02 February 2010

My Blog Does Not Define Me!

But it is a part of who I am.

Since I began this blog, my only intention was that it would be a place for me to jot down my sometimes random thoughts on life.

I'm not able to pigeon-hole my existence into one thing, and I am not able to separate the many things that I do within their own particular venues.

If anyone reads and benefits from my musings and ramblings, I will enjoy the community and the dialogue.  If no-one reads, then I will at least have recorded and ordered my thoughts so that I can make sense of them.
I will never try to collect followers for followers sake, and I will never advertise on this blog (I don't think donating to the Haiti Relief Effort counts, do you?).  If I could make money writing here or in books or wherever, great.  If not, my life will not be over.  The sun will still rise and set, I will still play with my kids and love on my wife.  I'll still probably do some fishing, and maybe scrape together enough bones to go flying every once in a while.  I will still camp and walk trails and bike and catch critters and continue the love affair I have with the great outdoors.  And play paintball, probably twice a year or so.

Even if my blog disappears right now, I will continue to write what I think, and explore different ideas that I have had and continue to probe just how I can be the best person I can be.

I have tried here to be open and honest with myself, as well as any readers who happen by here.  I am always amazed at how the internet can be used to create community, and I am fully aware that the online community affords us some measure of anonymity while at the same time creating sometimes a more honest dialogue with those we interact with.

We can talk about things on the internet and say things on the internet that we might not say to someone face to face.  Our screen names and online persona allow us to be completely ourselves, without any sort of accountability that may come from interacting face to face in the real world.

In short, we can have our cake and eat it too.  Online cake.  Web 2.0 flavor, with Google icing and some Yahoo candles on it for good measure.

I think I have been guilty of that here.  I'm not saying I haven't been honest or open, but I am guilty of hiding behind my screen name every once in a while.

Other blogs that I frequent have the author's name spread out over the entire blog, so you just can't miss who is actually writing the posts.

Other blogs are more subtle, but it is still clear that the blog author is a real person, living in the real world, with other real people forming real relationships.

Not so much with me.

I do live in the real world, with other real people, and I do have real relationships.

And none of those other people call me wingnut.  Only me, and only here.

I wonder how open and honest I can be if I am at the same time building up an online persona that only partly represents who I am.  Maybe the only person this matters to is me, but it's been on my mind a bit lately, and I think it's time I fess up.  In the interest of being completely open and honest and myself, here I am.

My name is Jason.

I live in West Michigan with my wife and two children.

I love God, and constantly try to be the person He created me to be.

I love my family, and try to build them up and love them and support them in every possible way.

I love aviation, and can usually be found drooling over some sort of machine that can leave the ground under it's own power or mechanical features.  If not that, then never very far from an airport.

I also enjoy being outside in whatever capacity I can be, whether it be walking, biking, hiking, fishing, or playing paintball.

That's me, a brief overview.  I intend to ratchet up the community on here, to be as honest and open and myself as I can possibly be online.

If you've got a moment, please introduce yourself!


jj

7 comments:

Ted M. Gossard said...

Jason, So you're jj/ wingnut, eh?! Nice to meet you. Yes, I kind of feel the same way about blogging. I tend to love the kind of community it affords, but my "writing" probably does me far more good in sorting out thoughts, and hopefully life, than for any reader. Thanks for sharing. I love your love for your family and for life.

CeridianMN said...

Nice to meet you Jason.

If you followed my name link out of curiosity at this random person that suddenly showed up and started to comment you would rather quickly see that I am Adam, married to Heather, and have a son. Our last name is painfully obvious as well. You might have picked up that we live in Minnesota, outer Minneapolis suburbs. While scanning my previous postings would show I am a software developer, the gamer/tech geek in me is not as obvious, and the wannabe pilot is rather hidden.

It is definitely not as obvious that I try to be the Christian that Jesus wants me to be. I'm working on that. I'm trying to let God work on it even more.

I'm scattered all over the web as CeridianMN these days. I think of it like a nickname.

Anonymous said...

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Jason Jasperse said...

Yes, Ted, that's me!

I find that it also helps to write this stuff down, so now I have a record of my real priorities with this blog, and I can hold myself accountable to it (and any readers can as well). Like Tom Clancy said, "If you don't write it down, it never happened."

Adam, thanks for randomly stopping by and commenting! My cousin works in IT, but most of what he does goes right over my head. I suppose with the proper amount of force it would stick, but right now I'll be content with my very limited computer skills. I checked out your blog the other day, that computer program sounds interesting!

Anonymous! Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to be of assistance to you. Please don't hesitate to stop by again!

jj

~*Michelle*~ said...

Very cool....did you feel a sense of freedom after writing? I love it!

I pretty much lay it all out with my blog....probably open myself up too much at that.

But that's OK.....one of my favorite lines is that I would rather be hated for who I am and what I believe in, than loved for something I am not.

And with that.....I give you, Jason....a big *high five*

Peace,
*~Michelle~*

Jason Jasperse said...

Michelle,

Thanks for stopping by!

If you want me to be honest, I felt pretty cheesy and contrived when I wrote it. It's funny, I'm writing a post about honesty, and I felt more dishonest, almost like I was preaching to the choir.

It was still something that was on my mind, and I felt like I should bring it up anyway!

jj

~*Michelle*~ said...

Tried emailing you back with your comment, but didn't have an addy.....so c/p here:



Good point.....I guess my only advice is that it will soon get more easy and feel more genuine. (not saying/implying that you were not genuine before).

Then you'll have to stop yourself from exposing way too much information such as your ugly bunions, embarrassing bodily functions or your quirky annoying OCD habits......oh wait, that would be me.

Keep on, keeping on my friend!

*~Michelle~*