I recently received an email from the fine folks at wordpress.com informing me that I had to renew my ownership of jeffshelman.com in the next 90 days. That means I’ve had this site for nine months.

My original goal was to simply chronicle my entire golf season, basically write something about every single round and track birdies vs. double bogeys. That didn’t last all that long. I’d find myself getting behind and then not catch up because, I’ll be honest here, I play a little bit of golf.

I’ve attempted this whole blogging thing before on several occasions, but I’ve never really made it public. I’ve never really told anyone about it, never tweeted links to updates or talked about it on Facebook. This time I hope to make a real effort.

Why?

I guess it just seems like the right time. More than two years have passed since I left the Star Tribune (by choice) and I have more motivation than I have in a long time. For a good stretch after I left the paper, it was liberating to not have to write as much as I did during the roughly 20 years prior. While I did write a good bit at my first public relations job and I still do today, there isn’t the daily grind of writing stories for the paper.

What am I going to write about?

I’ve struggled with this question probably more than any other. My inability to come up with an acceptable answer is probably why I’ve always kept this idea/project close to the vest. I’m not going to lie, there is going to still be some golf talk on here. It is my No. 1 pastime and it is how I spend much of my free time from April-November. I’m not going to make a shot-by-shot rundown of my golf season, but I’ll talk about courses I play, gear that I purchase, my fantasy golf endeavors, etc. But I don’t see this being just about golf.

So what else?

Odds are good that I will also include some of my opinions on sports, both locally and nationally. I worked as a sports reporter for a long time. Since leaving full-time sports reporting about 3 1/2 years ago, I have slowly regained some of my ability to be a fan. There isn’t a single team that I live and die with, but there are teams/sports that I follow. That different kind of interest in sports — combined with the fact that I do cover 3-4 games a month as a freelancer for the Associated Press — might give me a perspective that is unique. I’m not trying to become some internet expert, I more just want to write a little bit.

I anticipate that I’ll write about my consumption of all sorts of media: news, television, books, movies. I’m also going to share stories and videos that I find intersting/unique/cool/funny. I’ve been known to email nuggets I find on the web or in my Google Reader or in my Twitter stream with one of my blogger friends. He’ll still probably get some of them, but I’m going to throw them on here as well.

Since I now work in the world of public relations/corporate communications/social media, I will probably touch on that as well. This isn’t going to, however, be strictly a PR blog.

So basically that means it is going to be a big mess. If you follow my on Twitter (@jeffshelman), you probably realize I’m all over the board. I’ll link to a cool story, I’ll write about the Timberwolves, I’ll talk about some random stuff and or a band I really like all within a few hours. I expect that this blog will be like that. But just more than 140 characters at a time.

What am I not going to do?

I’m not going to blog about my current employer/the debate about health care. I like being employed and I really like getting paid every other Friday. I might share a story that I worked on or something I worked on, but that’s it.

I’m also not going to constantly critique/criticize the Star Tribune. The place isn’t perfect and I said that while I worked there. But I have too many friends there and there are too many people I like and respect there. The place was a big part of my life and I want them to be successful.

How much am I going to blog?

At this point, I’m only going to commit to doing it more than in the past. I would like it to be a regular thing with multiple updates each week. I’m not going to say daily because I know that isn’t super realistic.

So feel free to check back or add me to your Google Reader. If you like it, tell your friends.

All right, now I’ve got to figure out what to blog about.