Why Blog?

Like David Bullard, I've come to the realisation that I can't afford to blog. My life is severely out of whack, not necessarily because of blogging, but blogging certainly hasn't helped. So I've done some thinking on the highway - not the information highway - the highway highway, and I'm pretty clear on a few changes I'd like to make.

This weekend quite a few people commented on the fact that I've lost weight and am looking good, and you know, that gives me a much greater kick than I get from blogging. I would much rather see my weight go down to 80kg than see my blogs hits break 100 000, or make the top 10 on some blog ranking. Honestly. I started blogging actually simply to record, share and inspire (myself and others) about my progress in triathlon, and specifically Ironman. Blogging has since served other functions, namely to promote my writing and photography, and to communicate some of my concerns regarding the conundrums our world faces. It is a place those who know me come to see what I've been doing, what's happening in South Africa and in my world, but to the extent that it's just been reflecting news, it's been squeezing out some of the original ethos.

Realistically, I'm not sure if I have managed to convert many people to care about what is happening and where we're headed - those who visit my blog regularly were converted long ago. And it's tiresome preaching to the converted. I would rather make this space about what we can do, who we can be, than endlessly addressing concerns to a world out there that's still not ready to listen (this may change when that changes.) An awesome blog that addresses Peak Oil issues, is here. I'm going to rededicate this blog to showcasing some of the writing and photography projects I'm busy with. Right now there are a few exciting ones, and some I can't talk about right now, but there are some big projects hanging in the balance, including TV, including some big names. So potentially very exciting.

N is for Nature. Not news. I've also grown tired critiquing the media, and want to now move away from that entirely. This blog was never started as a news and politics blog, and I've never wanted it to be that either. That doesn't mean I am gagging myself, it simply means I'm going to pay less attention to it. The news media as far as I'm concerned, is like the Joker, in Batman. It's witty, it's entertaining, sometimes fresh and interesting, sometimes it shows a bit of pazzazz, even muscle, but essentially we don't need to consume nearly as much as we are - it's a distraction from what we ought to be doing. It is also seldom what it was designed to be: a public service.

News now is entirely what the reader chooses to focus on. You can Google your way to the sort of news you want, irrespective of whether it reflects astute reporting or not. I discovered that even when I started reading the so-called best journalism, from the likes of the Guardian and Financial Times, the news didn't really give me anything to work with. Even the 'best' news, is still really a particular view from within a particular context. A lot of it is flawed, and patently unsophisticated. The majority of news doesn't offer any coherent insights, it simply tells us what is happening, and we hear the same thing repeated on TV, radio, online and in the newspaper. It's not very meaningful or useful. We never hear the answer to: why? We simply get fed what on and on and on.

This weekend for example, I didn't read either a Saturday paper or a Sunday paper, and I am beginning to feel that it's healthier to limit the amount of information - especially what is labelled 'news' - that we allow into our heads. How much is really relevant to our lives? And what do we learn from the stuff that is?

Also, I used to think that blogs can provide an important function to build networks and communities. Sure, they can. They seldom do, and when they do, it's seldom meaningful. That I predict will change, and quite soon. I hope so. I think I have met one person through my blog. We are far better served to get up from our computers and go to the gym, and work on our bodies, our health, our relationships with others, than to surf around 'cyberspace' any more than we really have to. Clicking a mouse pad does little to change the world, or our own circumstances.

What does this mean? Less blogging. I might skip two or three days in a week (hopefully more). I'm going to be focusing more of my time on being in the gym, and out on the bike. I weigh 83kg now and I want to get that number under 80kg. Blogging tends to eat into time I might otherwise be dedicating to sweating, to moving, to FUN! I will be doing a weekly column in the style of James Kunstler's Clusterfuck Chronicles every Monday, called The View From My Bicycle. It's not necessarily about cycling either. I also intend to dedicate at least one day a week to discussing either Nature, Virtue, Discipline or Logic. There will also be more personal material, but obviously not to the extent that it violates anyone's privacy (including my own).

My original idea was to ease down on blogging once I reached 100 000, but I'd like to moderate my effort from now on instead. For those who visit my blog regularly, I'd also like to encourage you to get out into the sunshine, move your body, and enjoy the gift of living. I saw an animal today with the lower half of his body paralysed, and really, facing the creep of death. We have much to be grateful for, and I don't believe the internet is the place to celebrate that.

What's The Point Of A Blog?

A blog is a chance to get a detailed behind the scenes picture of your favorite writer, celebrity or normal person. It's more detailed orientated than Facebook, it's more personal than email. In my case, when I have stuff appearing in publications, it can be viewed first here, with bonus footage/content. Also, while we may be used to a one-way flow of data (from a page through our eyes into our brains), a blog allows the opportunity for the reader to respond. Increasingly, you might find a curious detail and want the writer to expand on it. Or, as is often the case, you want to show/tell the writer that you are more intelligent than he/she is.

I started to appreciate the power and usefulness and thrill of blogging while living in Broadband Heaven - South Korea. I had read what I thought was a rare and astutely insightful book (The Long Emergency - by Jim Kunstler)and then was referred in the epilogue to his blog (www.kunstler.com). It's not the best design, but he writes well, has in the millions of visitors and it was fascinating following his commentary on events (updated daily and a column weekly), and seeing how predictions and reality became increasingly congruent. I have also emailed the author a few times and received several interesting responses, which is something you could never do until modern times. The same thing occurred with Weston DeWalt, author of The Climb, who actually contacted me via reading my blog.

It is amazing that we have the capacity now to read one another's minds, and for one person to infiltrate millions of minds, and for those millions (I almost said 'minions') to respond en masse. Kunstler says he wades through masses of emails each day.

The point of a blog, for me, in the beginning, was to provide a place for those people who wanted to get in touch with me, to visit (instead of sending group mails and getting 5 irritated responses each time). I am still shocked, surprised, awed, weary of the fact that what is published on the web can be read by a little girl on a computer in Australia, or a hairy nosed scientist at the North Pole, and everywhere in between.

I only worry that few of us take this technology seriously. So much - the majority by far - of what enters the public consciousness is drivel. And drivel begets drivel. Drivel and our fascination with drivel (rather than what is necessary) is what has driven us to where we are as a civilisation, and we know it is not a safe, happy, sustainable or even sane place. Blogs - if enough people experience a koo koo moment - may be able to reverse this effect, this mental malaise. Change begins with a change in mindset, and blogs can do, I believe, plenty to shift the zeitgeist to a more meaningful level of functionality.

NVDL Overtakes Bullard's Bullog

Blogging about why not to blog is a popular topic in the blogosphere. Because it comes back to the question: Why blog? The answer may be: why not?
While Bullard's opinions are far from impotent - in fact they are a credit to the blogosphere - the blogosphere is occupied for the most part by the Braindead. I don't blame Bullard though for reaching the point of ENOUGH; the endless vitriol on his site (people leaving emtionally charged negative comments) is just draining to behold. I wouldn't waste my time responding to that sort of soap scum either. It's a sad indictment of the average netizen.

Meanwhile, on a happier note, it's a credit to David Bullard's popularity and longevity that even having officially (?) signed off, signed out and au revoir-ed the blogosphere, his blog which was last updated on 21 September has only just been overtaken by this blog. This patriarch of the blogosphere, will it be allowed to crash from its dizzy heights? Will the Bullog be resurrected? David, is this really your final post? And is that your final answer?