The death of a blog
I have decided to kill this here "blog".
I hate the terms "blog" and "blogging" though I'm not quite sure why. They grate on the nerves along with "awesome" and "OMG" and the mere mention is like someone sticking a needle in my head and scraping my skull.
But if I can't use the hated word, then how do I describe this site?
Over the best part of a couple of decades I used to keep a diary. I never thought of it as a diary though [I'll leave that to Samuel Pepys] and preferred the word "journal". Seeing as this site is fulfilling much the same purpose I suppose it is only fair to call it a journal too? Or in line with the mangling of language so popular these days, maybe I should call it a "webjou" or a "webnal"? "journet"? "netnal"? Nah! I'll stick with journal.
I discovered the other day that there is in fact an Irish Blog Association. I came on it by chance and apparently it has been around for over a year. I looked for their "blog" but of course [this being Ireland] they don't have one. They have a single page up which tells me nothing. I found them on Farcebook and that confirmed my worstest fears – all pink and fluffy like the Awards thing. All the members seem to talk about is fashion, beauty and rearing babies. There were a few blokes in there but they seemed to be just writing about their little hobbies, or else they were writing about fashion too. Will I be joining? No fucking way. I don't see the point except to slag them off.
That confirmed my worst suspicions that "blogging" has, in the main, become a girly thing, and I really can't see myself fitting in anywhere there. The Awards thing confirmed it. So this strengthens my resolve to distance myself as far as possible from anything pink and fluffy.
But if I'm writing a journal, what does that make me? A journaller? Don't like the sound of that. Maybe I should invent a new word? How about "journal-ist"? Or "journalist" to make typing easier? That sounds about right? If anyone asks me what I do, I'll just say I'm a freelance journalist [“freelance” so I don’t have to explain why I don’t make any money out of it].
So Head Rambles [the blog] is dead.
Long live Head Rambles [the journal].
à tous les jours de votre journal, and whether it's a journal, a blog or a diary here's wishing it lots of plain provocative English with no journalese.
Maybe I should call it an On Line Diary? OLD? Grandad's On Line Diary? GOLD?
Blog? Journal? Diary? Ramble? I really don't care!
Please just carry on doing it.
But what happens if I run out of ideas?
Sure you can always go on rambling, journaling, blogging and diarying. Momentum often beats ideas, and some ideas impede momentum.
You got me really worried there GD. I thought you were going to do what so many of the good web diarists have done and throw in the towel. Don't do that to me again or I'll get really cross with you!
On the naughty step again? I'm used to it. In fact that's where I keep my books these days.
Well, let's see. The term "blog" is the shortened version of the original term, "web log", so you could have used that but I like (online) journal better.
And congratulations on frightening yet another one of your followers into thinking you're quitting–again. 😉
Quitting again? I never quit before? What are you on about?
Nooo, you've never actually quit….
Or you could have just dropped the l from blog. Head Rambles The Bog, that would have shown supershadow your worthiness to be a jedi and take your seat on the jedi council.
I didn't know SS was into bogs? He'd be quite at home here then.
THAT IS NOT A FUCKING INVITATION Supershadow!!!
You have a lot of happy readers. Maybe we should voice our joy and happiness more often.
Oh God no. I'm not looking for plaudits [unless they are negotiable currency of course]. The mere fact that anyone even reads this is enough for me.
I can send some poorly scanned photos of fake Krugerrands …. 😀
That's fine. If the scan is poor they probably won't realise the Krugerrands are fake.
If it is a "web log", then technically you are a "logger". All you need is a checked shirt to go with the beard.
Now you're being smart. You know damn well I'm wearing a checked shirt. I have three of them all identical and I rotate them. Makes people think I never wash. Heh!
Of course, to be a real logger you need to drive around in a five litre pick up with a hunting rifle hung on brackets in the back window
One of your greatest countrymen wore check-shirts.
Yes, but Grandpa, unlike the illustrious Charles Haughey, doesn't flaunt Charvet shirts.
Pedantic Old Fart.
Scared the begeezus out of me!
"Pedantic Old Fart"? No way. POF? And I would have to tell people I'm a Pedantic Old Farter? I'll stick with journal, but thanks for the suggestion.
POF was not a suggestion for a blog description, simply an observation of the author.
😀
I for one will be sorry to see the end of your gentle words, granddad, you brought a great feeling of peace and calm to my otherwise dreary end of days. Your grasp of the important things in life, i.e smoking, civil servants, water meters and pipes lent a great balance to my p.c. every morning, kept me away from …
Ah fuck it, good luck, I'll dip in occasionally just to see have you broken.
I'm not gone [yet]. It is merely a rebranding of the essence – it is no longer a "blog" but has become a journal.
You could be a diarist like Mr. Pepys?
Or a journo ~ but that sounds like an alcoholic chain smoking fedora wearing character from a Mickey Spillane novel
I don't have a fedora. Is that an essential prerequisite?
Yes as is chain smoking and being an alcoholic 😀