Though this blog started in december 2004, i've been blogging for almost two years.  Back then, blogging wasn't the sort of thing that millions of people did. Things were different.  I hand wrote my blogging engine;  I defined an internal XML schema, and transformed it into the HTML that people read, and the RSS that machines read. I wrote my own rich text editing control.  I manually pinged weblogs.com at first, and then wrote code to automate that using web services.  I optimized my semi-semantic mark-up to tweak my page rank.  This was the work of a determined geek. 

I did all of this for a purpose.  My blog was the first brick in the cornerstone of my little contribution to this web that we all live in today.  The web today isn't what it was two or three years ago.  The business web died. Today, the web breathes. Millions of real people have breathed life into it. We were there for the first few breaths.

Once my blog was up and running and working, I invited some friends to join me.  Friends that make me laugh, make me think, make me read, make me question, and I guess ultimately, make me.  Our blogs lived.  Lightning bolts of emotion rush through the pile of XML files that make up our blogs.  The energy courses through the indexes of Google, MSN, Technorati, and Bloglines.  As long as I can maintain it, the server that houses our blogs will stay up and running.  The entries themselves, the logs, the pictures, the bits that make up the web facing facade of the last few years of our lives; they are archived to optical disk, and will be saved forever. 

Starting today, this is my blog.  Its fundamentally different from the blog I've had for the last few years in so many significant ways, I almost don't know where to begin.  Perhaps most significantly, I don't control it.  I can't change anything I want.  I'm at the mercy of the MSN Spaces team.  At the same time, I'm free.  I don't have to worry about keeping my engine running;  I can focus on just writing.  And after I'm writing, I can focus on reading, thanks to the comments/trackback functionality that Spaces provides.  I always planned on adding that to my engine, but never had the time or energy.  I can also author entries using my phone, or using email.  cool.

Then, theres everything else.  Photo albums.  Lists.  Music Playlists.  And all of the other great stuff thats likely to arrive, magically, over the lifetime of this blog. 

My friends have started blogging using Spaces.  I miss running their blogs. As insignificant as the bandwith, bits, and debugging may seem, I really enjoyed providing for them.  I'm glad to see them using an engine thats worthy of the time, energy, and effor that they put into their postings.  I can't wait to see what they do with all of the expanded functionality that spaces offers them.  I only wish that there was someway I could take the last 2 years worth of entries, and import them into the spaces engine.  I'll keep my ear to the train tracks...

One thing that hasn't changed in the switch to spaces is my penchant for rambling.  This post was meant to be a simple explanation of objective, and perhaps a pointer to its origins.

so with that:

ob·jec·tive (əb-jĕk'tĭv)
adj.

1. Having actual existence or reality.
2. Of or having to do with a material object.
3. existing independently of the individual mind or perception

n.

1. Something worked toward or striven for; a goal.
2. The lens or lens system in a microscope or other optical instrument that first receives light rays from the object and forms the image.

This blog is my Objective.  It has actual existince;  it is reality.  It often talks of the the material objects that make up my life; first and foremost, my family and friends.  by material, of course, I am refering to "The substance or substances out of which a thing is or can be made".  Thankfully, this blog exists independly from my individual mind.  It will be here when I am not.  It will tell my stories for me when I can't anymore.  It won't let me (or you) forget things.  It is something that isn't easy.  Its difficult to maintain a second copy of your self, and to share that copy with the world.  I've been doing a terrible job so far.   Hopefully, spaces will make it easier for me to do better.  And finally, this blog is a lens.  As best I can, I try to make it approximate the lens that I see the world through.  At the same time, it's a lens that lets the world see through to me.