Humble beginnings

Hello!

I've been surprised lately by how many of my friends keep a blog - whether it's a low-key (or even secret) one, or a large-scale widely publicised affair that gets splashed across my Facebook news feed from time to time. This, along with the desire to express things about myself that I may not otherwise find ways to do so, is the driving force that has led me to start writing a blog of my own. I am writing this mostly for my own benefit, but I hope that those people who are close to me and are willing to take the time to read what I have to say will get to know me a little better too.

In this, my first blog post, I would like to explain why I have chosen "Blogarithms" as my blog's title. (I can't tell whether this is a good or a bad title; if it turns out to be more awful than I thought I may have to change it!) I wanted a title that reflects who I am and how I feel about blogging. I love to study maths and physical sciences - I'm fascinated by our world and our universe, and I could spend my life just learning about them - and of course, most people will have heard the word "logarithm" and at least vaguely connected it with these subjects, even if it means very little to them in technical terms. I have always found study and academia to be my arena, something I find comes fairly naturally and something that I enjoy, and so it is a large part of my identity. Blogging, on the other hand, is about communication and about people, and these are things that I sometimes struggle to understand (I know that sounds rather autistic; as far as I know, I am not autistic!) - I find it hard to write things like blogs and journals, and even harder to find the motivation to update them regularly. I am attempting something that I find challenging and at times, uncomfortable. "Blogarithms" represents my attempt to move out of my comfort zone of maths and physics and into the uncomfortable position of having to write down something that is not equations and formulae.

I find it midly ironic that for most people, the comfort zones would be reversed - writing and communicating no problem at all, whilst the thought of handling logarithms and equations would be enough to send them running. Perhaps this is what made the title appeal to me the most.

I would like to finish this post by pointing out that although I have claimed to find communication and people difficult topics, I mean this in the sense that given the choice, I would rather fill my head with mathematical puzzles than interpersonal ones. Think of it as an escapism, something that helps me to relax and clear my head. This does not mean that I can't handle people when I need to, nor that I am unable to write clearly and concisely when necessary (granted, this blog post isn't the best example of conciseness, but who's going to complain?). I have to hope that if a potential employer were to stumble upon this blog and identify myself as the author, they would understand the context in which this is meant!

That's all, for now. If I don't check back in a couple of days and write something new then I give you (the World Wide Web in general) permission to hunt me down and demand another blog post. (Or if you prefer, you can just tell me to shut up.)

This really is the last thing I'm going to say: the clocks go back tonight and I'm really thankful as I've managed to stay up pretty late, as usual, and I could really use an extra hour's sleep. Or alternatively, an extra hour on my laptop. No prizes for guessing which it will be!