I really liked Jim's latest entry a lot -- possibly one of the shortest, yet best entries I've read in a while. I worked with him on a daily basis for several years, I've seen him around church now and then, I even competed against him in science competitions in high school. He's a nice guy of course, but to actually read about his feelings after what he did to that guy really encouraged me and gave me a renewed sense of appreciation.
And with that, a realization about something I've been long pondering about just hit me -- I've always wondered what makes a good blog entry? For all the pontification that I and other have done on this subject, to me, it is simply this -- an entry that sheds light about an aspect of someone that wouldn't have been readily apparent otherwise to most. These types of entries are not the same as self-glorification or bragging, which I rarely find to be memorable (and abhorrent at worst).
I think that's this is what I really never did much of previously -- examine and discern my own self -- my personality with its passions and fears. And it's what's driving my renewed blogging -- my sense to explain myself somehow, where I'm coming from, and where I'm going to a larger -- albeit vaguer -- audience. A desire to communicate in writing, a form of communication that suits me and my extremely non-linear thinking much more than the spoken word. A desire to shed the veil of secrecy and mystery that I have built upon myself, and a way to cause me to look inwardly where I wouldn't otherwise have.