i have not done this before

I picked the name "jamais vu" because I read about it in Chuck Palahniuk's Choke, a book I was reading the summer I first started blogging (2005). Jamais vu is, as the reductive definition usually goes, the opposite of deja vu. Rather than experiencing something for the first time and getting a familiar feeling (deja vu), jamais vu is the feeling of experiencing something for the first time, despite having experienced it before.

Certainly, I knew it was a cool concept when I first started this blog, but I didn't really appreciate how appropriate it would prove to be. I do not think this new version of jamais vu will be like the old one. Even though I may be the only one who notices the differences. Primarily, the new will be different because I've learned a lot about blogging--how to write and how to converse, in a way I was unaware of when I first started.

First-time bloggers always treat the blog like a journal, where they keep long, detailed and even exquisitely argued criticisms and thought pieces. But in the long run, such one way dialogue is unsatisfying.

The second time around, good bloggers realize to hone down their pieces to better fit and flow with the ephemerality of the blogosphere. That said, I do not know if I have the ability to do that, but I do recognize it.