A Guy Walks into a Blog…

Posted on by Paul Fidalgo

Greetings, folks! I’m Paul, the one referred to in the nice banner up there. I’d been putting a lot of thought into what I might say in my first post here at Freethought Blogs, and then I put in too much, and now I have precious little to say. But let’s be honest — it’s a better idea to simply let the blog speak for itself, right?
Good then. I’ll just give a quick idea of what the heck is going on here, and then we’ll be off.

Near-Earth Object is, as that really nicely-done banner says, a blog of overlapping magisteria. That is to say that this is not a one-topic blog by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, there is a foundation shared among the writers at this network, a shared embrace of secularism and skepticism, and of course I’m very much in line with all of that. What I wouldn’t count on from me is a litany of atheism posts, since a) I already work for a secularist organization, for which I do plenty of atheistic writing and b) I also contribute occasionally to Friendly Atheist, helping Hemant cover the politics and world affairs beats. So I get to scratch my godless itch plenty in other forums. (Wow, that sounds pretty yucky now that I’ve written it. No time to edit, though! This is the blogosphere!)

What I do write about is broad: Politics, culture, technology, music, parenting, and you’ll also likely find things like book reviews, gadget reviews, arbitrary musings on my surroundings, and the odd disembodied blockquote, Tumblr-style, peppered throughout the place. My atheism and skepticism inform almost all of this, but they will not likely be the focus of most of my posts.

Or maybe they will be! I reserve the right to have all of the above be totally untrue at any time, without notice.

I’m honored to be here at Freethought Blogs, really. Kylie and Ian were, to my knowledge, fairly instrumental in bringing me on board, and I am very much appreciative. And my thanks to Ed for taking the chance, and my advance apologies for all the ways in which I will embarrass both myself and the rest of the crew here. I’m really looking forward to this entire experience.

Some housekeeping:

Near-Earth Object has existed in several previous iterations, most recently at Tumblr, and I’ve begun the process of moving content over to this site. As you can imagine, that is never a smooth process, and while I’ve already gotten started on the triage work, some things like self-referential links and whatnot will likely still be broken. I hope to get most of that cleaned up sooner than later.

Since it was Tumblr, I also took advantage of its quoting feature, which posts quotations without giving them blog post headlines. Lots of those are now here on this site, and while I’ve given most of the recent ones provisional headlines, many remain decapitated. This may or may not change.

That most excellent banner I keep going on about? Designed by my friend/nemesis Justin Sapp. I’d point you to his website, but he’s still getting that together. So if you want him to design something for you, I’ll put you in touch. Oh, and the stars in the banner? Drawn by Galileo. Not even kidding.

This one is important: I work for a pretty important skepto-atheist organization, proudly, and there is nothing on this blog that is in any way endorsed by, vetted by, approved by, dating, or flirted with by that organization. My opinions are my own, blah blah, etcetera.

Okay, enough of that. I hope you’ll browse the archive and stick around to see what damage I do here. I know I’m looking forward to it.

Published by Paul Fidalgo

Odd duck.

34 thoughts on “A Guy Walks into a Blog…”

  7. Welcome to FTB! Have to say, I love your avatar, it regularly cracks me up when I see you quoted on Twitter. I’m looking forward to catching up on your blog.
    Psst, you’ll have a few visits from Pharyngula-type people as PZ has just publicised your blog here. 🙂

    Like

  8. Psst, you’ll have a few visits from Pharyngula-type people as PZ has just publicised your blog here.

    So, what’s your position on eating babies; pro or con?

    Like

  9. I also contribute occasionally to Friendly Atheist, helping Hemant cover the politics and world affairs beats.

    Huh. I’ll try not to hold that against you.

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  10. Welcome aboard paulfidalgo – looking forward to reading & commenting here.
    Any major commenting rules or swearing /anti-swearing policy we’d benefit from knowing about? Can we include links in comments and, if so, how many?

    What I do write about is broad: Politics, culture, technology, music, parenting, and you’ll also likely find things like book reviews, gadget reviews, arbitrary musings on my surroundings, and the odd disembodied blockquote, Tumblr-style, peppered throughout the place.

    Not astronomy focused and especially near Earth objects asteroids and comets as the blogs name would suggest then? (/Disappointed.)

    Oh, and the stars in the banner? Drawn by Galileo. Not even kidding.

    I take it we’re talking about *the* man surnamed Galilei and not the eponymous robotic spaceprobe sent to Jupiter back in the 1990’s then? What’s the story with that and do you happen to know which stars – or maybe even planets since Galileo Galilei famously sketched Jupiter’s largest moons and included, unknowingly, Neptune in the field as well.

    Like

  13. Hello and welcome! I’d say something devastatingly clever and funny, but I haven’t thought of it yet. I’m just glad Patheos already sort of has you so they won’t take you away after we’ve become attached.

    Like

  22. Hey, I remember you! You were my director some seven or eight years ago. Welcome; it’s an excellent surprise to see you around here.

    Like

  23. You might want to talk to Ed Brayton. Your blog isn’t showing up on the FTB main page or the blog lists to the right on individual blogs.

    Like

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