This blog has had four different taglines in the course of its history. By popular demand, here are the explanations.

1. “Join me for a party in my mind.”

This line was an inside joke among my family and friends during my first years of blogging. As one particular birthday celebration was drawing to a close, I said something to the effect of “You can send me home any time you like, but I’m going to keep partying in my mind.” The phrase stuck, and was used whenever I did or said something odd — i.e. “Been partying too hard in your mind, Josiah?” At the time, I enjoyed perpetrating the notion that I was hilarious, interesting, and above all unusual. Moreover, the phrase included the word “mind,” which I thought would give the impression that I used it frequently. I designed a custom festive theme for the tagline, and began my new lighthearted blog.

2. “Party’s over, folks. This mind’s a war zone.”

After some time, I stopped viewing myself as a source of entertainment for others — or myself. I was working very hard to excel academically, socially, and occupationally, and wanted to be taken seriously. The tagline was meant to reflect on the battleground of ideas in which I thought myself furiously engaged. I added a background image to illustrate the point.

More than that, this was a time of intense mental turmoil for me as I sorted out my relationship with God (incidentally, the background image was created using a photo of Charles Templeton), my family members, and other people. There were many conflicting options about what I should pursue in life, and which things would have to “fall through the cracks.” I was eventually able to reach some conclusions and make some decisions that I could live with. However, the effort left me extremely drained, mentally, emotionally, and even physically — which leads nicely into the next tagline.

3. “The web’s first time graveyard.”

Not feeling as if I had anything left to say, and feeling too tired to really do much serious thinking, the blog took a hiatus of sorts. The theme was a blank white background with grey text. The tagline was taken from the middle of an unfinished and almost laughably brooding poem.

Not a soul to be found in this graveyard mind,

Nought is buried here but time.

4. “Stay if you like, but don’t expect too much — yet.”

The most recent tagline reflects my quantity-based approach to getting the blog going again. My Rhetoric teacher Pat Dolan wisely told us that the only way to improve our writing was to do more writing. I’m going to take that approach. It will likely take a while for my mental and creative juices to start flowing again after stagnating for some time, so don’t expect anything too interesting right away — but also don’t rule that possibility out! I’m hoping this blog is on the upswing!