Blogging on the move just for the novelty of it. National Express East Coast mainline, seat G05A which is standard class, crowded as always - too many mobile phones bleeping and intercom announcements from the train crew. At least the Wifi is free nowadays but the connection is off and on as we hurtle at 125 miles an hour through somewhere in England. Its green and flat outside and I'm already an hour out of London. Its grey and cloudy and it seems everywhere its spring rain.
I've been listening, as I travel from London to Newcastle, to the Brian Eno / Robert Fripp No Pussyfooting album - ambient electronic music from the 1970s with nice guitar effects - which made me snooze off. Now I've got on Joe Byrd - The American Metaphysical Circus - great album which seems much faster and seems to motor along at about the same speed as the train.
The plug down by my side doesn't work so I'm on limited battery power just now and hope everything doesn't break down before I get this blog finished and posted and I also want the music to last till Newcastle as well. Its funny because there is from time to time the smell of burning rubber which is reassuring!
Well I'm out of London for the next week and have a few days at my parents caravan - in the Tessdale Valley - with two Danish friends to look forward to. I'll be without phone and internet connection - and as such blogging will come to a standstill after this message for a while. By which time the fate of Newcastle United will be determined and who knows what other disasters this world will succumb to.
So I'll back after my little journey to the countryside.
Happy Smiles from me. Bright Days ahead.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The nature of the blog. Random thoughts with two web links!
Hello Again People!
Well I wonder how many of you actually have been sitting down and reading these words in this little blog of mine. Getting myself a blog seemed like a good idea but I thought I would write more than I have so far. To be honest I never thought that this would take over my life and I would write everyday but its nice that it is here and I think that it is good to sit down and write some random text from time to time which may give you a new thought or different way of thinking about things. And from time to time I feel (or hope) I may have something substantial to say. But then again what seems important to me is probably irrelevant to the next person.
I was thinking about this blog of mine today at work and said to myself that I would sit down and write something tonight but when it came to the task of writing it - as I am doing now with a nice glass of Western Cape Pinotage Cinsault - I couldn't think of anything specific to say. But then again why do I want to sit down and each time try and write something so seemingly important (and dare I say it slightly profound) when I can just come here and write something random and without a destination in mind. So I'm just filling this up with a little message today to say thanks for reading!
I'm conscious that very few people actually read the vast majority of blogs that are out there or so it seems... every man and his dog have got blogs on all sorts of things. But that is the nature of blogs, they are free for everyone if people read them or not. For example a few months ago I read a story in a newspaper (a newspaper how quaint! how 20th century it is to read a paper and ink newspaper, instead of all these online media outlets!) Anyway the newspaper article was about how a kid commented on his blog that he was going to go out on a rampage and shoot people at his school and then the next day he did just that... he killed a few people and then turned the gun on himself. It then turned out afterwards that nobody had read his blog in the first place, not one person even visitied his site when he posted the message, and nobody took his comments as a warning. Now that's strange don't you think, possibly even ironic, it should certainly say something about the nature of blogs and something of the zeitgeist.
Well for the people who actually know who I am, it may be vaguely interesting to read my random comments (then again maybe not!) but I can't imagine this is overly exciting for anybody who doesn't know me and has stumbled across this blog page by chance (and those who do know me will know that I'm not likely to be filling these pages with blogs about wishing to shoot people - me being a peace loving Geordie after all!)
Anyway I've enjoyed the feedback and comments from those who have mentioned that you are regularly tuning in and reading my thoughts so far. My posting on Saint Georges Day and my racism/nationalism rant got a few people keen enough to mention it and send me personal emails about this which was interesting! Its not a total waste of time then!
Well I have been thinking about writing a message on these pages on the fortunes of Newcastle United Football Club and despite lasts night victory I'm not going to get overly confident about the state of my team just yet. We are still in deep trouble but I will wait and write a message once this current season has finished in a few weeks time. Then the fate of my useless football club can be fully understood.
So anyway, what else do people come onto the internet for..?
Well if you're sitting at home and are surfing around on the interent and have continued to read this far I suspect you have some time on your hands and I thought I would pass on two internet links that I've recently found both interesting, moving and humorous!
(Thanks to two people, Ben in London and Tree in Melbourne who originally sent me these links)
And here they are...
http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/04/14/storm-by-tim-minchin/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
Rather long but I hope you will find them interesting!
Well now I must return to more pressing issues, the washing machine has just finished and I need to hang up some wet laundry! (Now there is a future topic for a blog - the pros and cons of doing laundry at 10.30pm in the evening!)
Peace and Love as they say...
See you back here soon!
