This section is a little slice of my mind and welcome to it.
See, I'm greatly enamored of the essay form, but I'm a little out of practice at writing essays myself. I would sit and think about how I could say things with the style and wit of my literary heroes. In part because I have this thing about looking good when I show off my loquaciousness. And in another part because I have enough of an ego to think I can be as good, if not better than, the Molly Ivinses and Jon Carrolls of the world.
Mostly though, I'd wind up not writing anything for fear that it wouldn't be just right (or maybe that people would find me boring or pedantic, if I want to acknowledge other motivating factors with equal honesty).
So in an effort to get out of that perfectionist paralysis, I'm starting my Noodle Factory. Stuff I'm "noodling" about, sort of sharing my mental pasta (if I might abuse a metaphor for a moment) and inviting people to read it and comment upon the flavors.
Please be aware going in that the Noodle Facory has very irregular hours and the production line is anything but consistent, i.e. don't expect me to post things here every Monday or something and don't expect the noodles to be of a fast food-like uniformity. The motto here is "persistence leads to perfectability, not the other way around."
Enjoy!