Welcome to My New Patch Blog!

I know a number of people that blog. Others have encouraged me to blog. My wife tells me that I am a blogger, but I just don’t know it because I email instead of post. Ah yes, email. Do any of you remember that ancient form of communication? How many remember when it was called electronic mail, then e-mail and now just email? Ok, I just showed my age.

Anyhow, I have thought about blogging, for quite some time now really. It looks fun, engaging but hopefully not too time consuming. I have often wondered though just what would I blog about that has not already been blogged about by countless others. Or how could I at least do it differently? We all have lots of things we could blog about, but should we really? And once you figure out what to blog about, then where do you start?

All good relationships start with an introduction. So today, rather than trying to determine my first topic and exactly how to blog it, I will simply introduce myself and the blog. That seems like a reasonable start.

So who am I?

My name is Mark A. Schaffer, a fellow Maple Grove resident. My education and career is in technology. Many of my interests and hobbies have something to do with technology, but thankfully not all of them. I admit, I am a bit of a techie, some would even say a bit of a geek. I think either one fits.

I am not writer, though I have written thousands and thousands of pages of techie dribble throughout my career. I don’t have zillions of Twitter followers; well actually I don’t Twitter. You can’t Like my Facebook page because….. well…..there isn’t one to Like. But here I am, blogging.

What should this blog be, or not?

I have read many blogs. I often find they are more about the blogger than what the blogger said they were going to write about. Naturally I will share interests, thoughts, and all that but this won’t be a blog about me. I have a profile here at The Patch. That is all about me. You can read that if you like, but really it’s not all that interesting. Thankfully for all of us, this introductory post is as close as I will come to writing about me here.

There are many things that I am interested in that others are as well, and they have encouraged me to blog about them. Some of these shared interests include travel, photography, music, art, food, restaurants, community theatre, consumer electronics and other technologies to name a few. My plan is to eventually write about all of these to some extent with an emphasis on travel. As a photography enthusiast, there will be plenty of photos to share…but not too many, just the highlights. If you have visited some of the same places I will be writing about, perhaps you can share a few of your photos and experiences here too.

Now…What to expect next?

My wife and I have just recently returned from an Escaping Winter trip (as we like to call them) to Panama. Panama has been receiving a lot of press lately as both a travel and retirement destination. We have been to Panama twice now and have covered many of the highlights of the country. I would like to introduce you to Panama, share what we have learned and also provide links to sites that we found useful while planning our trip. This will take several posts to cover.

After Panama I would like to introduce you to a number of other places we have travelled to in the Caribbean and Central America. We all live in the very scenic state of Minnesota. We have done a few Explore Minnesota trips over the past couple of years. I will cover some of those highlights here as well. Many of you have done similar trips…I hope I can present them in a fresh way. Last year we went to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We plan to explore more National Parks in the coming years. I may touch on these as well.

Some of my friends often ask me questions about photography. I don’t feel truly qualified to answer many of them. I am not a professional photographer, simply a hobbyist/enthusiast. There are other Patch contributors and professional photography bloggers that are far more skilled and knowledgeable than I. But, I am always happy to share what I have learned. You may see a little this here as well.

Ok, so that is enough for the introduction. Next up….Bienvenidos a Panamá.