worth writing

Why publish a blog? Basically, to vent anger over the news and take control over my creative writing life. I want to write, but I'm not sure what. I don't want to brainstorm in public or vomit all over the paper like my sophomore students do (I teach high school English), but I do want to explore creative possibilities in a new medium.

I also have fun reading and writing, and want to share those passions with others.

Here's an example of good writing: my friend Jeff's blog. Jeff is a very interesting writer -- very smart, witty, and not as self-absorbed as most. He also is studying Japanese history in an interesting way and I've enjoyed reading his blog so far.

As far as the news goes, I just got off the phone answering a survey about a "fixed guideway" system for public transit in Las Vegas. The monorail in Vegas has been a colossal waste, but I still want to see some kind of effective public transit system in Las Vegas, so I was forced to answer positively to one of the most leading surveys imaginable. The fact that they take this kind of information as proof of anything is really ridiculous, but I'm still at this point willing to play the game.

We do need more and better public transit in Vegas, don't we? As in every other American city? I wish we could have built more of our cities before the age of the automobile. Then we would have efficient public transit. Now we're tied to our cars.

Then I actually watched C-Span for a few minutes and discovered that we're paying the dictator of Uzbekistan millions to keep an airbase open there. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," as my dad used to say. Doesn't mean I have to like it.