Well I wonder how many of you actually have been sitting down and reading these words in this little blog of mine. Getting myself a blog seemed like a good idea but I thought I would write more than I have so far. To be honest I never thought that this would take over my life and I would write everyday but its nice that it is here and I think that it is good to sit down and write some random text from time to time which may give you a new thought or different way of thinking about things. And from time to time I feel (or hope) I may have something substantial to say. But then again what seems important to me is probably irrelevant to the next person.
I was thinking about this blog of mine today at work and said to myself that I would sit down and write something tonight but when it came to the task of writing it - as I am doing now with a nice glass of Western Cape Pinotage Cinsault - I couldn't think of anything specific to say. But then again why do I want to sit down and each time try and write something so seemingly important (and dare I say it slightly profound) when I can just come here and write something random and without a destination in mind. So I'm just filling this up with a little message today to say thanks for reading!
I'm conscious that very few people actually read the vast majority of blogs that are out there or so it seems... every man and his dog have got blogs on all sorts of things. But that is the nature of blogs, they are free for everyone if people read them or not. For example a few months ago I read a story in a newspaper (a newspaper how quaint! how 20th century it is to read a paper and ink newspaper, instead of all these online media outlets!) Anyway the newspaper article was about how a kid commented on his blog that he was going to go out on a rampage and shoot people at his school and then the next day he did just that... he killed a few people and then turned the gun on himself. It then turned out afterwards that nobody had read his blog in the first place, not one person even visitied his site when he posted the message, and nobody took his comments as a warning. Now that's strange don't you think, possibly even ironic, it should certainly say something about the nature of blogs and something of the zeitgeist.
Well for the people who actually know who I am, it may be vaguely interesting to read my random comments (then again maybe not!) but I can't imagine this is overly exciting for anybody who doesn't know me and has stumbled across this blog page by chance (and those who do know me will know that I'm not likely to be filling these pages with blogs about wishing to shoot people - me being a peace loving Geordie after all!)
Anyway I've enjoyed the feedback and comments from those who have mentioned that you are regularly tuning in and reading my thoughts so far. My posting on Saint Georges Day and my racism/nationalism rant got a few people keen enough to mention it and send me personal emails about this which was interesting! Its not a total waste of time then!
Well I have been thinking about writing a message on these pages on the fortunes of Newcastle United Football Club and despite lasts night victory I'm not going to get overly confident about the state of my team just yet. We are still in deep trouble but I will wait and write a message once this current season has finished in a few weeks time. Then the fate of my useless football club can be fully understood.
So anyway, what else do people come onto the internet for..?
Well if you're sitting at home and are surfing around on the interent and have continued to read this far I suspect you have some time on your hands and I thought I would pass on two internet links that I've recently found both interesting, moving and humorous!
(Thanks to two people, Ben in London and Tree in Melbourne who originally sent me these links)
And here they are...
http://unreasonablefaith.com/
http://www.ted.com/index.php/
Rather long but I hope you will find them interesting!
Well now I must return to more pressing issues, the washing machine has just finished and I need to hang up some wet laundry! (Now there is a future topic for a blog - the pros and cons of doing laundry at 10.30pm in the evening!)
Peace and Love as they say...
See you back here soon!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
As Arthur Schopenhauer oberserved...
Arthur Schopenhauer observed that 'reality is created by the act of willing', from which he means: it is the stubborn indifference of the world to my intention, the world's reluctance to submit to my will, that rebounds in the perception of the world as 'real' - what we desire comes back to us as a harsh glare of reality; constraining, limiting and disobedient.
Feeling free from constraint, free to act on one's wishes, means reaching a balance between the wishes, the imagination and the ability to act: one feels free in so far as the imagination is not greater than one's actual desires, while neither of the two reaches beyond the ability to act.
A balance may therefore be established and kept unimpaired in two different ways: either by cutting down and limiting the desires or else by expanding one's ability to act. Once the balance is achieved, and as long as it stays intact, 'liberation' is a meaningless slogan, for we achieve however fleetingly a sense of harmony - but in time this moment (which we may call happiness) passes and without knowing it things fall away and we lack motivational force.
Just thought I'd share that as something to think about.
Feeling free from constraint, free to act on one's wishes, means reaching a balance between the wishes, the imagination and the ability to act: one feels free in so far as the imagination is not greater than one's actual desires, while neither of the two reaches beyond the ability to act.
A balance may therefore be established and kept unimpaired in two different ways: either by cutting down and limiting the desires or else by expanding one's ability to act. Once the balance is achieved, and as long as it stays intact, 'liberation' is a meaningless slogan, for we achieve however fleetingly a sense of harmony - but in time this moment (which we may call happiness) passes and without knowing it things fall away and we lack motivational force.
Just thought I'd share that as something to think about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)