So what's the point? Why on Earth would anyone bother setting up a new website with all the cost and hassle that goes along with it? There are hundreds of sites out there where you can post pictures of cats, or sunsets, or ramble on about work, so why bother re-inventing the wheel?

Well, if all I wanted to do was to post photos of my dinner or 'poke' a friend then there are sites for that. If I wanted to I could have set up something on Blogger or WordPress and used all the lovely free tools that come bundled with them...but these things are like bowling with the bumpers up - they're safe: You bowl the ball and if you manage to keep it in the lane then you are probably going to hit something. So why would you bother spending any amount of time setting up shared hosting and fiddling around with A-records when really it should be point and click simple?

Well, the reasons are twofold:

Firstly, to go back to the bowling analogy, what happens if you decide that you don't want to bowl in this lane any more because the lane next you is so much more fun? Or that you don't even want to bowl at all because skateboards are better. Well, by putting the pieces together myself not only makes this a place for me to brain-dump, but far more importantly it becomes a learning exercise too where I'll get to play with toys that I don't normally get to do in my day job. There are no bumpers, so if I do roll a gutterball I'll know that next time I need to roll it slightly different. If by the hundredth gutterball I'm still no better then maybe it will be time to put the bumpers up or take up a different sport. In the meantime I'll be learning new things as I go and get to relive those eureka moments when I discover a new way of how the Internet does its magic.

But secondly, this blog is for me and it will improve the way that I approach communication: The written word is unbelievably powerful and if nothing else comes from this blog other than I improve my writing skills, then it will be completely worthwhile. I read on Troy Hunt's blog that:

85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge
- Carnegie Institute of Technology

The act of branding my words into the the internet means that I'll have to think more about the message I'm trying to put across and have it available for all to scrutinise. I'm not expecting to get it right first time, but in the long run, I know that I'll improve and my posts will get better. Sometime in the future there may even be the opportunity for comments, but they'll only be turned on when there's something worth commenting on.

In the meantime, I'll be learning and improving. That's the plan.