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 |   A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
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Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end. So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.     |
| Facebook Follies Lately, I’ve been ambushed by Facebook. It’s part of my boot up procedure every morning, although I never bother with it during the rest of the day. I open it just so that, on opening or closing it each day, I can see whether any friends or relatives have commented. Normally, I would spend a couple of minutes there on my way to WdC. But a few weeks ago, it laid a trap for me. It started putting Calvin and Hobbes cartoons every few posts. I have never told Facebook that I love Calvin and Hobbes, so why it should suddenly decide to throw them at me, I have no idea. Just part of the irrational mess that is Facebook, I guess. The problem is that it works. I find myself scrolling further and further down in the hope of another C & H cartoon. And there’s always another one. There are days when I get lost in Facebook for half an hour or more and that’s a fair chunk out of my day - more than FB warrants, that’s for sure. But I can see light at the end of the tunnel. They’re beginning to run out of C & H strips. I can tell because there are more and more repeats. Plus, they’ve started to try out other cartoons on me as well. No luck there, I’m afraid. Never did think much of Beetle Bailey. So it looks as though I’ll soon be able to reclaim those lost hours in Facebook. Though I’ll miss Calvin and Hobbes, it’s true. Word count: 258 |
| Just a Thought Next year's WdC birthday will be its quarter century. That's gonna be some party! |
| Weezer Again I can't help it - every now and again I come across another Weezer song that I've never heard before and I'm grinning like a Cheshire cat with enjoyment. Listen to this one and tell me you're not instantly back in the heyday of the Beachboys: |
| A Passing Ponder on Poetry All these poems addressed to one person, the ubiquitous "you." I wonder about the point since "you" will never read them. |
| In My Opinion... My latest theory: the greater the number of voices pontificating on a subject, the less important that subject. I would invite discussion on my theory only I'm fairly certain that would just prove its validity... |
| A Sticky Problem If you drop a spider on to another spider's web, does it get stuck? |
| Smug Realisation Today I realized that my generation can never grow old. When you grew up with rock n roll, you're just too cool to do such a thing... |
| Regarding Efficiency We all have our ways of doing things, patterns of behaviour that years of experience have taught us are the most efficient route to the desired result. Well, I do, anyway. This was brought to my attention years ago, when my eldest son was in his twenties. He was watching me make a sandwich in the kitchen. There was nothing unusual about that but I was vaguely aware he did not often spend time observing me with so much interest. The reason for this became clear as I completed the sandwich and was about to eat it. He pronounced judgement. "You really know how to make a sandwich," he said. "Doesn't everyone?" I asked. "Not like that. You didn't miss a bit with the butter and the edges are exactly matched." I knew that was true. It's how I make sandwiches. "I thought everyone did it like that," I replied and bit into the sandwich. And that's how I became aware that we all have our ways of doing things. Which explains why so many people don't do things correctly, like putting the new toilet roll in the wrong way, leaving the toaster at the wrong setting, and not returning things to the places where they live. Sometimes it's hard being perfect. Word count: 212 |
| Harold Lloyd Was watching something in YouTube when I saw just a short clip of the silent movie comedian, Harold Lloyd. Years ago I saw a television documentary series on his most memorable scenes and I was hooked then and remain so now. There's something about his incredible stunts that sets him apart from the many brilliant comedians of that era. He was the greatest, the funniest and the scariest of them all. |
| That History Thing Again I have said before that, if it’s happened within my memory, it’s not history. So, for instance, the second world war is history, but the death of Buddy Holly isn’t. And it’s a working definition for me, at least. But today I have realised that there’s more to it than that. There is a sense in which I become the history in my lifetime. My memory is the storehouse of all that I experience and, as such, it’s an historical document (note the use of “an” before a word beginning with H - even that’s a matter of history). It is so because it is a source for written history. If I write about my experiences, including stuff I just hear or read about in news reports, I am writing history. Once I’ve done that, historians can include it with memoirs from other people living in the same period and so construct what becomes the official history. But it remains true that historians should beware creating histories while survivors remain to refute the attempt at rationalisation. It’s hard to deny the fellow who stands up and says, “That just ain’t so - I know because I was there!” Word count: 196 |
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