Hello World (Again)!

I have written this introduction multiple times, some revisions were in my head, others on paper, and others still typed out. Initially, I didn't know how to start over again. I have written and shared on the Internet before. I have attempted to keep up with a blog and keep people interested, while I become more dissonant and less interested over time. To this day, I still have misgivings about starting over. The other day, however, I read Matt Alexander's lessons after a year of writing and got to thinking that I had learned many of the lessons to which he so succinctly confessed. I have been here before, at the start of something of which I cannot yet understand fully. So here I am.

Hello World… again!

The fact is that I tried to stop writing. While finishing my graduate degree, I had very little time and energy to follow up on things I was reading and thoughts I wished to share. In the attempt to alleviate the pressure on my brain holding all that in caused, I started condensing my opinions on things into 140 and 256 character blocks, while longer and more personal items went to my 50- friends on Facebook and Path. Unfortunately, that doesn't cut it now that I am officially done with my first (yes, there will be more) graduate degree.

In all the time that went to my hiatus, I had a lot of time to think about how to move forward with my writing. I wanted a place to create and a place to think. A place where I can put my thoughts on things that are important to me. At the same time, a place where I can clear my head. I tried a number of Wordpress blogs, Tumblr spaces, and other services to create such a place. What I have found is the fact that I am looking for ease. I never expect writing to be my life or my career; that is not the point to me. I don't really intend to make money from this endeavor. As such, I wanted to be able to make the space what I wanted without an all-consuming timeframe. I will continue to work elsewhere to support myself and my family. I will continue to share information in other ways, but I will not let it become more important than experiencing life. Meanwhile, what I expect from this space is a way to communicate what I do, whether to my parents, friends, or complete strangers.

In the end, I hope to attract people here that would be interested in all sorts of things, chief among them technology and food (which is part of the reason why Kyle Baxter and I get along so well). Aside from that, I may share current events, personal ideas, or pictures and other media. I plan to use the twitter feed (@eloquentfeed and @jayray) as a link list of sorts and save this space for long-form writing almost exclusively. No matter what the content though, I wish to stand by the name of the site: Engineered Eloquence.

I like to think of myself as an engineer, even if only viscerally. My undergraduate degree was in mechanical engineering, but I have a passion for technology, something that is not uncommon now. Though I have worked the majority of my career in educational technology and support, I like to discover how things work and problem solve based on that knowledge. I would say that I obtained said penchant from my design background. At the same time, I always enjoyed writing, though it was not my first passion. Getting my thoughts down on paper was something that always felt natural to me. I want to use this space to put words to my thoughts, whether technological, pedagogical, alimentary, or otherwise.

In short, I recognize that my passion for technology, like my ability to string words together to form a website, is a common occurrence in technology circles these days. I recognize that I may not have much to say on a subject that is important to people who may read this site. I recognize that it may be a long road to truly understand for what this space should or can be used. And finally, I recognize that I will have to earn the trust of my readership in order to move forward in this way. 

In other words, Welcome and Enjoy!

-Jay Ray