Well I figured the best way to open up this blog was to point out the obvious...
I will admit, when I was first thinking about doing this blog I was a little hesitant... There was this little demonic voice in my head that said "What are you... a wife or a 'soccer mom' or something? Men don't do blogs like this..." But in the end I was like, what the heck. I beg to differ on what actually constitutes as a "real man". And... of course my opinion is the correct one.
So what is my intent with this blog? Well... My intent is to perhaps show at least snippets of the life of perhaps a "different" sort of man. I say "different" in quote marks because I think the reality is that there are a lot more men like me than most people probably realize.
What kind of man am I, you might ask?
I'm the kind of man that can be a very manly-man, with a beard, and dress like a lumberjack, or wear cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, who can watch hardcore action movies with guns and explosions, who can listen to certain types of rock, who loves woodworking and working in machine-shop type atmospheres... yet can be emotionally drawn into a drama, even a romantic drama or comedy, and get sucked into cartoons, and be very hyper about things like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, and take replica swords hanging on my wall and run outside in the snow and combat imaginary foes with them (yes... this is true), and find great happiness in very silly music, and clean and do laundry and enjoy doing both, and cook and love doing so (and not just manly-man things like steaks and burgers and dogs, but pastas, and casseroles, and breads, and desserts, etc., etc.)...
It can be very interesting being the type of man that I am in the culture that we live in today. Specifically my interaction with other men can be very interesting. Specifically the men who are different from me. Many times I have been surrounded by other men who just assume I am like them in terms of their "manliness". I will admit most of the time I just keep silent rather than speaking up and saying "Well, actually that's not what I think..."
See, certain things they say may cause me to wrinkle my nose... But I can no more say they are wrong for being the type of Man they are than they can say that I am wrong for being the type of Man I am. Neither of us, whether the more Unemotional Man or the More-emotional Man, is wrong... just different.
That said... I do fully admit I am a little biased. And that probably will show itself in this blog. I'm just being honest, though! :) I want to try my best, though, not to get carried away with that. I know I could probably spend a whole BLOG pointing out what I consider to be "stupidity" in my fellow men... But I want to make this blog less about pointing out other people's "problems" and more focus on my life, and how things affect me, things that I deal with, things that I do in my spare time.
The thing is this blog will only get more interesting as time goes on as I am excited to say marriage is on my horizon in the upcoming year. And that is something else that will be fun to explore and blog about. Things that I (and my future wife Julia) learn from our relationship. Now obviously the marriage is a sacred thing so I wouldn't just post everything, willy-nilly, on here. But it would be interesting, I bet, to keep a record of some of the things that I learn in this relationship. Mostly it will be concerning what I learn about myself. And boy have I already learned a lot about myself even before engagement and marriage :)
Something I don't want to do is turn this blog into a Negativity Toilet. A place where I just vent and release all my negativity. Too many blogs are becoming that these days, and while it may be good to have that kind of outlet... I think most bloggers don't realize how their negativity can really affect (sometimes even damage) those who are reading, so that, in the end, everyone is 'suffering'. I'm not saying there won't be negativity on this blog, but I am committed to preventing it from overwhelming the blog, or even becoming a majority, or even taking up HALF the blog! That is my mission statement :)
So, with that said, now that I have written a thousand mile-long opening blog... I leave you to explore the world of the man who wears cowboy boots and loves to work in the kitchen.
So what is my intent with this blog? Well... My intent is to perhaps show at least snippets of the life of perhaps a "different" sort of man. I say "different" in quote marks because I think the reality is that there are a lot more men like me than most people probably realize.
What kind of man am I, you might ask?
I'm the kind of man that can be a very manly-man, with a beard, and dress like a lumberjack, or wear cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, who can watch hardcore action movies with guns and explosions, who can listen to certain types of rock, who loves woodworking and working in machine-shop type atmospheres... yet can be emotionally drawn into a drama, even a romantic drama or comedy, and get sucked into cartoons, and be very hyper about things like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, and take replica swords hanging on my wall and run outside in the snow and combat imaginary foes with them (yes... this is true), and find great happiness in very silly music, and clean and do laundry and enjoy doing both, and cook and love doing so (and not just manly-man things like steaks and burgers and dogs, but pastas, and casseroles, and breads, and desserts, etc., etc.)...
It can be very interesting being the type of man that I am in the culture that we live in today. Specifically my interaction with other men can be very interesting. Specifically the men who are different from me. Many times I have been surrounded by other men who just assume I am like them in terms of their "manliness". I will admit most of the time I just keep silent rather than speaking up and saying "Well, actually that's not what I think..."
See, certain things they say may cause me to wrinkle my nose... But I can no more say they are wrong for being the type of Man they are than they can say that I am wrong for being the type of Man I am. Neither of us, whether the more Unemotional Man or the More-emotional Man, is wrong... just different.
That said... I do fully admit I am a little biased. And that probably will show itself in this blog. I'm just being honest, though! :) I want to try my best, though, not to get carried away with that. I know I could probably spend a whole BLOG pointing out what I consider to be "stupidity" in my fellow men... But I want to make this blog less about pointing out other people's "problems" and more focus on my life, and how things affect me, things that I deal with, things that I do in my spare time.
The thing is this blog will only get more interesting as time goes on as I am excited to say marriage is on my horizon in the upcoming year. And that is something else that will be fun to explore and blog about. Things that I (and my future wife Julia) learn from our relationship. Now obviously the marriage is a sacred thing so I wouldn't just post everything, willy-nilly, on here. But it would be interesting, I bet, to keep a record of some of the things that I learn in this relationship. Mostly it will be concerning what I learn about myself. And boy have I already learned a lot about myself even before engagement and marriage :)
Something I don't want to do is turn this blog into a Negativity Toilet. A place where I just vent and release all my negativity. Too many blogs are becoming that these days, and while it may be good to have that kind of outlet... I think most bloggers don't realize how their negativity can really affect (sometimes even damage) those who are reading, so that, in the end, everyone is 'suffering'. I'm not saying there won't be negativity on this blog, but I am committed to preventing it from overwhelming the blog, or even becoming a majority, or even taking up HALF the blog! That is my mission statement :)
So, with that said, now that I have written a thousand mile-long opening blog... I leave you to explore the world of the man who wears cowboy boots and loves to work in the kitchen.
