a new eric is something of a continuation of my life-long need to write.

For almost two years, the “about” section of this blog read:

Eric is many things: a father, a man, a lover, a complainer, a thinker, a working stiff, and occasionally interesting. Eric wants to be many more things: a writer, an artist, a finisher of projects, a good father, and someone interesting. This blog is the compilation of a complex life of all these things and more. This is a place for a man named Eric to search for himself. A place where he can find a new eric.

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I’ve been writing, in some form or another, throughout most of my life. But during my teenage years, I found I needed an outlet for my own voice. I was running a bulletin board service at the time, and started a message forum called “Eric Speaks His Mind.” The forum was networked to a few other boards around the Raleigh, NC area, and became somewhat popular.

I wold often say whatever came to me, without holding back anything. As the BBS world faded away, however, a new forum emerged: the web log.

The web log, or blog, was a logical transition for my need to write. My audience was once limited to only those who visited the bulletin boards my forum reached. With a blog, I could reach billions of people (assuming they find me).

I started my first blog in 1999, on the (then) new Pyra Labs Blogger system. But as my life changed (my daughter was born that year), so did my need to write. I didn’t do much with my blog for years, which caused me to lose access to it over time. In 2003, I started a new blog under the old name, and quickly lost interest in it.

Then, in 2005, I rediscovered the blogging world. My religious beliefs and the loss of my faith were becoming something I really needed to get off my chest. I started blogging on multiple Blogger sites until April of 2006.

In April of 2006, my life started shifting drastically. My marriage began to crumble. My notions about the world I lived in were changing quickly. I needed a new place to collect myself - a new place to find myself. I needed to form a place where I could explore myself. From this need, a new eric was born.

Initially on Blogger, the blog eventually grew in popularity enough to necessitate moving to my own web site. In December of 2006, aneweric.com kicked off from the dock and started its journey.

I’ve changed, just as a new eric has. And yet, I still need to write. I still search for a sense of self-completeness. I still search for the new me.

This blog is for and about me. I am many things: a father, a man, a lover, a complainer, a thinker, a working stiff, and on occasion, interesting.

I want to be many more things: a writer, an artist, a finisher of projects, a good father, and yet still, interesting.

This blog has seen me through struggling with one relationship, watching it crumble and end, living in the aftermath of that change, finding a new love in my life, and taking new steps in my future. It’s been with me through the best and worst of time.

This blog is the compilation of a complex life of all these things and more. This is a place where I can search for myself.

A place where I can find a new eric.

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This web site has, on average since February of 2008, about 50,000 hits a month.

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