What am I even doing?

-Is this even useful?

I like said in my First! post, The Forge Flyer and Towson Patch are both quite prolific, so I doubt I can come close to the overall information that those two present. I can, however, be a laser focused on a certain subject. I can also set things up in a different way.

Personal confession: I am a recovering Internet junkie. During college, I used to roll out of bed into my desk chair and perhaps stay there the whole day until giving in to sleep, breaking only for the essentials (note: going to class didn't always make the essentials list). I couldn't stand to be away from some certain message forums for more than the length of class, and this was well before we were carrying around little computers in our pockets.

I've come a long way from there. I still even own a domain to a forum and regularly post there, but I'm not addicted like I was before. I've also done what I can to minimize the time it takes me to consume my internets. Most of this is thanks to RSS feeds. Simply put, RSS is a way to let the internet come to you. Once subscribed, new posts in a blog or news site get sent to a queue in an RSS feed reader. Instead of going to the website to see what's new, what's new comes to you, and you can quickly glance through what might be interesting. It's an ever-expanding checklist where you can look into something more in depth, save it for later, or check it off your list forever. You can use RSS to subscribe to blogs, news sites, and many other things that update periodically, like Youtube channels and podcasts. Instead of repeatedly going to a website to see if anything is new, and inevitably wasting your time when you see there are no updates, you let what's new come to you. And, it stays away from your email inbox, letting you save that for important stuff.

This is why Towson Patch isn't much use to me; I've searched and found no RSS feed there. And, no offense to whoever runs it, because it seems like it gets plenty of traffic, but it's not something I can use.

The Forge Flyer, on the other hand, I expect to continue to subscribe to. I can't say I have much use for posts about Meatless Mondays, but the grand majority of it I find potentially useful. That kind of general news blog is something even Howard County lacks.

So, a local food blog. Like I've said, HowChow has really led the way for me. Local restaurants, bars, food markets, bakeries, and where ever else locally you can find material to shove in your face. Towson may indeed be too small of an area, but I would definitely want to at least branch as far as Lutherville-Timonium, if for no other reason to give my high marks to The Still. I also expect to make the occasional shout out to my favorite places in Howard County.

How 2 Blog?

I am quite comfortable in the milieu of forum warriors and internet trolls. I'd like to think I have a black best in internet posting, but I'm probably just like the rest of them.

Anyway, if I am to do this, I have to be careful about my first concern in my First! post.

-Can I manage to not get myself in trouble and avoid negative and scathing reviews?

I've never seen a negative review on HowChow. I've made my own disparaging comments in the comments section, and they weren't deleted or anything, but I've never seen an article come close to that. I figure there are only a few ways this is possible: the blogger lies about the bad things and makes them sounds good, the blogger simply doesn't write about places in which he or she had a bad experience, or the blogger simply only writes the positive. I think the last one must be the best route to take.

I suppose this is giving things away, but I know of a certain restaurant in Howard County of which, utilizing the 'only write the positive' policy, I would say it is a very cool locale, and I very much enjoy their drinks. In this blog format, you wouldn't see me mention their food, because I have nothing nice to say about it.

Or, maybe I should mention the food and still only mention the good, or at least the neutral, about it. I always knew that if I were ever to review beer, it wouldn't serve well to give it a rating. There is a large amount of liking the taste of a brew which is, not surprisingly, up to a person's taste. I would be a horrible review of Belgian whites, because I just can't stand their taste. I would also skew the malty stouts because that's exactly what I love. It seems to me that the best way to review beer is to give a careful description of the drink to the point that readers would know if it appealed to them.

Giving a full enough description of the experience, while leaving out my own personal disgust, would give readers the best review possible. If I gag due to heavy amounts of cilantro in my pho noodles, I should simply state that a soup is heavy on the cilantro, as ample cilantro could be positive or negative, depending on the eater.

It's also important to note that such a policy wouldn't prevent me from picking favorites.

And, then there are comments. This is where negative reviews could come into the blog, and I wouldn't interfere with that, given some ground rules:
-If you want to comment on a bad experience, you must describe what made it bad. Comments such as, "this place sucks," "the food was horrible," or "the service was bad," will be deleted unless you give some reasons. They'll need to at least be backed up by, "our food tasted stale," "our server was inattentive," or "there was too much cilantro for our liking." I'd rather you just start out with that and avoid the visceral displays of disgust, but some reasons will keep the comment from being deleted for negativity.
-No personal attacks to other commenters.
-No threats to anyone.
-Try to keep names out of negative reviewing. I'm not sure exactly how important this is. I should maybe read up on the legality and ethics of blogging.

I'll put these comment rules in a place where they can be found when they're needed, and will revise them as appropriate.

First!

Wow, this blog title is a complete and shameless rip-off of HowChow. If I can't find a better title, I'll have to see if whoever runs HowChow will think it a complement, or at least won't send me a cease and desist letter.

After living in Ellicott City for 5 years, my wife and I are moving to Towson. This comes with a mixed bag of feelings. I love many things about Howard County, but between the rising cost of rent in Howard and an offer to relocate my job, complete with relocation expenses and a hefty promotion, moving to Towson seems like the right thing to do. We're no strangers to the Towson area, with some of my wife's close friends graduating from TU. We're also excited to live close enough to Towson downtown to walk to all of the bars and restaurants, not to mention other stores. It has been years ago now, but when we lived on old Ellicott City's historic Main Street, we loved being able to walk to (and stumble home from) that street's attractions. And, while I'm not prone to superstition, the fact that my best friend's parents used to live 2 miles away from our new place just feels right.

In brief, I expect to have a great time in Towson, but, if we ever manage to be able to afford to do so, and if our work locations allow it, I expect we'll move back to Howard County in a heartbeat. That said, we signed up for a 2 year lease.

Now that all that is out of the way, there are a few things I need to consider before really taking the plunge on hosting a blog:

-Can I manage to not get myself in trouble and avoid negative and scathing reviews?
-Is a Towson food blog too specific? Or would a general Towson blog be too dilute? I'd definitely want to change the name of this if it wasn't just about food. On the other hand, you'd think that, for this blog to pick up any sort of popularity, it would have to be focused somehow. HowChow is a great resource, because people in Howard see it as the go-to source for eating in the area.
-Is this even useful? The Forge Flyer and Towson Patch are both rather prolific, but is there some way I wish to be different?
-Can I even keep up with the demand?
-Will I even be eating out and going out enough locally to qualify me for writing on the area?
-Is Towson a big enough area to blog about? HowChow's subject is a whole county.
-Am I really willing to sink the time into this place to make it look presentable?

My justification is that my wife and I expect to be going out plenty, and there aren't the kind of Towson blogs that I'm used to having in Howard County. If I can spend a little time writing about my experiences, it may be useful to someone and might be fun for myself. So, over the next month, as we're prepping to move, I'll try to answer these questions for myself.