There are many things to consider when starting a blog, and I have been struggling with them for the last few weeks. I have no doubt that my main passion is anatomy and its use in the social and physical sciences. However I am also a man who is intrigued by all things technical and I have to say that to concentrate on just anatomical issues is leaving all the rest of the juicy stuff that I would like to write about, to someone else. I have interests in electronics, robotics, physics, and mathematics; not to mention all the life sciences and biotechnology, and I want to stay abreast of the latest research in all these fields. This of course begs questions of the ability of one man and ones of work load and I am still fighting with my own internal demons as to how much I am going to be able to take on and what I want to take on.
Last night I watched a video post by Grant Howitt of the UK Guardian of Ron Gilbert at the Australian PAX Convention. He was there to give the key-note speech. In his talk he relates stories of his development as a games programmer on of which involved being given advice by Spielberg (or was it Lucas) that your ideas must be good enough to dance naked on top of them. Gilbert goes on to explain that this was in relation to ideas for a game or for a movie. Essentially if you believed in the idea strongly enough to dance naked on top of it then it wont matter what anybody thinks about it, you will be able to bring it to fruition. Whilst this is not really related to the field of anatomy I am sure that you can see that it is applicable to what I am trying to do here (even thought that in itself has been loosely defined) I certainly believe that anatomy isn’t covered enough on the web. I certainly believe that the quality of the anatomical resources on the web could be improved and I certainly believe that I have the skills knowledge and impetus to do it…………am I willing to dance naked on the idea though, yeah I think so.
I am, from this point on giving myself permission to stop taking notice of the internal voices that are saying that I am not good enough and that I never will be. That all the other writers on the web have Masters and PhD’s and give vent to my own unique voice that I know deep down has something valuable to add. I have grand ideas and these may be the start of something that will see me finally find my niche in the ranks of he gainfully employed but even if it doesn’t, I will at least have something to keep me occupied throughout the day.
Aussieanatomist 