So, this is the first post on my new blog.  You may be wondering why I chose the name “Silence of the Clams” for a blog…  since this is not a site about seafood, or the sea (though I do have a fondness for tropical fish).   The more interesting (or not) question is why I am blogging at all.  It’s a relatively short story, but chances are I’ll babble on and make it much longer than needs be. 

Basically, I’m a computer nerd.  I come from a family of computer nerds, or geeks, or whatever you want to call us.  Oh, we’re all pretty darn cool – not the typical nerd you may think of when you picture one.   But nearly all of us make our livings with a computer one way or another:

•  My brother, Jeston – computer programmer.  I think his specialty is databases, but he is the all-knowing oracle at AT&T/Cingular/AT&T. 
• My sister, Kristin – She actually LIKES making charts and graphs.   They make her happy.  She also does some web design, video editing, and makes a killer powerpoint… she takes the time to figure out all the stuff that I have no patience for
• My son, Brandon – programmer, web designer and entrepreneur.  If you know any music teachers, have them check out Music Teachers Helper!
• My daughter, Ashley – As an ASL Interpreter and legal secretary….  she’s the least geeky among us, though she definitely has the gene : )

See, this is getting long….   are you still with me?  I’m getting to the point, really, I am… 

Then there’s me – part time web and graphic designer, part-time virtual assistant, and professional photographer wannabe.  

The point is, here we all are…  tied with umbilical cords to our computers, and none of us has a blog.   So when my dear friend, Michelle, who is decidedly non-technical, started her own blog and encouraged me to do the same, I decided it really was time to join in the fun. That was in June.

Rather than just start a blog like most people would (including my brother-in-law, Craig… Kristin got a very nice blog up for him within a couple of weeks!), I agonized for weeks over what name to choose, what design it should have, blah blah blah. I couldn’t bear to begin til I knew what it would be in the end…. and once I decided I then had to make sure it looked pretty, everything working as I want (which it isn’t yet, by they way)…  someone just shoot me and put me out of my own misery.

And now to the point of this essay…..   the name.  Well, a few years ago Kristin and I spent a night looking up potential domain  names for some reason or another, and we got silly.  Looked up things like “HopOnPop.com” or “SlitheryDee.com” (both taken, btw), and I came up with SilenceOfTheClams.  For some reason (perhaps the late hour??) Kristin and I both found it highly amusing, so I bought it.  But, I’ve never gotten around to implementing any of the clever ideas I had for it, so the potential humor was only being enjoyed by me, in my own mind.

So, when I had to think of a name for my blog, I decided it was time to set the clams free, as it were.  If I can’t have a full-length clam cartoon feature, I can have bubbling, blinking clams on my blog.  And there you go - the thrilling tale of why I chose the name “Silence of the Clams.”

The clams are silent, watching, listening, hoping for some entertainment.   I hope you, my readers, will help me provide that for them : )

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.