What does the word blogging even mean? Where did it come from, etymologically speaking? I mean really!! Don’t we have better things to do with our time? The word sounds ridiculous. I feel ridiculous doing it. Yet, here I am. (Exasperated sigh) So let’s dive in.

OK so my brother-in-law forwarded me a video months ago with the subject line “This is pretty neat”. No further comments were included.

Dude, Bro

I have a forwarded-email backlog dating back to 2012 with articles on and links to... I’m not sure really, I think maybe the secret of lasting peace and the source of enlightenment. Or maybe it’s recipes and SNL skits...I’ll find out when I finally read them. Regardless I need more than “pretty neat” to tempt me to spend more that 30 seconds on a forward.

So I clicked the video to see if it was by chance 30 seconds long. Nope. It’s a Ted Talk: 17 minutes long! See you in 2025, forwarded Ted Talk. Welcome to the backlog.

But then something weird happened a few days ago. I showed up early to my daughter’s school for pickup. Usually I’m flying in on 2 wheels, five minutes late, having crammed tasks until the very last moment. I wasn’t early enough to squeeze in another errand. I was only about.....17 minutes early (see where this is going?). So I sat in my car and decided to chip away at the backlog. Yep, you guessed it. I watched the video.

WOW. I mean WOW.

What to say? I guess the only thing I can say is: This is pretty neat. I hope you’ll find the 17 minutes to watch it.