Nestor, WTF?!?

Where the author writes about who he is and why he’s here.

I’ve setup this journal as a way to recall my journey in computing and how computers have influenced my decisions, good or bad.

Back in 1991, my mother’s friend (Ann) had an IBM PC XT at home (640KB of memory and no hard drives). Ann taught me how to boot up the machine using a floppy disk and start programs such as WordStar and PrintMaster. I played DOS games with her kids who are close to my age. I spent at least one summer there, with the occasional visits until 1994. Ann died on the same year and my mother died two years after.

A few months after my mother died, it was time to decide which course to take in college. With only a practical understanding of computing (no programming classes in high school), I applied for a computer science program at a university. Luckily I passed the entrance exam.

Nestor: I decided to keep this post as a reminder.

What happens if I update this post?

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.