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Hows, whys and wheretofores

What is a wheretofore anyway?

Well I am tired of shouting at the TV, radio, computer, etc., which is what has been happening thus far. So even if this is just writing therapy, and no-one else in the world reads it beyond web bots, it will hopefully serve some purpose. If only for me.

Regarding the whys: Why not? Then again, why bother?

Basically what is the point of having any thoughts/opinions/ideas, solving any problems or even just identifying them, if the knowledge gained doesn't travel any further than the inner leaflet of your cranium?

So why? Because I can; because even on the off-chance that it proves useful to someone it might be worth doing; because it's another skill to add to the set.

How is simple: It's just a problem to be solved.

A blog is the way to go I think. No need to go overboard on the complexity. Just use the standard tools available on the web and save the originality for something that needs it. A very quick review of blogging tools leads to a choice between Blogger or Wordpress. I have used Blogger before but Wordpress is more of an industry standard. There are others but not with the same penetration.

The next step seems to be to put together a list of requirements and compare the two to see which is the best fit.

BTW there aren't going to be any deep, meaningful inner thoughts in the following posts. This is basically a place to download all the random junk that is keeping me awake at night.

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