Introductory

As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted my very own blog.

Okay, that's a lie -- the first time I remember actively wanting a blog was last year around this time. I wanted to make a sports blog, a goal brought on by my urge to publish my writeups on Ivy League football. That never happened because I could never settle on a good name (I was cripplingly demoralized when I discovered that "sportsmanlikeconduct" was taken), and the idea faded into obscurity.

Here we are a year later, and I've hung up my cleats as the Yale Precision Marching Band's resident beat writer for the Bulldogs. The time has come for me to move on to the greener pastures of grad school, as I move towards my second lifelong dream (you know, after owning a blog) of becoming a math teacher. A lot of things are about to change, and what better way to celebrate that wonderful journey than by posting it on the Internet for all you lovely people to read?

Of course, even though it's a year later, there's still the damned problem of needing a name. I am sadly not clever enough to make up for the 5 years of established puns out there on the internet, so coming up with a URL that wasn't already taken was an adventure. I eventually decided to focus on a word that pretty well describes exactly what you'll get out of this blog -- "tangent".

I like what I've settled on as the blog URL for several reasons. Obviously, I think I've picked a sufficiently mathy term. If the Wikipedia article contains a capital sigma and more than three lowercase Greek letters, you know you've done right. Yet the blog's name doesn't jump right out as being specific -- you're more than welcome to interpret it as "thetan gent's pace". (Disclaimer: This blog does not endorse Scientology.) And because of this wordplay, my blog will forever remind me of the most painful New York Times crossword clue of all time, when "Bug spray at the beach?" became "Off on a tan gent".

I don't have a specific type of post I plan on making here, a set topic that I'll focus on. ("Tangent", remember?) But something I do hope to get started on is a "Project 365" photo journal, an idea inspired by my good friend Katie's current endeavors. I think it would be highly appropriate for me to start a year-long photo journal as I get ready to sign a year-long lease, so that's something to look forward to as you all set your RSS feeds and Google reader pages and whatnots. I can't promise you anything fancy, though -- my only two camera options are a point-and-shoot and my cell phone.

With that, I welcome you to The Tangent Space. Please, make yourself at home.