Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Here It Goes Again

It seems appropriate to start blogging anew as I embark on life as an Indiana University undergraduate journalism student. It's the trendy thing to do for journalists.

I retired from the teen blogging scene awhile back for several reasons. My posts on the egocentrically titled Nathan Report were predominantly personal, mercilessly sophomoric and essentially self-satisfying. When I shut down that blog, I figured my blogging days were over and was fine with that.

Why am I blogging again? Two reasons:

1) I need to hone in a writing style. I might know big words (which I don't particularly use extensively) and all the right grammar, but it's personality that sells a columnist. If I ever had thoughts on becoming one who comments on, rather than reports, the news, my words need to be marketable. This blog could be considered the practice field. The target range.

2) I have things to say. All bloggers do. But not all bloggers are 18-year old, IU journalism students involved with IU Navigators and the local RP church, are they? My perspective is unique (if nothing else) to every other blogger on the Web.

What am I going to write about? Everything except me. The closest I'll get is to share something that happened to me in an introductory bit and then delve into what I thought about it (i.e. "In American History today, the professor said...") This is as personal as a post will get. Personal, anecdotal sob stories won't exist. Everything else is fair game. Sports, faith, politics, news, entertainment and whatever else strikes my fancy.

And speaking of which, NFL fans from 44 states are having a field day today. The Patriots are cheaters! As much as I'd like to see the Patriots forfeit the remainder of their regular season games, replay a few dubious playoff games from years past and lose first round draft picks through 2025, I'm inclined to think this fiasco is not as big a deal as I once hoped it could be. The advantage gained from stealing defensive signals is probably equal to one player's advantage gained using HGH. Wait...

By the way, the title and URL of the blog (As I Ought To) are lifted from Ephesians 6 (the Armor of God). Paul, as a self-titled "ambassador in chains" proclaimed he would speak boldly about the gospel, as he ought to. I would hope to do similar, even if it isn't explicit in every last post. The whole of the blog should be to glorify God. And it doesn't start unless without being girded in the truth.

Until next time...in which my musings will be specifically related to a topic or two.