About this blog

Updated 5/10/2011

If you're wondering why this blog has such a strange name, that was the subject of my very first post.

The most successful blogs -- those with really large readerships, anyway -- usually focus on a single topic. This isn't one of those successful blogs. I blog about everything. To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer is my brain on shuffle.

I tend to blog about things in "waves," I guess. I'll be very interested in writing about a topic for awhile and write a lot of posts about it. Then I'll get interested in something else and write many posts around that general theme for a few months. But I won't necessarily abandon the previous topic; I'll probably keep writing about it, but less often.

Anyway, these are the main things I blog about. These are all part of the long-term mix, although their frequency varies.

Often I talk about pop culture, i.e., books, movies, and music. I like doing reviews, although often they're about older releases rather than what just came out.

I try to be funny a lot -- I think I succeed more often than not.

I talk about politics too, especially during major elections. I'm not a big fan of the Democratic Party, but when the only real alternative is a party that just spent eight years wrecking the country, what're you gonna do? (Seriously, do Americans have short fucking memories or what?)

I'm not gay, but I support LGBT rights and sometimes write about related issues.

I joined the Mormon Church when I was 20, and I was a devout believer for over 20 years. I'm not anymore. I'm an atheist and a humanist, but religion and Mormonism specifically are still of interest to me, so I write about religion fairly often.

Autism diagnosis is an inexact science, but I have many characteristics of Asperger's syndrome. This discovery has given me a new perspective on my own behavior and my life story. I occasionally explore that new perspective in this blog.

I lived in Japan for about 10 years. I speak and read Japanese fluently, and I make my living as a translator. I haven't been back there much lately, though, so I don't write about Japan very much.

I'm married and I have four children ages 7 to 20, but I rarely write about that side of my life.

Last but not least, I make no distinction between on-line and IRL friends. I consider my regular readers to be my friends. I hope you'll think of me the same way.