To End

Four score and five days ago, a blog was made. The Vegan Dessert provided a platform from which two college students could make witty remarks, write thinly veiled sarcasm, and pontificate on the world. "We have ideas, too. And everyone ought to hear them."

I stand by the founding principle of the Vegan Dessert: "Conceived in variety, and dedicated to the proposition that all ideas are created equal." Of course, the ideas of a certain JT and Miller might be more equal than others.

As the publication's readership could tell, certain traits distinguished JT's posts from my own. And after reading JT's analysis of blogging, I realized that each of us had a different vision of the Vegan Dessert.

Not to offend the reader, but to me, the reader didn't especially matter. Blogging was an intellectual exercise. Pick an interesting topic, even one you know little to nothing about. Read about it. Form an opinion. Construct an argument. Draw a pithy conclusion.

At the risk of sounding like babbling old Polonius, I advise writing for yourself. Mull over a curious topic and produce a cohesive article. People don't care how long it is, as long as they too are engaged. Even with short posts, concise paragraphs, and simple sentences, I can barely digest one post on Deadspin, because I don't care about sports gossip. Lack of focus was the Vegan Dessert's greatest asset. It ensured that friends and relatives could find at least one interesting post to peruse.

As JT mentioned, most people who encountered our blog were anonymous Googlers who never returned. This fact doesn't bother me, since they were after a specific topic. If I provided a compelling list of Disneyland attractions, that's an added bonus to the personal amusement I reaped from writing it. Think of it as Maimonides's highest form of giving -- charity with unknown individuals at both ends of the equation.

Whoever you are, thanks for reading.