Once again, I've neglected my blog. It's not because nothing's happening. On the contrary, many things have happened in the five or so months since I last posted.

I've given some thought to my relationship to blogging and social media, and why I seem to be so bad at it. I think it boils down to modesty:

• Modesty about wasting people's time sharing things that aren't finished. Until I make something work, end-to-end, I assume it'll never work, or that people will criticize me for doing it wrong. And I don't want to let people down.
• Modesty about my writing abilities. My dad's a journalist, so at some level, I have come to view writing as a professional activity. And I'm no professional writer.

Looking at these reasons for not blogging, I realize they're a bunch of baloney.

When I read other hardware-oriented blogs (Dangerous Prototypes and Hack a Day come to mind), I don't have the same expectations I do for my own blog. There are always quick little truffles of ideas and progress, posted all the time. I enjoy seeing the creativity and the process. Yes, finished products are nice (have I mentioned recently how awesome the Bus Pirate is?). But even the Bus Pirate is a work in progress. It's gone through three major revisions since it was first announced. And these revisions were done with public input, which certainly made it a better product. And public involvement, to a great extent, made the Bus Pirate possible in the first place. I doubt Ian could've developed the Bus Pirate to such a degree, all by himself. He has dozens of people contributing. The process is what people want to hear about and participate in. And I could use some people pushing me and keeping me focused on what's truly important about my projects.

As for my writing skills, I write just fine, thank you. The most important thing is that I communicate, not that my grammar is flawless. And I don't need professional training or experience to communicate successfully. Ironically, in other fields of endeavor, I'm notorious for being anti-professional. I staunchly believe you don't need to go to school to learn engineering skills, or hold down an engineering job to feel qualified to build things. What's most important is passion. With passion, and some patience, you can acquire the skills to do most anything you want.

In the end, I'm taking this blogging stuff all too seriously. So I shall redouble my efforts to share what I'm doing and what I'm thinking. In the process, I hope to accumulate a crowd of smart and curious people who are interested in the same things I am, and will help turn some cool ideas into reality. Yay!

More to come, soon!