Gullible's Blog manifesto

This is my response to the Anonymous comment on Monday asking "Why are you writing a Blogg?".

According to the mostly tongue-in-cheek Why I Hate WebLogs I would count as a "Reverse Voyeur". So what started me blogging?

Intellectual curiosity:
• Because it was there. It came free with the excellent Google toolbar so I thought what the heck. Being an amateur webmaster for over seven years has taught me a lot about technology which I have enjoyed learning (no Geek comments please). This was another new thing to learn about.

• I am fascinated by the impact of technologies on the way people communicate, ever since CSC installed voicemail following the takeover of Inforem and transformed the way people interacted. Every medium (email, voicemail, mailing list, fax, usenet, answerphone, SMS) introduces new etiquette, new possibilities and pitfalls. And so what would Blogging be like I wondered?

Emotional necessity:
• A need to scribble on the sands of time, even if they are washed away by the next tide. This is driven by a new found sense of my own mortality. This was triggered just prior to the start of the Blog.

• Christmas day I said to Mary that we must visit Mick Casson an old family friend. Boxing day Dad rang to tell me Mick had died. The day after Mum told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. New Year's eve Mary's father, Bill, died. First week of 2004 was Bill's funeral, second week was Mum's mastectomy. Hence the content of my first post: Life is too short to drink bad wine.

What kept me blogging?

Emotional plate spinning: More reminders of mortality: Mum's Aorto Bi-femoral Bypass, Mary's Gran died, Denise's funeral and the loss of Oscar.

Artistic leanings: Just wanting to write. Something I haven't done since O-Level English back in 1968, A long time to get rusty. Trying out different styles. The three paragraph, haiku-inspired postings. Just writing in a way that isn't in the boring work-style.

What I do not blog:

Political commentary: Cannot see the point of that. Go down the pub and bore your mates.
My work: Many interesting blogs are about interesting jobs. Mine, however much I enjoy it and find it challenging, would quiet frankly, my dear, be of little interest to others.
My inner emotional life:That ain't nobody's business but my own.

Mary says it is a bit self-indulgent but that leaves my life really and the world around me. Enjoy it or not not as you wish.

Toodle-pip!