Welcome to the RamPage!

This is the inaugural post to my blog, as part of this month's effort to get my website up and running. Be sure to visit the website for more information on the Balkans/Southeast Europe generally, and if you really are a curious cyberhunter, my professional and personal pages on that site.

As for the blog's name, that's courtesy of a good friend's moment of inspiration, fueled by a group beer event earlier this month in Central Virginia. Thanks Jon! When it comes to other people's good ideas, I don't have much pride - I'll run with it. :-) At least until someone smacks me.

This blog will most frequently offer insights and notes on the margin of news and culture from Southeast Europe. I'll also treat (spank, mangle, praise) other subjects as they strike my interest.

It's inspired by the kind of reflective essays and editorials you'd find in numerous newspapers or books in former communist countries. That's been my passion for the last 17 years: engagement with the peoples, languages, and cultures of Southeast Europe. So once again - I'm going to crib liberally from the things I think are cool, however quirky. If I'm lucky, maybe some of the better wordsmithery has rubbed off.

Unlike some otherwise very interesting East European writers, I will do my dead level best to offer you shorter paragraphs. Especially not ones that consist of eight semi-colons, six commas, and more subordinate clauses than you can beat with a stick. I may be a former academic, but I believe in clarity.

Much of the subject matter may be serious - but as you've probably already guessed, I'm easily amused. This blog won't be completely dry, I promise!

Something else I have to learn is whether I have the additional publishing space/option for the kind of short, razor-sharp, boxed anecdotes I sometimes see by Dan Perjovschi (normally a cartoonist for the Romanian weekly Revista 22) or others.

What I can't promise is how regularly I'll get to post. Part of my motivation is to post frequently so as to improve as a writer (and, if necessary, to prove to the IRS that I am one...). But given that I'm also a part-time freelancer looking for various forms of work, I hope you will understand if much of my efforts and time are directed towards shingling the (rented) roof over my head and silencing my stomach.

I'm glad you stopped by, and I hope you'll become a regular visitor! I love feedback (preferably of the constructive kind), as that guides me in providing more and better value to you!

Frank's Rampage