The Introduction

“I Had No Idea What I Was Doing”

Six months, or maybe six years from now, I’ll look back on this 4 Topics Plus launch moment and, regardless of this venture’s success or failure, I will likely say, “I had no idea what I was doing.” But the fact of the matter is, I did have a few potentially good (or bad) ideas in mind to start with.

If the much-debated counsel “Write what you know” has any merit, then my first idea was to write about the four topics I know best – Writing, Art, Music, and Faith. Plus, I had an idea about delving into other compelling subjects now and then, for variety’s sake – variety supposedly being the spice of life and all.

As I pondered posting frequency, I settled on the idea of no more than once a week. It may not always work out ideally, but I’m hoping to cover each of the four main topics in a given month - usually on Wednesdays. If there’s a fifth Wednesday in a given month (and this usually occurs four or five times a year), I might take a week off! Or, I just might use that occasion to post an Off-Topic topic from my Plus category of subjects. These could range anywhere from recipes, to synesthesia, to mountain climbing, to current events, to manatee fitness programs, and maybe even to product and movie reviews. (Special requests now being accepted.)

Another central idea was that all this posting should be guided by my perpetual self-discipline challenge to keep things positive, upbeat, and cheerful, with a mild touch of my usual semi-dry, semi-British humor – a form of half-wit, one might say.

I also had the idea of being respectful of readers’ time. I mean, there’s around 7.9 billion other people on this planet and a surprising percentage of them also have interesting things to say during the week, and so why should I think to hog more than seven-to-ten minutes of your quality time on a given day?

And lastly, without fully considering all the potential legal, ethical, and technical ramifications, I had the ingenious idea of adding random email addresses from various sources to my mailing list here, just for fun. So, if you find yourself here somewhat unexpectedly and aren’t completely enthralled with my postings, please invite several friends to subscribe before simply unsubscribing.

All that being said, I hope we’ll look at the ongoing success of this venture six months or six years from now, with added amazement that “I had no idea what I was doing” at this moment.

Thanks for joining me!

Russell Róbe

P.S. Oh, and a few brief words here about the 4 Topics Plus logo, in case you were curious. It does not represent a major Tetris fail; a blank multi-colored crossword puzzle; a ShengShou 6x6 Speed Cube; or an underdeveloped Mondrian painting. Instead, you may be able to see a stylized “4”, a “T”, and a “+”symbol in its design, representing the general 4 Topics Plus theme here. (Note: I put yellow in the lower left corner just for balance and so that it actually would look more like a Mondrian painting.)