Post the first, in which I point some things out.

The thing is, I have no real reason for starting a blog. My friend Marty has been writing one since he left Chicago to pursue his cycling industry dreams in Milwaukee. My friend Tom has one that appears not to have been updated in several months (possibly since Marty left for Milwaukee, in an odd coincidence). And my girlfriend Marissa has one that hasn't been updated in at least the entire time I've known her. In fact, I know so little about Marissa's blog that I can't even link to it... so I suppose it's entirely possible that she's been secretly writing in it all along, perhaps weekly updates about the many challenges of spending serious amounts of time with me, only one of which is that I'm a know-it-all... but I doubt it. So it's not like my whole friend group consists of a bunch of netizens of the blogosphere, tap-tap-tapping their peer pressure so persistently that I just couldn't resist broadcasting my own deepest thoughts and dreams into the digital void.

[I find myself mildly amused by the way I keep qualifying all the names with labels like "my friend" and "my girlfriend" since I fully expect the audience of this rambling to consist of only my friends and my girlfriend who, of course, all know each other. But in the event that a Google search for "total jackass" sends some unwitting web surfer to my blog, and they are suddenly trapped under something heavy during a freak earthquake and can only stare, frustrated, at this ridiculousness, I'd like to give them some context.]

[I just ran a Google search for "total jackass". Sadly there was no link to this page. My favorite among the first page of results was a link to a video in which a group of people try to drive a Jeep up a steep rock. Hilarity ensues.]

My blog beginnings went something more like this: I had a free moment at work. No one had made their plays in my Scrabulous games. I thought, hmm, I think I'll start a blog. I spent the next twenty minutes agonizing over layouts and colors and fonts. Only now, four hours later, have I gotten to the serious business of actually posting anything. But now that I've brought up the layouts and colors and such, let me just point out how attractive my color combination is. Some other notes:

• "A Wintery Mix" is a phase meteorologists in Chicago, and presumably other northern cities, use to describe the phenomenon of precipitation when ground temperatures are near, or moving through, the freezing point. When this happens, it causes a delightful mix of rain, sleet, snow, and general depression to fall from the sky. We were supposed to get a wintery mix at some point today, and Marissa and I were comparing notes this morning about the weather information we'd both acquired in our separate preferred ways. (Note to self: write a future blog post about the total scam that is weather prediction.) As it happens the wintery mix, sadly, never came. We have hopes for tomorrow. Anyway, it sounded like a good name for a band, but I've decided to start a blog instead.
• To the left, you'll notice links to some blogs. Hopefully I'll add some more so I don't seem like such a friendless loser, but at present, there is only: transplanted.chicagoan which is Marty's blog (this qualifier is directed at the poor web surfer trapped under something heavy); tdope, which is Tom's ancient history; and My Old Kentucky Blog, which is my favorite music blog.
• As my need to spew unsolicited opinions at total strangers was reaching a boiling point, I joined Yelp a few weeks ago and started reviewing restaurants and other businesses. Since it makes me feel more self-important to imagine that someone reading this may want to read that, I put that little flash applet on this page. Also, that constantly updating, animated, customizable little window was just too cool to pass up.
• For those of you reading this who don't know (which is exactly none of you) I organize a meetup.com group. We see indie rock bands at local venues. You can click on the link to check it out, and I hope you do. But seeing how the Meetup badge is so phenomenally ugly, especially compared to the sweet Yelp applet above it, I may give it the boot and replace it with an old fashioned link. (Seriously, you can't even customize the background to get rid of those heinous white corners. Dudes at Meetup... get with the program!)

So there you are. It's George's blog. Let the angels rejoice.