Hi everybody!

First of all, I hope you read the above greeting with the voice of Dr. Nick from the Simpsons in your head.  Secondly, I’m Ryan, and I’d like to welcome you to my very first blog post!  I hope this finds you well.

I’d like to introduce what this is all about.  Due to recent events (or non-events, if you prefer, due to current social distancing), I have recently been inspired to start a blog.  Some people might think that a bit odd, considering my relative lack of social media presence, as well as the fact that I’m an introvert who is not at all a public person by nature.  I’m not even a writer – my degree is in math, not English.  But for some reason, I have felt a desire to get some thoughts out there.  Maybe it’s to get my creative juices flowing.  Maybe it’s because this is simply something to do during this time while everyone is staying indoors.  Perhaps this has some deeper meaning, so that something I write will help inspire, encourage, and bless others, especially during a difficult time for many people right now.  Or perhaps it will at least serve the purpose of entertaining and amusing people for a few minutes.  Perhaps this will get billions of views and change the world.  (I don’t expect that to happen, but you never know.)  Or perhaps nobody reads this and I’m just doing this for my own personal amusement.  Even if that’s the case, I understand that there’s at least something to be said for putting your thoughts to pen and paper (or the modern technological version of pen and paper anyway), so I will give this a go.

This blog won’t be dedicated one topic in particular.  In all likelihood, it will likely be a mix of serious thoughts, silly thoughts, and just complete randomness from how my mind works, probably interspersed with some references to sports and TV shows I’ve watched.  Because that’s what you get with me.  I have a few ideas to get the ball rolling for the near future, including a couple of song parodies, so stay tuned!  After that, who knows where this will lead, or for how long.  We shall see.

I actually almost started a blog last year.  At that time, I asked a co-worker how to set one up, and he volunteered to help me get one started.  However, wanting to protect the internet from my brain, he opened up a word document and put a fake web address at the top.  Wait a minute – that wasn’t me; that was an episode of The Office.  Never mind.  (Again, this is what you get with me – random TV references.)  Seriously though, I actually thought about doing this last year, but I simply never did until now.  I guess it took a global pandemic to finally give me the push I needed to get it going.

Some of you might be thinking, “Okay, it’s great that you’re doing this, but you could just get a Facebook page and post this stuff on Facebook.”  But if you know me very well at all, we all know that’s just simply not going to happen.  Besides, I now have a website with my name on it, and that’s more memorable than having one of the millions of Facebook pages out there.  But I won’t launch into my Facebook soap box on here.  You can follow me on Twitter though.  You can even follow this blog, and if you are so inclined, feel free to leave a comment to let me know someone read this.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this blog, and that you are safe, healthy, and doing well.  Stay strong, and please don’t get coronavirus.  Until next time…this is Ryan.  (Although, even after next time, I’ll still be Ryan.)

“Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  –Matthew 6:34