Shooting for 500

I have been blogging for almost exactly 5 years now. My first posts (slightly horrifying and definitely hilarious in retrospect) went up on Xanga in mid-September, 2005. I launched a parallel blog here on Blogger a little under a year later, in July, 2006, because I had quickly found that Xanga was, well... a pain in the neck, and not very tweakable. (There's a reason that Xanga is completely off the radar at this point.) I maintained the two in parallel for a few years, and then finally switched to this blog entirely in November 2008—almost 2 years ago, now.

Since I launched this blog, it has gone through several design iterations, changed names, even changed address (though never without being the same blog as far as the backend is concerned). It has been a slate for expression through the frustrations of singleness and rejection, seasons of folly and pride, times of deep repentance, moments of elation, the joys of dating and engagement and marriage. It has always been somewhat aimless, and intentionally so. This isn't a blog aimed at a particular point in the world; it is a blog aimed wherever my heart and mind are twitching at a given moment. (If you've read for a while, you know that can be quite a wide and strange variety of directions.)

My posting frequency has always fluctuated significantly. That's unsurprising; blogging takes a lot of time, and—if you're going to do it well—a lot of thought. Given I also run an online magazine, publish a new poem weekly as part of an ongoing art project, do occasional web design work on the side, read a lot of books, and have an awesome wife, it's obvious why my posting frequency might vary.

For the remainder of the month, however, I am going to try an experiment: to see whether I can write, and write meaningfully, every day. My posts will (of necessity) be shorter, at least in general: probably around the 500-600 word mark (this one, for example, sits comfortably right in that range). Knowing my own verbosity, that will probably be superseded significantly a few times, but I am not concerned with writing less; I am concerned with writing more. I think it will be good for me as a writer and a thinker, and it will also challenge me to steward my time a little more faithfully.

Finally, because this is my 475th post here on this blog, I should hit post 500 on October 30th; perhaps on the 31st I'll do something special to celebrate. Or maybe I'll just write another Reformation Day post and call it good. In any case, the next 26 days ought to be interesting. Here's hoping I can actually pull this off!

Given that, I have a request of my readers: help me out with topics! What kinds of things do you most enjoy my writing about? What bores you? What makes you want to tear your hair out, and what makes you want to frolic around your room like a unicorn on a candy high because it fills you with such absurd amounts of giddiness? Theology, families, cooking techniques, writing, music, politics, culture, art, movies, humor? (Okay, let's be realistic: humor is probably not going to make the list of strong points for this blog, and the cooking techniques option isn't really an option..)