Introducing This Blog

I'm starting a blog. I have had several blogs before, but with different focus and, frankly, different versions of me. So rather than continue any of the existing ones, I decided to start something new.

I'm calling it "Particular Virtue," because the concept of virtue has been on my mind a lot recently. I've been exploring Stoicism, and related... I don't want to call them life philosophies, because the word "philosophy" has connotations that aren't quite right for what I mean these days (and I hope to write a post on that soon). Life strategies? Life outlooks? Self-help frameworks is probably closest. Anyway, the concept of "virtue" is something I've been using a lot lately to help myself think about and structure the way I live my life.

But I like appending the word "particular" to it, because I don't want to imply that what "virtue" means to me is what it would mean to someone else. It's a highly individual expression of my own aesthetics, and not a moral framework that would make sense to apply to other people.

Moreover, "particular" also has connotations of being fastidious and careful in application, which I also find pleasing. I am choosy about what aspects of virtue to emphasize and what to ignore.

But I don't expect that this blog will be about general self-help-ish things, for the most part. I have some particular topics that I'm interested in and would like to try my hand at writing about - programming, frugality, religion... (Well, that last veers into the general.) I don't intend to keep it focused on any particular subject, though I'm not against it becoming that way if I am so inclined later.

I also intend to keep it fairly casual; I want to be able to post things that aren't as well-thought-out and not worry about criticism too much. This blog is ultimately very self-focused, and about having an outlet for me to express certain thoughts. Ideally I'd like to engage with other people as well, but I'm going to consider that mostly a bonus rather than the main purpose.

I do not intend to talk about details of my personal or professional life. I'd prefer to retain some small degree of anonymity in this venue.

I think that's all the housekeeping I have. Real posts to follow.