Hi! Welcome. Namaste.
This is a blog.
I am a blogger.
My name is Scott the Blogger.
I arrange, design, and publish blog posts.
What do I write about? There are some specifics below, but first, please consider this passage by Anne Lamott, from Bird by Bird:
I once asked Ethan Canin to tell me the most valuable thing he knew about writing, and without hesitation he said, “Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better.” I think he’s right. If your narrator is someone whose take on things fascinates you, it isn’t really going to matter if nothing much happens for a long time. I could watch John Cleese or Anthony Hopkins do dishes for about an hour without needing much else to happen. Having a likable narrator is like having a great friend whose company you love, whose mind you love to pick, whose running commentary totally holds your attention, who makes you laugh out loud, whose lines you want to steal.
This expresses so clearly all of my hopes and dreams for this place: That I might be a likable enough narrator that you’ll be content to watch me do the dishes. I wish I could give you more than me washing dishes, but it’s all I have.
I hope my take on dishes and dishwashing will fascinate, or at least amuse you. I’ll be writing about all things dish and cutlery related.
There are no rules to this thing.
Give it a try. Subscribe by email or the feed, or by “liking” the Facebook page, or just checking the main page every fifteen minutes. You once had your doubts about green eggs and ham, too, but then you found that you do so like them. In both cases — odd colored breakfast food and strange looking blog posts — it is essential that you try them.
All of my posts and my own photos that you’ll find here are — and will continue to be — “free as in freedom.” Please copy and share them!
Where I use other people’s work, note that it may be freely licensed, public domain, or used under the theory of “fair use.”
how it began
I started this blog to write about free software, free culture, and “assorted miscellany.”
I wanted to write about moving to free software (sometimes called “open source”), which gave the site its name, “Moving to Freedom.”
That move has mostly been completed. The remains of the past may be exhumed in the archives, but please heed the caveat therein.
and continues
I thought I might move away from advocacy and techie stuff, but you know what? I’ll make no promises. I might write about anything, including non-dishwashing topics.
I still care a lot about free software and free culture, and may write about these, although you’ll find other people writing about the philosophy of “free” and related issues much more regularly and insightfully than me.
I’m just going to leave it open. It’s my blog after all, and lately I’ve become less concerned about if anyone reads it or not.
Here are some recent posts:
“Reverend Blue Jeans” in October 2011 marks a programming change to “new kinds of stuff” and more frequent posting, for a time. In December 2011 there was the LoBloPoMo writing exercise of posting every day, which ended with this review of The Muppets: “And Now Let’s Get Things Started.” (It turns out to be about me, too.)
Many of my posts are silly, or intended to be, but sometimes more serious like “Remembering Grandpa Louie” and “Jake the Bowling Mechanic and Me.” In many posts, I’m working through the junk in my head, or just putting it on display if not constructively dealing with it.
I still like the Moving to Freedom name for the blog. It works for just about anything. We can always aspire and move toward greater freedom in different areas of our lives. I want to be more free with my writing and in finding new paths to walk on. We’re all “in the journey.” Martin Sexton says, “It’s in the journey that we find our true love.” I’m still looking for the dream that chooses me.
a few more things about me
I live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area in Minnesota. (One of the United States.) Minnesota is a beautiful state, with many lakes, forests, parks, and trails.
I’m married and have a daughter. We have pets. (Here’s one. And another. And another. And one more.) They make appearances here and there as I share more and less about my life.
I like tying knots in my spare time.
I like this picture of the Cascade River:
some things I find entertaining and enlightening
music: Martin Sexton, Ryan Montbleau Band, Jason Spooner, Donavon Frankenreiter, Jack Johnson, Jonathan Coulton, Ray LaMontagne, Rush, Sting, Neil Diamond
television: The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, Six Feet Under, Dexter, Breaking Bad, The Shield, Flight of the Conchords, Arrested Development, Shaun the Sheep
movies: Groundhog Day, The Shawshank Redemption, Pixar movies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Back to the Future, Haiku Tunnel
books: Richard Bach (Illusions), Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), Brenda Ueland (If You Want To Write), Steven Pressfield (The War of Art), Marcus Aurelius (Meditations), Ralph Waldo Emerson (Essays, etcetera), Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It), Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, Baroque Cycle, etcetera), Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
Updated: 6 February 2012
