This Is an Experiment

I've been meaning to do this blog thing for awhile now.

That's not exactly true. I'm been meaning to not do this blog thing for awhile now, and have succeeded admirably in that regard. I've been filling laboratory time reading these things for a couple of years, bouncing from science blogs to political blogs to music blogs to lately basketball blogs with only occasionally thinking that this is something I need to pick up. A quick lie down and those thoughts usually go away quite nicely, though.

Now, however, we're in the high holy days of college basketball season, and I find myself in front of a microscope far more often than in front of ESPN. (Pluses -- less Dick Vitale. Minuses -- everything else.) And this particular basketball season shows significantly more promise than the last couple for Carolina fans.

The other impetus that's pushed me out here is the realization that although I've been ACC blog hopping for a couple of months now, I'm not reading any ones about UNC. It's not that they don't exist -- they're just... uncomfortable. It's the same unease I had upon first stumbling across rec.sport.basketball.college -- the internet makes people stupid. Perfectly intelligent people (they have degrees from UNC, after all) suddenly forget the vowels of their rivals, can no longer spell Polish names, and spend more time worrying about the folks down the road than remaining on the high road. There's quality ranting, and there's the well-turned quip, and both are in short supply lately.

So here's the policy going forward:

• 31 days of blogging, from the week of the Duke game to the national championship.
  
• Leaving the Duke-referee complaints to Seth Greenberg. Yes, the Immaculate J.J. Redick thing is pretty weird, but it's the job of the scrappy upstarts to point that out. We just deal. And Seth, I hereby retract my claim that Virginia Tech will be in all sports, in all ways, for all time, known as Worse Than Clemson.
  
• Actual basketball commentary -- the stuff that's already being done much better by folks much smarter than I -- which will necessitate the watching of basketball. It will also require frosty beverages of an alcoholic nature. The sacrifices one makes for art.
  

I'm rather interested to see how this all turns out.