The beginning is always the most difficult part. It is like when you make a bet and toss a coin. The moment your finger starts the movement is the moment that takes your breath away. Once the coin has started its inexorable trajectory – headstailsheadstailsheadstails – once the coin is in the air, some sort of peace fills your spirit. In that moment you know that you are just in the hands of Destiny, of something that in any case is beyond your control. It is not then, but when you still have the illusion that you have a choice that hundreds of doubts and what-ifs fill your mind.
I have been thinking about this blog for some time now, and probably the freezing Midwestern winter is a good moment to start this new project (or to try at least). Some years ago I moved some steps in the world of blogs with scs.uaz.ch, and I remember that in the three years I maintained it I had a lot of fun. When one blogs something, everything becomes a little bit more important. Even if you know that very few people will read it, the fact that an idea, an experience, a thought, no matter how stupid it is, is there and that you can go and look back at it whenever you want and laugh and frown, makes things somehow special. Moreover, this time everything is going to be in English and hopefully my writing skills are going to get better with time (which is always a quite desirable side effect).
The initial idea was to have a sort of literary sandbox where I could come and experiment with; a sandbox where ideas could be fixed. Sometimes thoughts go lost just because one does not take time to sit down, think about them a little bit and structure them. The majority of times it is just nonsense, but I think it is still worth it to give them a try. Quoting an old movie: “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world” – if anything, five years from now I will have the sure proof of how useless all this was. Then I realized that I know people that would have even more interesting things to say, people with whom I had great discussions. Some of them are scattered around the world and I thought it would be great if they were willing to share their experiences, their intuitions. Anything. Research, personal projects, hopes, dreams, reflections. Anything, they consider that is worth to share in a somewhat more formal, yet more experimental (and maybe more intimate), setting compared to, say, Facebook. And it is from this that the subtitle of the blog comes from. I am firmly convinced that life experiences and ideas are made to be shared, otherwise what is the whole point? Perhaps, one day I will open this website and I will see a new post from someone that I do not even know. So, what is going to be the topic of this blog? Everything or maybe nothing. I have always been a big fan of emerging behavior.
Disconnected Thoughts 
Hello,
I’m glad you want to start this new adventure! Since i just started a new and extremely boring job, I think that i will try to read and contribute as actively as possible to this blog’s life. So, if I understood well, this space it’s something similar to the “free speech corner” in London, where anyone can go there and make his toughts public, right? Is there any particular rule or limitation to the contents and the topics discussed here? I don’t know if these questions are legitimate, but somtimes it can be difficult to understand where is the limit, whether i can go that far, or i should stop here.
As a sailor would say at the beginning of a new adventure, i wish you fair wind and calm seas!
Moe
Yeah, I’d say that the free speech corner comparison fits pretty well. At the moment, there is just one rule: Do not write against the Queen. All the rest is allowed. Jokes apart, this really wants to be a sandbox for ideas. So, trips, political thoughts, soap-box races with videos/pictures, short stories are all welcome topics. Just do not be unoriginal, but I am sure that it is going to be quite easy for you. Otherwise, I want to see how it goes before organizing things if necessary. If people like the idea and there will be many contributors, one can think of a page with a small bio for each writer and to organize the blog in sections, one for each topic. But for now, let’s let self-organizational forces work.
I have just added you as an author (if I did things correctly), so you can write something whenever you want.
Glad to have you on board!