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A SEADOG INTRODUCTION ©2002 Jeff Lindeman August 21, 2002 First let me thank you for being interested enough to visit our obscure little corner of the web. Welcome aboard! Now, what's the purpose of this place? Some would call it a 'vanity site', and I guess that would be true enough; there's no great underlying mission or goal other than to share our experiences with the world at large. Actually it all started after the Seadog Voyage of 2000. It was such a fine adventure and some of the hilarious things that happened prompted me to write about it in an email that I sent out to my friends. Since the response was warm and encouraging I continued the following year with yet another saga. Then in 2002 I found I wanted to add pictures and even maps so those unfamiliar with the lay of the land and waters of our great Pacific Northwest could visualize where we were going, so I built the website - on a lark, so to speak. No ulterior motives. I don't covet your email address. I don't want to put a cookie on your machine. And those pornographic email come-ons (pardon the pun) you've been getting are not because of your activities here - what HAVE you been doing lately? *hehheh* So the site exists for 3 simple reasons: 1) I enjoy writing, 2) I think the reader might have a few laughs and 3) as a legacy that my kids might enjoy, when they're much older, and need to rethink their opinion of old dad. I've always enjoyed the two distinct aspects of writing and the challenge inherent in their combination. The fun part is finding a 'voice', a style that pushes the creative juices to the fore and allows the words to simply flow from your inner thoughts; relating the chronology of the experience and interjecting your personal observations in hopefully a manner that leads the reader on to the next sentence, and then the next. The harder part is editing; the sense of knowing what's important and what needs to be left out. A good friend of mine - actually my high-school photography teacher and a man who I would have to say was a mentor for me in those formative late-teen years - Kent Kammerer, put it this way in a recent email: "One of my favorite references is attributed to Einstein*, who allegedly wrote a long letter and began it by saying. "I'm sorry this letter is so long, I didn't have the time to write a short one" The message of course, all writers understand. Removing the unessential is the hardest part." How true! So I'll try my damnedest to not get too longwinded, if you'll promise to let me know if I do. Fair enough? I guess that's it. Carry on... I'm also thinking about adding a section where you get to put your own adventures up for public scrutiny. Interested? * I've subsequently heard this quote attributed EB White, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson! I anyone has the definitive answer, please let me know. |