Four weeks after starting this blog, and I’m finally happy with the basic look and feel of the place. My comment style was shamelessly purloined from Khoi Vinh’s gorgeous Subtraction, although his superb deployment of grids, when compared to my more modest layout skills, ensures that no one’s likely to confuse us anytime soon.

So far I’ve learned a lot about WordPress, kept my CSS skills sharp, and written a lot of mostly incoherent babble about literature and America. Given that the last few years have seen the gradual decay of my writing abilities, getting six thousand words (even if they’re not of any great import) down in a month is pretty good. I didn’t expect an overnight improvement, and sure enough one hasn’t come.

That said, I’m pleased with how I’ve done; I don’t think I’ve gone a whole week without posting, although it came close once or twice. A total of ten entries—one every three days or so—is a healthy total, especially for someone (that is to say, me) who was never terribly prolific.

Currently my goal is just more of the same: grind out a post every few days, don’t worry too much about quality. Set down some thoughts, an experience, anything that will keep me writing. I’m more interested in creating good habits, and building up momentum, than writing well. Quality comes with experience, with refinement, and with more good ideas than I’m probably capable of right now.