Welcome to my Blog.

Most blogs start with a short answer to the question "why blog?".    My answers are a couple fold:

1. it's like a diary, but exhibitionist style -- I've constantly wanted to have a single place where I maintained a single, monotonically increasing, repository of my thoughts / opinions on issues of the day.   Unlike a diary, of course, I wanted a searchable, indexed, web linked site that I could point friends, family, and, well, total strangers at  ;-).    The blog is basically my long term memory encapsulated on the web.
2. I wanted to shout back --  how often have you read something that makes your blood boil & wanted to respond to the world about how stupid (or smart) it is?   Blogging is a way to vent and have it matter in a small little way without devoting your entire life to political / econ / tech punditry.  In many ways, it's specificly my engagement in the day to day economic world that creates my political views - I'm outside of the Ivory Tower, I love it, and am doing everything I can to chip away at the false intellectualism at its base.
3. I LOVE reading other's blogs -- some of my favorite blogs out there include denbeste.nu (I'm going to have to actively refrain from turning my blog into a simple "link + commentary" of Stephen's latest article ;-), janegalt.net (it turns out that Megan and I were probably classmates for some time back in the day @ Penn), and of course, the granddaddy of them all, instapundit.    I felt a very strong-desire to "give back" to this community in my own, Libertarian-esque, self-motivated way.
4. I find that the voice of the blog community resonates well against general big media.  IMHO, blogs present news in a much sharper, clearer context than much of the crap that passes for News these days (e.g. NYT).   Maybe I say that because it agrees with my own pre-conceived notions   ;-)
5. It sharpens my own thinking / feelings on subjects of personal, national, and international importance.  Writing forces me into a deeper internalization of the true content of a news story in a far more meaningful way than simply reading or watching TV (although the History Channel is pretty darn amazingly intelligent & meaningful TV).   And, with time, I hope that my writing itself will see some improvement.
6. The instant gratification of the blog format and the tools available (I'm trying out Citydesk right now) may actually force me to update my personal website in a more timely manner  (it currently hasn't had a major update in >5 yrs!).   It's really cool that I can now read an article on the web, excerpt it, hyperlink it, add a few lines of commentary, and publish it to the wide woolly internet in less than 10 minutes. 

So what kind of stuff will I write about?

1. Style:  "hyperlink + short commentary" -- the demands of a normal work and social life prevent me from creating the masterpiece essays that you find on sites like USS Clueless.   (not to make any judgement on Stephen's work/life/blog balance).   There may be one or 2 exceptions to this but I fully expect them to be few and far between.   Expect many article summaries.
2. International Affairs -- I've always had an large interest in world affairs and the demands of my job in tech mean that I don't a large outlet to engage in spirited discussions during the normal day.  
3. Econ -- I'm a self professed "arm chair economist" and have my own whacked out theories & opinions on economic news of the day.
4. Tech -- I've had an interesting and varied career in the tech world and have quite a few observations that I can't wait to start sharing

Happy trails!

- Vinod