I'm Joel. Hi.



I've never had a blog.



That's a lie.



I had a blog, before it was cool to have a blog back in 2004. Then it became cool, and I felt insignificant in the "bloggosphere(?)". It wasn't cutting edge to blog anymore. So I just quit. I'm pretty sure it was all self-important garbage (is calling a blog self-important garbage redundant?).

This is going somewhere (I think).

When I was 8, I lit a camp fire in my back yard. It wasn't even really my back yard. It was in a wooded area, past a cornfield that I had found when I was exploring. It was because I was a cub scout, and obviously knew how to light fires. You needed about 12 pieces of gravel in a circle, some sticks, and matches. It also helps, in a way, when there is a drought that summer. I lit the sticks on fire. The gravel failed me. A small grass fire ensued. Thankfully my mom was able to put the fire out using an antique wash bin and water from a creek near the fire.



When I was 13, I had a go cart that didn't start very well. I thought taking off the carb and gas tank and then replacing them would fix it. I dismantled the sucker. I also threw away all the gaskets that held the stuff together...because how important can little paper things be anyway? My parents sold the go cart for scrap metal last fall before they moved out of state. The last 15 years it sat with flat tires in the corner of my parents small barn. A couple of times my dad got it out and pulled it with a riding lawn mower and chain to simulate go-kartness for my son.



When I was 17 I hit Garrett's Corsica with my Nissan. I thought I could do body work on my red Nissan Pulsar. I could mend the Nissan Red with Honda Orange- Red. It matched really well...at night. I don't have the thousand words to describe the picture of it during the day. My dad was actually pretty cool with me on that one. That car went on to be driven by my brother and then Ben (miss that kid).


When I was 23, I had a son. I started a wisdom blog, because I had a kid. Obviously just having a kid makes you wise. I had like 4 people read it even. It was about like how people are like fruitflies or something. Its probably still out there somewhere, and embarrassing.

All these things are examples of things I "knew". Its weird because I know less now than ever seemingly.

I don't really think there are many people who know much. There tons of people who act like they know much. It feels good to seem like you know a lot. It makes you safe--like your ideas are in a tower, above challenge. So when someone challenges a notion, you can scoff at their lowly ideas. I think my 2004 blog was a tower blog.

Whatever. Who cares.

This blog is really just going to be a coping skill for me, and if somebody reads it- cool.

I wish blogger had a template that looked like Doogie Howser's computer screen. It would remind me that what I am doing is a lot closer to journaling on an Apple II than musing for the New Yorker.

So no more self important garbage. Just whatever won't fit in my tweets (which are kind of self important garbage light).

This blog is going to be more about this: Knowing is overrated. Discovering is the reward.