Golby. Where to begin? I warned him you know, but he obviously never listened. But that in itself is nothing new when it comes to me and the Golbster, he never does anything I tell him to do. I should know when to give up, but that's just me I suppose."Writing himself into existence" is the supposed shield behind which he cowers, the honourable Dr. Swerveburger will definitely choke on his morning coffee when he reads that, his fine work casually misappropriated by the interminable Pagecounter. (What is a Pagecounter anyway?) But as much as I enjoy seeing Golby hung by his own petard like this, there is a part of me (that said, it is a sub-atomic sized part) that feels sorry for the old cad. There was he merrily minding his own business (in public) again, spouting off all sorts of nonsense and not so nonsense, the precisely detailed contents of which somewhat entangled a member of his own family.
And so loomed the issue, the larger of the big issues that seem to forever swirl around the world of blogging these days, alongside the likes of "Will Chris Locke ever come back from Alpha Centauri (again)?", "Is there a Shelley Powers out there in a parallel universe with a blog by the name of 'Over-done Flame Grilled Chicken' ?" and "Is blogging journalism?". Yes, I refer to the age old "personal censorship" issue.
Now I for one elected a long time ago to not spill the entire, gruesome beans of my every familial, sociological or vocational congress, excess or abscess. No, not for me. Now and then, like yesterday for instance, Fiona makes a muted appearance but that's more for my benefit than yours. Such as I need her to exist in some form in this other world I seem to inhabit more than is good for me sometimes. This here web entity has been long advertised as the waste paper bin of my mind, resplendent with ideas, thoughts and anything else that flashes across my conciousness on a daily basis. Not for nothing is this called Momentary Lapses Of Dilution, "Momentary" being the proverbial operative word in my case. I ain't no writer. Not in any way in the same league as the likes of Golbster, sure I can imagine with the best of 'em but I lack the patience and grotesque verbosity of Golby. He says I should write more, I hear that and write even less to spite him.
I digress, and the issue is a complex one, you could say that I'm actually trying to draw your attention away from it for fear of being exposed as a philanderer with nary a morsel of insight on the subject worth sharing nevermind reading. So, before I get bored of typing this trash I should really head off in the direction of 'making a point'.
What I blog I mostly expect other bloggers to read. It's kinda like a closed loop which isn't really closed but I neglect to beat myself up about the latter. I'm mildly concerned when someone I know but who doesn't know I blog or even what a blog is, trips over this place and brings it up in casual conversation. It usually goes along the lines of "I read your weblog but I don't get it, what exactly is it?". I strongly suspect that this question is a popular one which can be applied to virtually any part of the Web that isn't Amazon or something else obvious in its purpose. I suppose another commonly held view is that any 'website' is created with the sole and distinct purpose of attracting and holding the attention of many, many people. So, using that logic, putting something on your blog is tantamount to taking out an ad in your local national newspaper and no amount of explanation will make a difference.
I suspect that Mr G, famously famed for his heartfelt outpourings, has come a cropper on this detail. The offendee has requested that he pull down his blog, take it out back and put a bullet through it's head. Not bloody likely. We all owe ourselves and those we love a duty of care (always wanted to be a lawyer, obviously) when it comes to stuff we throw up on our blogs. It ain't no private personal notepad, it's a public document with public consequences. You don't know this but I privately chastised Mike Sanders several months ago for some of the things he said about Mike Golby on his weblog, things which at the time I believed were irresponsible and potentially harmful to Golby if they were to be taken out of context or abused by some sub-human life form intent on fame and notoriety. Mike Sanders duly removed his offending comments, a big thing to do. I felt strongly enough about that to attempt to censor the words of another, a cardinal sin according to some people round here. It's not like I put a gun to Mike Sander's head and forced him to change his words (dare I even presume that I had any influence on him anyway), but freedom of speech has a major wrinkle for some people when it happens to be speaking out against the free speech of others. This place is supposed to be self-regulating, in my view this doesn't mean that only the writer can regulate his or herself, we get by with a little help from our friends.
More than that I say that it's every man for himself. But what do I know?
Optional backing track - Wise Up - Aimee Mann
*The only person who inspires me to blog more than two paragraphs is Mike Golby to whom I would be married had it not been for the fact that I'm already spoken for.