just to let you know

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my "Just to let you know..." blog.

Some of you might now ask: "What is a Blog ?". "Blog" is short for Web log and describes web sites made by people who think or would like to share their opinion or findings with others over the World Wide Web. Over the course of the last years, Blogs have become very popular on the web. Almost as popular as web forums - which offer their users a more direct interaction with each other. In comparison to web forums, blogs are mostly focussing on a single individual who spreads messages to their peers.

Why oh why?
"So why are your running a blog now?", might be your next question. People who know me might even add, "You're an incessant talker already anyway - why try and take it even further?". Well, how about this for starters: Maybe I still think there are things unsaid. Maybe I think there are observations or findings I make that you and the rest of the online world should read about. Maybe I would like to use a blog to let off steam. Maybe because in some geeky way I regard this as fun.

Blogs to me are like home-made magazines or sophisticated do-it-yourself newsletters - you can be your own journalist, editor and critic. Emailing my stories and thoughts might have been an option. However, I think blogs are far less obtrusive and distracting. In addition, by using the web I can reach a wider audience. I'd like this place to be somewhere you can come to whenever you feel like it - why not visit the blog and have a break from the daily hustle and bustle of work, see something different or find some of the amusing stories the WWW writes every day in its thousands?

What will it be about then?
I'd like this blog to be about things that interest, move and concern me. This includes web development, web design, Apple Macs, the internet, new technologies, but also generally things that are linked to or are of any german / british nature. The latter is for a number of reasons. Firstly, I'm a German living in the UK since autumn 1997 - this in itself is permanently reason for me to recognize any news or issues arising from and concerning both countries or languages. Secondly, I have so far not found any german/british source such as this on the web. You can find the odd article about german/british issues from all different walks of life. There is however none that links to all of them or gives you an overview over what's available. Finally, I'm a dad since August 2003 and my (english) wife and I are trying to bring up our daughter bilingual; a fact which made me realise once more to what an extend I stand between the 2 cultures. I personally regard myself as being in a very privileged position: I can enjoy the best of both worlds!

Now what about the title?
I chose "Just to let you know..."? as the title for this blog as it's a commonly used phrase in everyday life describing something that is just mentioned in passing or "by-the-by". Despite this usage, I sometimes found people who use "Just to let you know..." to open a conversation are trying to say something of a much bigger importance, yet belittling it with this initial phrase. Quite surprisingly, the final outcome very often then reveals a story or fact of much higher importance. Now I'm not trying to imply that people using this phrase are always hiding something; I'd just like to point out that due to the fact that we live in a complex world, matters looking small and insignificant on the outset might have an unexpected, more important outcome. There's a line in a Tab Two song that says: "We're depending, because we call it understanding.", which summarizes this very well.

Authors
Articles will mainly be written and edited by me. However, my brother Sebastian is planning to make some guest appearances. Watch this space :-)

Blog language
Since I'm just starting out with this, I'm yet undecided to what the blog language(s) will be. For now, I envisage to write texts for this forum mainly in english - simply because more people speak english than german. If there however is a topic that's best suited to be written in german, I will certainly do so. Links to german web sites will be identified with a little german flag. (Just to prevent disappointment!)

In "Just to let you know...", I'm hoping to pick up on some of these little stories, these footnotes of stories the web writes every single day. I'd like put stories and links on here which amuse, entertain or even cause a discussion and would otherwise be forgotten or simply not backed up.

Posted by Michael at February 5, 2004 03:16 PM