Introduction

As the Rolling Stones once sang, "Please allow me to introduce myself". As the "About Me" indicates, my name is Andrew and I am a Canadian ex-pat living and working in South Florida as an Acquisitions Librarian for over 11 years. Even though I am located south of the border, you cannot take the Canuck out of the Canadian. Having been born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, I miss Hockey Night in Canada, good Canadian beer (not this Budweiser stuff!), Montreal smoked meat (beats the hell out of corned beef/pastrami), and the Autumn's changing colours.

So, what is the blogging stuff all about? The institution that I work for is encouraging all staff members to get Web 2.0 "compliant" --- and this includes getting on board with blogging, picture sharing, wikis, and interacting with the interconnected Web community. Being distanced from family and long-time friends, I have always used the Internet to maintain contact with everyone back in the Motherland, including email, instant messenging, and personal web pages. But, this blogging business is new to me and I obviously do not want to be left behind in the perverbial technology ice-age. Therefore, the TLC 2.0 challenge that has been initiated and encouraged by the Library (grateful that administration is giving time for performing the tasks) for which I work for is not a bad thing. The initiative is an opportunity to gain a new skill and to evolve into a "lifelong learner" --- the primary goal of the programme.

So, now to get back to the original question --- what is this blogging about? My first intuition is that this is an online diary sort of thing. Quite possibly. Indeed, it is a means of maintaining contact with friends and family and sharing memories, or simply documenting life events. But, it can be more that simply thoughts being documented in entries. The blog can be a means of exchanging viewpoints --- whether they be political (god forbid!) or non-political. This blog will not be limited to my profession, but to my interests including music (Springsteen IS God), sports (GO BUFFALO BILLS - SQUISH THE FISH!), my passion (aside from my wife --- golf), and travels.

So, sit back and enjoy this wild ride with me --- this is only the beginning of my Web 2.0 journey and I hope to enhance this blog as my knowledge becomes deeper. I welcome your comments and to interacting with you.