If I'm counting right this will be the 100th blog written for the Nevada Daily Mail since we started last year. I've written more than a fourth of them. I don't know what that says about me; maybe I'm just more opinionated than anyone else is. I can live with that, I admit to having strong opinions.

It might be that I grew up fifth in a family of five children. Trust me, if you are the last of the line and want to be heard you learn to develop a strong set of lungs and a thick hide or you give up and keep your mouth shut. I mean, why waste the energy if no one is listening?

However, I think the reason has more to do with a different personality quirk. I'm an introspective person and I am pretty open about what I think and feel. I certainly don't wear my heart on my sleeve, as the saying goes, but I let those around me know what I think.

I've known some people for years who are really blank slates to me. I can see there is more to what they are than they allow to show but what that might be is hidden. Others are open about who they are but they keep their opinions to themselves, they don't want to face the criticism they might get.

That's OK, wouldn't it get boring if everyone agreed with everyone else? The endless echoes would probably drive everyone nuts in a short time. There's no danger of that around here so everyone can breathe easier.

Blogging requires more than just putting words out there in cyberspace, there has to be a reason for the words or the blogger is just wasting everyone's time, including their own. I have a variety of reasons for blogging.

One of them is the hope that I can inform readers of something they might not otherwise know. My blog last July on Charles Lane was one such effort. Lane was a consummate actor who appeared with some of the most talented and famous people on earth. That his death was so completely ignored while the death of someone as insignificant as Anna Nicole Smith was followed for months says a lot about our society, all of it bad.

Another reason I blog is that I enjoy it. Did I mention I was the last of five kids? There is something cathartic about telling someone what you think and blogging lets you do that.

Finally a big reason I blog is that I enjoy the back and forth that sometimes ensues. I hope that around the proverbial water cooler or at the doughnut shop over coffee people are discussing what I wrote about. Most of all though I enjoy when someone disagrees with me and comments on it. I savor those comments and I look forward to replying. I might get a little enthusiastic in my defense of my reasoning but I do enjoy it. It reminds me of sitting around the dinner table when I was a kid. There was something especially satisfying in making a point that my older siblings had to concede. Dinners on those nights were exceptionally fine affairs.