ells, taking the site from a framed piece of crap to a slick, frameless and compliant beast, all done in monochromatic black and white.

I eventually gave it up when I took to working full-time for Netcom/Mindspring/Earthlink and spent my days providing support to people with their own websites...it became hard to enjoy doing something in my free time that I was so frustrated by during my working hours. But then I met Ali3n/Mike M, and he had an idea for a website that played home to a number of like-minded, angst-ridden young men in their early twenties...and so, alienated.org was born, and Misfiring Synapses lived on.

That system worked well for a while, with writers coming and going, but the core of Mike and myself staying pretty solid. Readership was relatively high and spanned the globe. People started to take us semi-seriously and I lost interest in opining about daily goings on and focused more and more on music reviews, while Mike took a greater interest in running the site and tweaking the code and improving his marketable skill-set. Alienated died a slow death, and had life breathed into it a few times, only to be proven out as nothing more than life support. It is now home to Mike's blog about life and marriage and parenthood and his Flickr stream.

I've toyed with a variety of blogging tools over the years, from uJournal to LiveJournal to Slashdot to Blogspot to Tumblr. I still maintain my Blogspot account (sort-of) and Tumblr accounts, but I'm trying to consolidate everything down into one spot...one home page...a Unifying Force, if you will (Mike being the ONLY person who'll get that reference...).

Features will come and features will go, but the crux of the matter is to get into the habit or writing again...and not just blathering on about trivial matters and life hacking (ugh, I hate that term)...but actual writing. Stories with depth. Editorials with heart. The kinds of things that give one pause to think and really consider philosophical matters. Basically, I want my brain to work again...really, truly work.

I do hope that you enjoy your stay here, and if there is anything that I can do to make it more pleasant for you, please don't hesitate in letting me know. I love suggestions. And I'd love to build a rapport with my readers, few though they may be.