Breaking down the new web site

Welcome to my new blog and web site! Click around, explore, get familiar, make yourself at home, leave a couple of comments and such. Just be nice. I'll probably be working out some kinks here and there for a little while, so if you see anything wonky, let me know!

But basically, Katie and I have given BrandonSneed.com a complete overhaul to make it a much more efficient and user-friendly online base for my growing career as a writer. 

This overhaul was also largely inspired as I found myself wanting and expecting more out of myself as a writer and blogger. For more about that, read the following. 

Don't worry, it's not too long. That's part of the changes (wink-wink) -- writing more concisely, because I know none of us really like reading off computers for too long these days.

Read on....

The Overhaul

Sometimes a computer gets sluggish and slow and just needs to be restarted.

That’s basically what I’m doing here. I'm restarting the blog. We -- my wife Katie and I -- have redesigned the site, and I've revamped my focus. I'm now committing to bringing more quality content. 

I enjoy updating you on my triathlon progress, most days. I believe there's value in sharing in someone's journey, and I'm happy to know I've helped a few through mine. But lately as I've scoured the Internet searching for the key to 21st-century writers' success, I found myself immersed and drowning in all the bloggerdom.

"You're a writer who blogs," Katie told me the other day. For awhile, I'd forgotten that. I'd become a blogger. I don't have any problem with bloggers (for the most part), and I have no delusions of being some phenomenal writer, but I never cared to become a great blogger.

I hope to draw more people to my blog, but I want it to come by quality content, not by simply writing about controversial issues for the sake of page views, for hits. 

If this sounds unlike how I've been blogging lately, that's because lately I've quit blogging as much about things. I've quit posting knee-jerk reactions and blurbs about social issues or debates of faith or whatever. I've focused mostly on the triathlon stuff as a means of clearing my head and deciding what I wanted to write about. 

I feel like I've finally figured it out. But I went through some thinking. 

Bloggerdom

Today young, it seems new writers need blogs. If they blog well enough, they get lots of followers, then perhaps a book deal. 

That’s OK. I enjoy blogging. Only, I don’t believe we young writers need blogs. I believe most of us need good editors and mentors, and I believe too much nonsense gets out there because we don’t have the humility to rely on them. I testify to that -- I hate being edited.

But I also believe that in the past I’ve contributed to the nonsense. I want to not do that again.

Growth

I want this blog to grow as I’m growing; I want it to have a clearer direction, a better focus, and for what’s published here to be done so responsibly. So I spent much of my free time in the past month developing a clear vision for it.

As I once – and maybe a few more times – told my wife, I thought I wanted to “become a voice of reason within Christianity.” I believe in the God of the Christian Bible, which technically makes me a Christian. However, Christianity often frustrates me so much I’d rather be labeled as anything other than “Christian.”

There are many reasons why; they could largely be summed up with how I feel so much of what people believe about Christianity defers, often to a disturbing degree, from what Jesus Christ says in Mark 12* and what Paul the apostle writes in Romans 13**.

* One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12.28-34)

~

 ** Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13.10)

Goals

Plenty of writers have written plenty of great things about all that. Much of what has been written is good and well. Since I don’t want to feel like I’m just repeating what other Christians have already mused about, I’ll avoid rambling too much about my thoughts. Besides, writing about myself usually bores me.

Instead, my primary goal with this blog will be to bring you The Lighthouse Project (TLP in the above handy-dandy new nav bar) stories and essays as regularly as I can.

Other people inspire me more than anything else, and I believe in entertainment and learning through stories. It’s a dominant and effective teaching tool regardless of who one is and what he’s teaching: story sticks.

Thus, story I want to bring you. So story I shall write, and not just stories about Christians -- I love stories from all people, of all faiths, from all walks of life.

I have no dreams of becoming a “superblogger” or become all Internet-famous. I’ve picked up many new readers over the past few months and I think that’s awesome. I hope more people do keep visiting, because I like sharing with people.

But fame is not the goal. It never was. The goal has always been to be a good writer, and I’d begun losing sight of that. I’ll blog more about that in the coming days.

My goal, simply put, is continue growing my journalism and nonfiction-writing career, to forge ahead in exploring my fiction-writing career, and to hopefully illuminate reasonable ideas for my belief in God. A bit more specifically to this blog, my goals are to bring you at least a portion of a Lighthouse Project story or essay, at least once every two weeks, and a full story at least once a month. It will be a challenge. I’m busy. Fortunately though, I'm ahead. I've been working on one awesome story for the past month, and I'll begin publishing it soon in brief 500-750-word installments.

Also, fortunately, I enjoy challenge.

Thanks for being here. Seriously -- it means a lot. Come back soon and invite some friends next time.

Best,

Brandon

Comments

[Katie]

Website looks great!!

[MorrisonAmparo]

It is cool that we can receive the home loans and it opens new possibilities.