PostPonderance

2010-07-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

OK.

I’ve been thinking about this.

Here are the apparent reasons I have not devoted more attention to maintaining this blog (or any other blog for that matter):

1) Time. An obvious culprit, eh? However, as one who has taught innumerable sessions on “Time Management” I am fully aware that at the end of the day (which is literally when I would be trying to carve out precious seconds for this type of activity) we all pretty much do what we decide is what we want to do or is somehow “mandatory.” I want to maintain a blog, but I sure can’t convince myself that it is in any way necessary. Answer: Just do it.

2) Topic. Seriously. I have so much stuff competing for attention inside my head the very idea of trying to focus on one thing to blog about presents virtually insurmountable inner conflict. Although I am passionate about politics and religion, I confess I’d rather not make my opinions and beliefs in those areas the primary subject of this blog. I’ve found that once you breach those portals there is no turning back and the resulting noise tends to drown out any other sane discourse in which one might wish to partake. Music? Literature? Entertainment? Education? Technology? Linguistics? Humor? The Human Experience? Where does one begin? Answer: Just do it.

3) Target. What is the purpose? Do I have an actual goal for maintaining a blog? Am I trying to achieve some kind of immortality? Looking for my fifteen minutes of fame? Do I expect to be “discovered”? By whom? To do what? Will I “meet” other interesting people? Am I consciously trying to “reach” a particular constituency? Will anyone out there actually read and appreciate what I am writing? If not, so what? Is the “journey” enough? Just the simple personal satisfaction of organizing my thoughts and transferring them to a public forum? Do I really have to have an established, specified, articulated objective? Who is measuring me and my product? Answer: Just do it.

So, I guess I have my answer.

Just do it.

In the end it may or may not make any difference at all to anyone but me; and I wonder how much difference it will make to me, even. Does there really have to be “a point” to it? We humans do tend to place high value on “relevance.” We ask the “Why?” question a lot; and the “Who cares?” question, too.

So… what?

I guess I have to decide to post whatever I am pondering at the time and be happy.

Postscript: Dear Nike, I did not take the time to research whether “Just do it” is a trademarked phrase. If so, please find it in your steely corporate heart to refrain from suing me for enlisting the venerable assertiveness of your simple imperative statement.

Hiatus Schmiatus

2007-04-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well.

A special note of thanks and acknowledgement goes out to Bernard Dupriez of Unis Vers Sel for awakening the somnolent blog of here and now.

One would think that a person so truly intrigued by the phenomenon that IS blogging would be more attentive to his own blogs. This one - my first true experiment with a blog - and my other one "UNITY 413" - a much more serious undertaking that actually had a theme and a purpose (say it isn't so!) - have just languished as languishy a languish as a languishing blog can languish. And that's a lot of languishing.

Not that I am an expert on languishing.

Oh, wait. Perhaps I am somewhat of an expert in that field of study.

Our society's unfortunate conjunction of the terms COUCH and POTATO have ascribed whole new realms and reams of detail and definition to the term - LANguishING.

Only I suppose one always hopes beyond hope that there is a substantial enough wad of grey matter in the midst of the potato to spark some kind of synaptic response and data storage and retrieval protocol.... does one get smarter by watching television? Does it have to be the Discovery Channel or TLC or History or Rachael Ray in order to be educational? Is SpongeBob a closet MENSA initiate?

....something to think about.....

Gotta dash. CSI reruns are coming on!!!!!!

5-month HIATUS

2006-07-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well. Five months is a long time for a blog to sit idle, I suppose. But, hey! Blogs are apparently very loyal. They sit patiently, unchanged, waiting for their owner's return.

I don't have a bunch of time this evening, but I guess I will take a moment to post a pic that can be reffed to my profile...

Hmmm... I don't actually look too much like this photo any more! I am wearing my hair differently (shorter), my glasses are smaller, and I no longer have a goatee, although I do still have a moustache. Also, I have a Chikotlay tattoo on the left side of my face now. No, not really. No tattoos. No piercings. No unnatural hair colors. No gigantic gold and diamond dollar sign bling. No enhanced grill. or enhanced anything else for that matter.

Anyway. My lovely bride is waiting for me to join her for a few quiet moments of coffee and conversation.

Priorities, ya know.

