So what's the story?

I've been reading weblogs off and on since last year, all the time feeling highly ambivalent about the form: done well, they're the epitome of what the web should be; done badly they're, um, bad. Now that the blog community is engaged in a burst of self-reflection that will inevitably lead to more and more old hands giving it up altogether and moving on to pastures new, it seems the ideal time to swoop in and pick up a few leftover readers. So if you like reading leftovers, welcome to my space-age bachelor blog. (I'm not actually a bachelor. It's an Esquivel reference. See? I'm linking already.)

Hang on... what's a blog?

Derek Powazek and a cast of thousands have already answered this question so that Johnny-come-latelies like me don't have to. Now Read On.

What's your gimmick?

In only seven weeks my wife and I will be flying out of Canberra, Australia, where we currently live, to Madagascar, which we've wanted to visit for the past five years. It's not like we haven't been anywhere else in the meantime, but our other destinations have tended to be in the exact opposite direction.

After that, I fly on to San Francisco (where we've wanted to live for almost as long) to look for work or die in the attempt. (Metaphorically speaking. I'm hoping that the process of getting an H1-B work visa isn't actually fatal.)

So, this blog has seven weeks to live, after which it definitely won't be updated for at least a month (not too many Internet cafes in Antananarivo), and probably won't be for a month or two after that. Then I'll just archive it and start a new one. ('Seven weeks to Sacramento.')

So will you only have stuff about Madagascar?

No, but you can probably expect that the subject will cross my mind now and then.

What does Madagascar have to do with rapid gastropods?

Speedysnail is my personal site, and predates this by almost a year. It's chock full of juicy content just waiting for you to explore, after Seven Weeks has whetted your appetite. If you want to know more about me, visit Rory Central; and if you really want to know more, read The Stand-Up.

15 May 2000