Why am I blogging?

It's kinda funny how I feel the need to justify why I'm blogging, as if every blogger must blog to serve some purpose. I think such justification is warranted, but doesn't really need to be expressed. As long as you know why you're blogging, you're good.

I am a voracious reader of blogs, but never really got into blogging myself. I've tried this a couple of times before, but those were more academic exercises than real attempts to start blogging.

As I read blogs, observe people and their behaviors and basically live each day I form opinions, like most other human beings, that I keep to myself and sometimes (very rarely) express them to people I interact with personally. However, I think it's time to unleash my opinions to the Intertubes - everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn't I? ;)

Seriously though, there are a couple of reasons why I feel the need to blog -

As an engineer, I've found myself making observations and critiquing things that others benefit from. I've been told that my opinions are often 'interesting' (whatever that means), and while I may not always be right, I seem to have built a decent track record that gives me the confidence to risk embarrassing myself in public. I'm hoping that my blog posts about Technology will be even mildly interesting to others out there. There's the personal growth angle here too - in many ways, articulating thoughts into words takes some effort and makes you reason with your opinions. Blogging seems to be a great way to cultivate this skill.

The other big reason to blog is to be a participant in this new world of open communication, instead of being just a spectator. Reading interesting blogs but not blogging myself made me feel like I'm cheating, in some ways. I know I'm late to the party, but better late than never! I hope to use this platform to comment on society, trends, human behaviors and anything else that I wish to express.

Lastly - and I'm ambivalent about this one - I believe blogging will somehow help my professional career. It's almost as if nowadays, the fact that you have something to say is as important (if not more) than what you have to say. I don't want this to be an explicit goal of blogging (which is why I intend to blog about more than just Technology) but as the saying goes "If you built it, they will come". Notice how nondescript 'it' and 'they' are - by design!

Oh, as far as the title of my blog goes - I was looking for something witty (I envy all the bloggers-with-cool-blog-names out there) but I ended up with something more aligned with the reason I'm blogging - "Mulligan!", my chance to re-do.

Argh - who am I kidding - the truth is, I just played a crappy round of golf today (shot 118, lost 4 balls and broke a club) and I couldn't come up with anything better.