Bill's Notes

Industrial Blog was started in December 2002 because the voices told me to start a blog.

A friend set me up in 10 minutes on blogspot -- demanding suddenly a name for the blog. I didn't want "Bill's Blog" on grounds it was excessively generic. So I thought for a moment and the thought came to me, "A blog is a thing made," a paraphrase of William Carlos Williams. So I thought, a thing made, thus manufacturered, thus industrial. Industrial Blog. That's the name I chose. I have hated the name ever since.

In September 2003, Chris L., who learned of IB from a DenBeste-lanche, recruited my humble blog and placed it on his blogging startup, PowerBlogs. It's a good deal here at PowerBlogs. Even I have learned to manage the interface, which is outstanding and easy to use. If you're thinking of blogging, consider PowerBlogs. Great blogging interface, great tech support, great prices on bandwidth.

In the past year, I've developed an eclectic and small but regular readership. I have five regular commenters -- three of whom disagree with me from the left and one of whom disagrees with me from the right. It makes me feel like a centrist, but I think everyone knows better. Industrial Blog has also picked up some regular readers in colleges. Some folks at Colorado State and Rutgers have checked in lately ... and for a while I had a reader from Michigan State. Others are former co-workers, and others come and go.

And I have some Christian readers, for whom I'm very grateful, even though they must tolerate my occasional vulgarity.

In the past year I had a Donald Sensing-lanche, a Dean Esmay-lanche, and a couple more Den Beste-lanches. Still no Instalanche, but hey, what are you gonna do?

My blog position was also almost overrun by the lefties and kiddies at Pandagon. I called in the Emperor, and they showed up, only to find Chris bayoneting the wounded.

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Originally, Industrial Blog wasn't supposed to be about politics. It still isn't. I just get sidetracked there.

I wanted to write about rhetoric, dialogue, communication, language ... that sort of thing. I wanted to show how mass media manipulates us ... but not just mass media, but all media including literature that used formulaic thinking processes to determine conclusions. I wanted to talk more about how our decisions about what we believe shape our worldview, and that these decisions are often based as much on very personal experiences and psychological needs as on logic and evidence. But psycho-analyzing the whole world got to be a bit much for someone without enough philosophical or psychological training.

I'd still like to know more about the sources of our conclusions. Why do people look at the same evidence, and come to opposed conclusions? Why do people on both sides of the political fence make the same accusations against each other? Everyone claims to be moderate and fair-minded and motivated by either righteous emotion or rigorous logic, and yet we don't all agree. How is that possible?

The answer, of course, is that the Demiscreants are wrong about everything and the Republicans are right about everything. [Kidding, kidding ...]

Anyway, I'll keep trying to hack away at some of the rhetorical underbrush.

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Where was I? Oh yes, it's a year on Powerblogs for Industrial Blog. Thanks to Chris my host. And thanks to my regular commenters mlaff, SuperG, Harry, Chris and MarcV in the past year. [Four of them have links on the right side.] I always look forward to hearing what you have to say, even if I don't always respond. Thanks to the occasional commenters and semi-regular readers, too, such as Jen, Francis X, JMF and the blogger with the best nickname ever, ZombyBoy. And finally thanks to the largest but quietist group, the silent readers. All of you have helped make Industrial Blog, despite its modest size, an enterprise worth doing. Thanks again.