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Essaying a non-essay
Apr. 9th, 2012 02:50 pmI think that a great deal of what I used to put into Live Journal now goes into Facebook and personal e-mails. There are probably several reasons; last August and the amazing negative response that I got to one post led me more in the direction of Facebook, where at least only a designated (albeit reasonably wide) audience can see what you post. Added to that, in the old "the medium is the message" style, I began to feel that the blog now consisted of something completely different from its initial derivation (a web diary) and had become more of a place for essays. This is no bad thing. The world had lost a medium for samizdat, and the blogs that remain often contain well-thought out essays on current events. A far cry from early days of 14-year-old goths joining a 10,000 strong online group entitled "Why am I so different from everyone else and why am I not in any groups?", or 11-year-old girls writing about how she is certain that she was adopted as a baby because her parents are nothing like her and absolutely do not understand her at all and life is so cruel and why won't that nice boy in class look at me?
Essays are all well and good, but more often than not they require a bit of work. Even, shock horror, research. If I'm particularly attracted to a topic, I'm fine with that, but I'm not going to do it for its own sake.
I also have a weekly column now in the Insurance Day trade paper. OK, it has to be about insurance, but apart from that it isn't that different from this blog.
All of that means that occasionally some things fall through the Facebook/LJ gap. One of them was a review of Napoleon and of my last couple of days In San Francisco. There was no real time to do one on the Sunday, and by the time I got back I was straight back into the office on the Tuesday, and was jet-lagged for nearly a week. (On the plus side, going into work does drive you back into proper body time far quicker than if you stay at home for another week).
So, let's go back to the old-style blog, a kind of online diary keeping other people I know, but with whom I do not talk that often, up-to-date with the ongoing travails of the Birks life.
Here's some pictures of my last Saturday in San Francisco (or, rather, Oakland - which, apart from the movie, appeared to be shut).
( some pictures of the Paramount )
Essays are all well and good, but more often than not they require a bit of work. Even, shock horror, research. If I'm particularly attracted to a topic, I'm fine with that, but I'm not going to do it for its own sake.
I also have a weekly column now in the Insurance Day trade paper. OK, it has to be about insurance, but apart from that it isn't that different from this blog.
All of that means that occasionally some things fall through the Facebook/LJ gap. One of them was a review of Napoleon and of my last couple of days In San Francisco. There was no real time to do one on the Sunday, and by the time I got back I was straight back into the office on the Tuesday, and was jet-lagged for nearly a week. (On the plus side, going into work does drive you back into proper body time far quicker than if you stay at home for another week).
So, let's go back to the old-style blog, a kind of online diary keeping other people I know, but with whom I do not talk that often, up-to-date with the ongoing travails of the Birks life.
Here's some pictures of my last Saturday in San Francisco (or, rather, Oakland - which, apart from the movie, appeared to be shut).
( some pictures of the Paramount )