And the horse you rode in on

2006-02-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

I have not yet discovered a law, rule, policy, mandate, edict, agreement, contract, suggestion or any other form of formal, informal, casual, flippant, facetious, tongue-in-cheek or otherwise enforceable or generally accepted proclamation that would force me to make more than one post a month in this blog.

So, there.

I missed the Grammys earlier this week. We stayed out too late eating pancakes at the Black Bear Diner. REALLY GOOD pancakes: 7-grain almond granola pancakes. I just deemed it more important to spend time with friends than to insist on watching the Grammys. I am still as interested as ever in who gets the awards. Pretty stoked that U2 made out so well. Frankly a bit disturbed that the "original" American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, stacked 'em up like she did (if you'll pardon the expression). Then again, I must confess that I have not heard the recording for which she won the awards. It must have some merit, eh? Or not. No guarantees, I'm sure.

So, anyway, "Song of the Year." That, right there, is the ticket. I have compiled a consecutive recording of the Song of the Year going back to the beginning of the Grammy Awards, up through 2000 or 2001, I think. I'll have to check. I know that I have not managed to get Alicia Key's "Fallin'" yet, and was last year John Mayer's "Daughters"? I don't have that, either. Also, I do not yet have U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," which includes this year's Song of the Year "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." (What happened to that trend a few years ago of songs with one-word titles, like "Bent" "Torn" "Smooth" "Jaded" ?)

Quite a collection of songs, that. Forty-eight songs, from "Nel Blue Dipinto di Blue (Volare)" thru "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." The only Beatles song on the list: "Michelle."

Of course, there are many new songs every year. A whole lot of great songs did not receive the distinction of being placed on this exclusive list. It would be interesting to go back and look at all of the "nominated" songs to see what got left behind.

OK. I just managed to provide myself enough material for like five hundred future posts - one for each Song of the Year, one for each rejected nominee, and a special post (or series of posts) concerning one-word song titles. There is also the whole "band name" discussion. Not to mention several posts around the general theme of "spending time with friends is better than watching the Grammys."

Cool.

So much to say...

2006-01-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

How does one choose what topic upon which to wax eloquent? Not only do I have myriad interests, but also I am concerned that this forum makes it difficult to express fully my thoughts on any given subject. Of course, my biggest problem is that I tend to want to say everything about something all at once, lest I be misunderstood.

As you are reading my words you cannot know all that has gone before to cause me to think the way I was thinking at the moment I was writing what you are reading. In fact, it is highly probable - not to say inevitable - that what you are reading does not adequately express my thoughts. This is due in large part to my inability to discover and properly align the best phrases at the time I am composing, but also to the inability (on anyone's part) to anticipate with any kind of accuracy the range of filters represented by the potential readership.

In other words, what anyone writes can and will be interpreted through such a vast spectrum of sociocultural filters that the original intentions of the author are all but guaranteed to be misinterpreted.

I get very passionate about what I read from others, and I hold my own opinions very dearly. But I often hesitate to open myself up because I am not especially fond of getting "flamed" for expressing my opinion. It is particularly vexing to have someone "go off" on you based on some kind of total misconstruance of what you wrote.

Nevertheless, intellectual exchange is the best and only way to expand one's perspective, ne c'est pas?

The array of concepts surrounding interpretations and sociocultural filters and linguistic nuances and the fine art of attempting to express ideas and opinions fully, honestly and openly... it is all quite fascinating in and of itself; worthy of further exploration. No doubt reams and volumes and tons of tomes have been produced examining this whole area of study. Still, it'll be fun!

2006-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

What I am pondering at this point is... What is the point? Specifically, what is the point of opening this blog? Why am I doing this? Do I really think I will persist in or develop a new habit that includes checking this blog and adding new posts regularly? Will I be really, really glad I started this blog? Will I ever receive any responses or comments from any passersby? Will I come up with great and prePOSTerous things to record for POSTerity?

Or not?

2006-01-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

OK. I have no idea where I am headed with this, my first and possibly last, blogventure. In the spur of the moment as I was deciding to create a blog, then immediately clicking and reading and clicking some more, I quickly imagined the name "PostPonderance" as a completely transparent play on the words "post," "ponder" and "preponderance." I am hoping for a preponderance of ponderous posts, even if only from myownself.

***sigh***