One. Two. Three. Four.

If you arrived here expecting incisive analysis or inside information on the Buffalo Bills, let me tell ya: You're in the wrong place.

This is an experiment in, as the kids call it these days (or, at least, did in 2008), blogging. Over the next week or so, I will be testing the various formats and media available, with little regard for cohesiveness or effectiveness, in an effort to roll out the real thing at stabas.com in early September.

That coincides with the start of the 2012 National Football League season, the first that opens with any legitimate hope for the home team in a very, very long time. As opposed to the forcible hope springing from cosmetic personnel changes on the field and ultimately foolish management shifts off of it. During the Bills' decade-plus of bobbing just below mediocrity, they have not been much when it comes to football, but they have been very good at keeping their loyalists coughing up ticket money.

Meanwhile, I am admittedly more than a little rusty at this kind of thing. For 18 years, my reporting on and analysis of the local franchise and a range of other topics appeared in various newspapers, online outlets and mimeographed extremist newsletters. I have not, however, writtten anything for public consumption since Dick Cheney was president.

Nor have I ever attempted to manage a blog (must find a better word to describe this venture), which means figuring out layouts, coding and ways around copyright infringement standards.

So you will have to forgive me if my output in the coming days amounts to the journalistic equivalent of J.P. Losman suiting up and attempting to run a 7-on-7 passing drill, with some throws bouncing well short of their target and others sailing into a Gatorade bucket.

There are some sketchy plans in place for the regular season, but those remain highly secretive, in order to avoid providing other self-proclaimed experts with any competitive advantage.

For now the content will include a bunch of second-string posts, incompatible elements and other material that would not make the cut once the real action starts, presented in a largely disorganized and sometimes half-hearted fashion, along with a smattering of stuff that might actually prove less annoying than the rest.

In other words, consider this an exhibition blog.

Among the elements getting a tryout will be commenting. Haven't quite figured out how to configure that yet, but the plan is to allow comments for now, and probably when the real thing goes live.

As for the appearance, the regular season will look very, very different, thanks to the design geniuses at OtherWisz.

Until then, look for fleeting reasons to remain optimistic among the chaos.

(Photo swiped from allsportswny.com. Where they got it from, I dunno. Video credit seems rather self-explanatory)