The Sarge's Thoughts

The title of this post says it all: I’m about to do something stupid.  Military service members have always had trouble with blogs, and I expect this to be no different.  I’ll try to avoid the pitfalls other military bloggers have encountered, but I may very well end up sticking my foot so far into my own mouth that I might end up swallowing my own ass.  On the other hand, this may turn into something worthwhile, as I do enjoy writing from time to time.

When it comes to writing, my mother and a multitude of teachers will happily tell you that English wasn’t my best course in school.  Oh, I understand the language easily enough, but proper grammar and sentence structure always eluded my grasp.  I also tend to over-use commas and put semi-colons in the wrong places.  I’m not perfect, and I certainly don’t seek to be.  Oh, my spelling is also atrocious, but luckily my browser has a spell-check, so hopefully I won’t screw that one up too bad.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that I ask that people be gentle when judging my ramblings.  I’m not writing an English paper, and I’m not asking that these posts be graded.

I’ve spent 5+ years bumming around the internet and posting in various forums and message boards.  The last 5+ years have given me a healthy respect for other peoples’ opinions and points of view, as well as broadening my understanding of the world we live in.  As a result, I’ve decided to start this blog as a way to express my own thoughts and concerns outside of the various social networking sites and topical discussion forums I’ve frequented.  I don’t expect this blog to get a whole lot of traffic, honestly.  It’s just something I’ve decided to do in my free time.  I normally don’t have a lot to talk about, so I can’t see myself making a post every single day.  On the other hand, I might blog myself stupid once I get the hang of this.  Since I’m not limited to specific topics, I might go whole-hog and live on this damn thing.  Who knows.

By the way, my language is going to be kept as PG as I can, but occasionally I’m going to get rather colorful.  Someone I highly respected once told me that profanity is a sign of mental weakness, that if you can’t express yourself without using profanity then it displays a lack of intellectual ability.  I agree with that, to an extent.  People who can’t convey a thought without swearing every other word are definitely coming across as lacking in the brain-power department.  At the same time, though, sometimes you can’t express a feeling adequately without an appropriately placed four-letter-word.  I’ll keep my posts “family-friendly” more often than not, but not every post of mine should be included into a grade-school weekly newsletter.  For the most part, though, this blog will be safe enough for Prime Time broadcast television.

I’m going to go ahead and close this post out for now, but I do leave you with this: I’m going to ramble on about a variety of topics, and if anyone wants my opinion on something, feel free to ask.

– Sergeant Van