Proven right. Horribly, horribly right.

So way back when I started this thing, I used the word "foolishly" to describe my aspirations of finding 15 minutes each day in which to write.

I was right.

Since then, I spent months in the stay-at-home-dad role, and as winter rolled on, and Thomas remained a baby (read: unable to do much, especially outside in the cold) I started to feel the onset of cabin fever. I got a job doing freelance writing for a small weekly newspaper about an hour away from Pembroke, located in Barry's Bay, Ontario, cleverly called Barry's Bay This Week.

Since then, the staff reporter was the latest victim in a series of staff cutbacks and corresponding workload increases, and quit, leaving a full-time reporter position available, which I applied for, and got.

So that's been me, since January, 2010. I do a fair bit (a lot) of writing these days, among the other jobs that I do, but the type of writing that I originally meant still seems to elude me.

I'm going to take another kick at this particular cat, and try again with the blog thing. I don't know why I can't stay away from it, but I just can't. It's a sickness, I know, but there it is. There will be no deadlines or timetables this time around, however. There will be no overarching theme or unifying trend in the posts. They will simply be written when I get a chance and the urge.

Nobody reads any of this anyway, but the catharsis is impressive.

A test of your observational competence...

Each epoch asserts its own authority and autonomy, although each, in and of itself, ultimately ebbs and eventually exhibits an internal inconsistency and insicerity, allowing unfavourable appraisals insisting on in-depth investigations. Every altruist, irrespective of inherited assumptions or unshakable indoctrinations, attempts an existence of unselfish endeavour, although often at odds against immutable and overwhelming evidence of inevitable, if unintentional, atrophy.

Taken within the proper context, however, consequences like these must be viewed without trepidation, for the sense remains that these musings demonstrate not rigid, necessarily sacrosanct discoveries, but rather they reveal troubling patterns within humanity's shared historical context. They present challenges to be met with resolution, not hurdles to be dreaded. Like the sun traversing the heavenly firmament, humanity's progress (postmodernistically speaking, naturally) marches forward without bowing to the pressures conjured by various seemingly foundational, but really quite superficial, forces.

By way of introduction...

So things change.

It's a maxim that is overused so much that it has very nearly lost all of its meaning, power and implication.

For the record, my name is Ryan Paulsen. I am 27 years old, coming up on 5 years married, and a brand new father with a meagre six months' experience. I have lived in London (1981-82), Montreal (1982-84), Timmins (1984-95), Oakville (1995-2001), Peterborough (2001-05), Cheongju (2005-07) and Toronto (2007-09) so far.

The idea of this blog has been sparked by the recent news that my wife Rebecca,


my son Thomas,

and I are going to be moving to Pembroke, Ontario in the next few weeks.

Since all the available signs point to the fact that for the foreseeable future I will be occupying the role of stay-at-home dad, I foolishly assume that I will be able to find at least 15 minutes each day to work on my writing, via this particular blog. If you were directed here by the link on Facebook that I am about to post and were expecting something riveting and life-changing, then I'm not sure what to tell you. Maybe I'll come up with something dramatic and amazing every now and then. Maybe not. Either way, my goal is simply output for the time being. I'll start there and work my way up.

So this is the official entry for right now. It's 2:55am, but I'm up and I'm officially counting this as the entry for what was technically yesterday, June 14th, 2009.