With much trepidation, the door creaks open ...

I've been resisting participating in LiveJournal for a long time. It seemed likely to be a time-sink. I had a vague impression that people got sucked into LJ and disappeared. I had a couple of bad experiences with seeing people develop a sort of tunnel vision and stop interacting with people who weren't on LJ.

But I come from a long line of diarists. And I've been starting to feel a desire for some way of keeping connected with family, friends, and acquaintances in a more regular and more broadcast manner. Something more casual than individual communication but more personal and immediate than my web site. One of the clinchers came earlier this year when my mother had a cancer scare and I found myself desperately wanting a way to shout, "AAARRRRRRGHHHH!" to the world in general without the individual intrusiveness of e-mailing or phoning specific people.

So here I am.

Hi world!