Recap

[poliphilo]

So how long have I been blogging now? 

Nearly 4 years.  And since I must average a post a day that's a hell of a lot of words. 

A lot of pictures too.

It gets harder. Mainly because I try not to repeat myself. 

I don't want to bore you. I don't want to bore myself. So the range of topics open to me is shrinking all the time.

If you've been reading me for a while you'll know my views on most of the things that matter to me. There are only so many ways of saying "Bush is an idiot". 

And I've probably told you as much of my back story as I'm willing to divulge. I was thinking yesterday of writing about my boyhood friend Stephen Pegler, but I think I've touched on him before so I didn't. Did I mention he had an older sister? No I don't think I did, so let's glance at her briefly. She had sandy hair and freckles and was a nasty, mean bully. She sat on me once and tickled me and wouldn't stop- and I was far too young to appreciate it. On another occasion she fired flaming matches at me from a toy cannon and reduced me to a quivering wreck.

Stephen also had a chow dog with a purple tongue which tried to bite my dick off.  It was later put to sleep- but not because of its attack on me. Maybe someone else's dick got bitten off completely.

I don't think I've mentioned that before. About the chow. 

It was pretty scary at Stephen's house what with the dog and the sister. 

I wonder where these people are now? Stephen's sister will be in her sixties if she's still alive. Oh wow!

And that's something else that's getting tired- going on about how old I am. Time passes, get used to it!  Mind you, Thomas Hardy wrote about nothing else and it didn't do him any harm.

But anyway- it gets harder.  I seem to spend an awful lot of time these days just staring at the screen, thinking what to write. Sometimes it helps to walk away, take a shower or something. 

I do think about quitting- and one day I will- but not yet . This place still excites me. Hey, we're the first generation of bloggers; we're the ones creating the template, writing the rulebook, setting the standards- isn't that amazing?  And besides, my friends are here.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I do hope you don't quit - I always enjoy your posts. It's hard, though, isn't it, when you feel you have to be entertaining and/or enlightening? I have the same feeling, which is why I don't post more often.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

It can be quite a slog.

I have standards and I don't want to drop below them. If that happens I'll definitely quit.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Please don't stop posting! There will always be new things that excite or infuriate you, and your insights are always right on the mark. Do you write professionally still? You should be published to a wider audience than LJ.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Yes, things keep coming on down the pike.

I don't write for money. I did for a while but never made enough to support myself. I seem to have found my niche in LJ.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Well, I enjoy reading your writing. And seeing your photographs. Whether you think you are entertaining or not. :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

The thing is I've got standards and I don't want to fall below them. I felt I was danger of doing that before Christmas- just phoning it in- and if that became the norm I'd have to quit- if only for the sake of my own self-respect.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

I love reading your posts. And I'd rather you phoned it in than disappeared. It is a very hard thing to do, to undisappear, it seems.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

My fear of taking even a short break is that there'd be no way back. That the iron gates would close.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, exactly. That would be extremely sad.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Until now, I certainly never felt anything even remotely near boredom reading your entries! You are certainly one of the people on my friends list who DOES set standards, that is for sure!!

I think blogging philosophy also differs from person to person, and even from period to period. For me, on one side this is an important "sounding board" in order to receive input on stuff I am thinking or doing, on the other, I truly love the possibility of going back in time and reading even about the little trivia which happened this or that day.. if you don't write them down, boring as they might be, what you will remember is only the "big" stuff, which is, in some cases, a pity.. ! I wish I had had a LJ sooner, there are periods in my life which are so ..undocumented, unremembered, un-relivable!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

My wish is to find something "interesting" to say every single day- even if it's only the tiniest of tiny jokes. It's about redeeming time, I think.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Repetition isn't always repetition though; you're still growing and changing, and your take on issues now might have changed from issues then.

Not always, I know, but I don't think you have to completely avoid reviewing what has gone before to keep fresh.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's true.

There may well be new things to be said about an old topic.

But I don't want to get in a rut. I'd hate it if my posts (and opinions) became predictable.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Completely fair - change is growth, no?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If you stop changing you might as well roll over into the ditch and die.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I've just been back and looked at the first couple of months of your blog. How did the novel writing turn out? You never mention any other sort of work so I assume you make money from your writing (or live on yuor royalties). There is some great, great stuff in there and I would rather read it than most of the other novels that come my way.

And I will keep reading so I can piece together your mysterious backstory.

BTW I posted "Fingerpost" to you on New Year's Eve and am eagerly awaiting your review. I think you write just as well as, if not better than, Iain Pears.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I earn a meagre crust as Ailz's carer. She draws disability allowance and I draw the carer's allowance.

I made a bit of money once as a freelance writer for the Guardian and other rags but never enough to live on.

I've written a number of novels- none of which has been published. The best of them are the 4 Purchas books which have their own LJ. Have you looked at them? I wrote them as a blog- an episode a day- in less than a year. It was a helter-skelter ride- and some of the best fun I've ever had. There's a link to them on my infopage.

I'm looking forward to getting the book- and, yes, I'll certainly be reviewing it.

[aellia.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't you stop yet!
I enjoy your posts and envy your ability to write something interesting.
I smiled at this one and at the image of Stephen's sister still with her freckles and sandy hair and firing off matches for her grandchildren.
x

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I got a little discouraged before Christmas and felt I was losing it.

I Googled Stephen Pegler but couldn't find him. There were several people of that name but none who was very likely to be my old mate. I guess most people our age don't bother with cyberspace. There's an old school friend I'd really like to link up with who is now a high-ranking or retired Naval Officer. You'd think someone like that would be all over the Web but, no! All I got when I Googled his name was a single newspaper story about some ship being refitted.

[suemars.livejournal.com]

i don't post very often, so i understand how difficult it must be to do it daily. then i also have the "does this sound too stupid" thing, when i do post. but i must say i really ejoy reading what you write. so thanks.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

For me blogging is (among other things) a habit- part of the daily routine. I'm afraid of taking a break from it in case I find it impossible to start again.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

In the little over a year or so that I've been reading you there have been topics that have interested me and others less so but I have never been bored! You turn a phrase well, to say it in a rather antiquated way. I'd truly hate to lose sight of you and your writing and photography. Each of us has our own philosophy of journal keeping. Yours does well on several levels and like everything in life, there is an ebb and flow of ideas and just plain inspiration sometimes.

I think your last paragraph says it all. It truly is amazing that we are the first generation here and yes, my friends are here, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

If I dropped out of blogging it would be like going into exile. I'd lose so much.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

There are only so many ways of saying "Bush is an idiot".

Not to worry, we'll have a new president to annoy/amuse/delight you soon. ;-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That'll be good.

It was nice (incidentally) to see the back of Tony Blair. Trouble is his successor is turning out to be a sulky, anti-democratic incompetent.

[algabal.livejournal.com]

You are one of the more interesting people I read here. I really don't think people tend to notice minor repetitions in regularly-updated blogs!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Ah, but I notice them. It really bugs me if I think I'm repeating myself.

[chochiyo-sama.livejournal.com]

No matter how many times it is said--or in what phraseology it is said--I never tire of someone saying "Bush is an idiot."

:D

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It is- I'll grant you- an uplifting phrase ;)