About Me

Greetings, and welcome to my little neck of the blogosphere.

My name is Joe Derbes, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia.  I am not a native ATL-ien, though I guess I’ve lived here long enough to count as one.

I am the worst kind of Georgia fan there is.  Lewis Grizzard always used to say “I’m Bulldog born, Bulldog bred, and when I die I’ll be by-God Bulldog dead”, but I’ve got him beat cold.  I’m a Dawg fan by choice.

I am a Braves fan.  You kind of have to be if you live here in the ATL, but I admit openly and without shame that I am a fair-weather Braves fan.  I am only interested in them when they are decent.  Same goes for the other Atlanta professional sports teams: the Cons, the Thrashers, and the Crocks.

I love to sing along with Milli Vanilli–all I have to do is mouth the words and I sound just like them.  My idea of aromatherapy is to stand in the kitchen (or out by the grill) and smell a nice juicy steak cooking.

So why do I blog?

I blog because it gives me a safe place to talk about whatever is really on my mind.

In a normal conversation, I don’t really have this freedom.  In normal conversation, you can’t just say whatever you want to say, unless it is something that is relevant to the conversation which is taking place.  And because the tempo of conversation flows in the way that it does, I usually don’t get the chance to say everything that is on my mind with regard to whatever the subject happens to be.  Usually I can only say a little bit, and then the conversation moves on to something else.  Also, I can’t plan my responses as well as I would like during the flow of a real conversation; I just have to go with whatever response I can come up with on the spur of the moment, or else not get to say anything at all before the conversation has moved on to something completely different.  And other people may not want to hear about the things I am interested in talking about.  One sure way to lose friendships is to keep talking about things that other people don’t want to talk about.

But this is my space, where I am in full control to say (within reason) whatever I want, however I want to say it.  Other people can read it if they want to, or not read it if they don’t want to.  And who knows, with the Internet being the way it is, there is always the chance that what I have to say will reach someone who is interested and wants to hear it.

What sort of things can you expect to find on my blog?

I am not a native ATL-ien, as I mentioned before.  I am originally from south Louisiana, and I usually get down there a couple of times a year or thereabouts to visit.  One of my favorite things to eat when I am down there is gumbo.

What is gumbo?  you may ask.

Gumbo is a thick, hearty soup, usually served over rice, which consists of a melange of different kinds of seafood (if you live in an area where good seafood is hard to come by, such as the ATL, chicken and certain kinds of smoked sausage are an acceptable substitute), vegetables, and other seasonings, all allowed to simmer together until they form a most delectable concoction.

That is what you can expect to find here on this blog:  a melange of writings about a melange of different things (because my life is not all about just one thing–it would be hugely boring if it were), all allowed to simmer together until they form a most delectable concoction.  So go ahead and tuck into it.  You know you love this stuff.

In “Diatribes”, I usually write about things that I see in the wild and wacky world of evangelical Protestant-dom that I feel the need to write about.  I occasionally fancy myself an astute observer and commentator on this world, and I like to indulge those fantasies periodically.

Fall is college football season here in the southeastern United States, so around that time of year my attention turns to Georgia football and you can expect to see lots of posts on that subject.  I make predictions every year about the upcoming season.  If Georgia is doing badly I will usually vent my frustrations in this space.  Occasionally I will say a little something about the other local teams.  These posts appear in the “Sports” category.

Occasionally I go on trips and post pictures that I have taken.  You can find these under “Travel”.

After several years out in the working world, I am returning to college to pursue a degree in education.  “Re-Embracing the Role of College Student” is a new category where I occasionally post reflections on various aspects of college life and what it’s like to be in college again after all these years, as well as class assignments which may be of interest.

I like to read a lot, so if something that I read strikes my fancy I will write about that.  I will also occasionally write about music or movies that I like.

For a representative sampling of what I believe to be my best and/or most definitive writings, check out the “Essentials” page.  Of course, you are always free to poke around and check things out for yourself.

IF you are with CNN, Drudge, Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, ESPN.com, or some other major (or not so major) media outlet AND you are here because you were bopping around out in the blogosphere and just happened to come across this little space AND you are sufficiently impressed with the quality of writing that you see here and desire to have me as a regular (or perhaps not so regular) contributor to your media outlet, THEN my email address is jderbes2ATaol.com.  Please feel free to contact me anytime; I would love to hear from you.

How’s that for shameless self-promotion?