Blogging like it's 1999

A few months ago I decided to shut down Meet Joe Convert, the blog I've been keeping since 2003. I started it as a chronicle of my journey into Catholicism, and now that I've been Catholic a few years, it seemed like the whole "convert" thing was getting kind of redundant. Don't get me wrong--I'm happy to be Catholic, and my conversion will always be integral to my experience as a Catholic (in the same way that an immigrant's story is integral to their being an American). These days I spend more time thinking about being in the Church than how I got here.

After I said my goodbyes on the blog (to a largely non-existent audience, as my output has been very sporadic the past couple years), I had major second thoughts about it and decided to keep it running. Since then, I've found that that same issues (lack of focus and lack of posts) have continued to dog the blog. Nobody much cares about this but me, but I wanted to continue (or rather restart) blogging on a regular basis, but not have any particular expectations of myself about what I'd be saying. So, here I am.

The Joe Convert blog will remain up and accessible; people seem interested in how I became Catholic, and the story is pretty much all there. I've been asked fairly often over the past few years if I've thought about turning the blog into a book. The answer is yes, and I'm inching ever closer to actually doing that. The blog would be source material for the book rather than make up the bulk of it; I think it would be difficult to try to make something cohesive out of posts that are intended to stand alone. If and when I get going on that, I'll certainly let you know.

In the meantime, for what it's worth, this is my new home on The Internets.