an introduction

Hello, all... Yes, I've finally given in. I'm going with the fad, for once. I've a blog. (and no, I'm not doing this just for gmail, if you're wondering.)

Welcome to my latest attempt at tossing my thoughts out to the myriad denizens of the World Wide Web. I've tried this before, and it didn't work so well, so if this blog suddenly trails off, my appologies.

First off, an explanation of the title.

"From the Mists" is a line from a poem I wrote, long ago back in seventh grade. It was the first poem I ever wrote which I didn't end up hating within months of putting the words down. You see two lines printed above, under the title of the blog. Those two lines have stuck with me ever since I wrote the poem, echoing through my mind whenever I was feeling particularly negative. The poem still embodies a lot of how I feel about the world, and how I feel about living in San Francisco. Here's the poem, as I wrote it way back then:

fog

call down the fog, cleanse the day,
from the mists, all thigns, born anew

within that white, no being may evil do,
for from the mists, all thigns, born anew.
within that calm no trouble stirs
(from the mists, all things, born anew)
and in the fog, stillness reigns
(from the mists, all things, born anew)

call down the fog, peace and solace
wrap it round you, cloak of white,
purge the sorrow, fear, and chaos...
even Death, turn away...
from the mists, all thigns, born anew.

call down the light,
banish the white,
from the fog, all things, born anew.

In that spirit will be this blog. Perhaps, from the swirling uncertainty that is my mind, something interesting will be born. Perhaps. We shall see.

Thus, without further adieu,

What this blog is, and what it is not.

• is not: a journal. I probably won't be including most plot details about my life. Perhaps the occasional tidbit will get thrown in, but probably not. This is a display-ground for my thoughts, not a novel about my life.
  
• is: probably going to contain some poetry, of mine or of other's.
  
• is not: a dumping ground for information I glean from quizzes around the web. As fun as such things may be, I swear I will never drop them here, ever.
  
• is: a dumping ground for things I find inspiring. Anything and everything. (BlogThis! rules.)
  
• is not: an attempt to get a gmail account.
  
• is: hopefully a breeding ground for interesting conversation. Honestly, post anything you think in the comments. Or just email me. Use the comments like a message board if you want. With any luck, people here will talk. (In other words, when in doubt, post a comment. If still in doubt, email me. If you're completely sure of what you're doing, make sure that what you're doing is either posting a comment or emailing me.)
  
• is not: going to be all serious stuff. Some will be funny, but hopefully not stupid funny. We'll see, we'll see.
  

And I think that concludes this post. Thanks, all, for checking in. I'll post again soon enough.

-lelandpaul
-36-
(if you don't know what these numbers are about, you probably don't want to.)