Yarr! – The Weblog of Bob Heffernan

I’m not sure that any of what I said in the last few posts makes any sense at all. I have a feeling I may be way off the mark. I’m just thinking out loud really.

There will be more.

1. I am trying to fix something on an older computer and my goodness, does Windows ME suck or what? Times like these make me particularly glad to be a Linux user. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve restarted the machine in the last 15 minutes. I’m waiting for it to boot back up right now.
2. My brother returned from the USA with Jolly Ranchers and root beer. I like them both, yes I do.
3. My girlfriend Marie also returned from the USA. I like her too. She came bearing books and whisky, also things I like.
4. I am listening to Sonic Youth. I like them too!
5. Do you think that concentrating on things I like will counterbalance the overwhelming feeling of hatred I have for Windows ME?

I sometimes wish that when they standardised spelling, back in the day, they had left more k’s at the end of words. For example, consider “heretick”. If we still spelled it like that we’d never have given up on burning witches I tell ya! Oh, I can almost smell the burning hair now…

Oh, I do make the obvious exception for “magick”. That’s just gay.

I started this blog on November 2nd, 2003. That seems like an awful long time ago. Have a look at my first and second posts (both posted that first day) to see how little things have changed. Hands on your hips and a little jump to the left…

OK. Sod it! I give up! I have made several attempts to structure this blog in such a way that would give me impetus to blog, that would facilitate regular blogging, etc.

Clearly it hasn’t worked.

Let’s face it. I’m not the best with managing my time. Any of my friends will readily (and I do mean readily) attest to this fact. I find it hard to get the important things in my life done and so those less than crucial elements such as blogging have a tendency to fall off the edge of my proverbial hamster wheel. That is just the way it is. As such, attempts at regular posting are plainly a waste of time.

In the past I might have sought to model my blog after that of Joe Carter. His blog is regularly updated with insightful and well written articles on a range of interesting topics, interspersed with more humourous posts and other bits and pieces. It rarely fails to be of interest an even when I disagree vehemently with his thoughts, I find myself admiring his argument. Later, jaded and lazy in equal parts, I decided that something closer to my friend Steve’s blog was more in order. His is a little like Carter’s except more personal and less formal. A little further down the road and I decided that imposing some rigid format on my posts would help me to post regularly. No so.

As Marie pointed out recently, the only thing I seem to successfully blog about is my inability to blog. That is a particular genre I have had much time to master over the years.

So, I give in. No, I’m not going to give up blogging altogether – I don’t like you that much. I am just going to post random crap whenever and however I feel like it. I don’t expect it to be very good, very insightful or, well, very anything but I do intend to enjoy it!

For reference, check out Henry Gould’s blog. He appears to post whenever the fancy takes him. Sometimes he will post several times a day, sometimes there will be a break for a few days. He seemingly posts whatever it is he is thinking and often doesn’t go far as to ensure it will make sense to the average reader (like myself). He goes to no pains to garner a loyal readership. Yet, I have no doubt he has such a readership, primarily because one can clearly a discern a real person behind it all, with real thoughts and a simple desire to put them someplace in case somebody might like to read them. It’s great!

I do intend to maintain my poetry blog more or less as I always have, of course.

• How I Write, by Bertrand Russell. Interesting stuff. What it says on the tin, really. ‘Nuff said.
• There’s an excellent blog post at Prosthesis on “Bad Arguments for Atheism”. Here is a brief quote:
  

  This brings us to another similar argument which I’ll call (again, out of laziness) the “substitution fallacy.” Kuznicki argues that statements like “God caused X” are meaningless because we could easily substitute something in for “God.” We could say “The Flying Spaghetti Monster caused X.” This argument really only works if you already believe that God doesn’t exist or that ‘God’ is a meaningless term. No person who believes in God would say that is a valid substitution. Imagine if said “Andruw Jones hit a home run last night” and you tell me that that isn’t a meaningful statement because I could just as easily substitute “Alex Rodriguez” or “Big Bird” for “Andruw Jones.” Nobody who believes that Andruw Jones is an actual person will accept that argument. The only way it would work is if I already agreed with you that “Andruw Jones” didn’t exist or was meaningless.

  This is a good example of debunking the sort of lazy argument that I’m growing tired of hearing as the days go on. Go, read Prosthesis’ post!

• Jordan Davis has a slightly anrgry, but still valid post on the arrogance of Poetry editor Christian Wiman in a recent editorial in the magazine. I couldn’t agree more.