Success

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
—Winston Churchill

Heartbeat

It’s like breathing and eating, there really isn’t much change in what needs doing every day. I will blog, but only from time to time. As I wrote in the last post, a writer has other writing to do—at least, I do.
I recently commented on an innocuous post on global warming (under Conrad's post comparing The Nobel Prize and American Idol), and pretty much got “flamed” (there’s a pun there somewhere). I still am determined to stay away from the contentious issues of the day. I don’t think it will do me any good as a writer to get personal regarding my opinions on politics, religion, etc. The fact I’m saying so, however, suggests it’s a matter I reconsider from time to time.

Blogging Hiatus

I haven’t blogged in a while because rule-of-thumb is that a person blogs daily. Anything less is of no interest, and infrequently posted blogs are utterly sidelined, never read, so what’s the point?

While this is a reasonable opinion, widely held, it just doesn’t work for me. I only want to post when I have something to say, and because I have several blogs and work to do, I simply stopped posting altogether several weeks ago.

I also stopped posting because I was thinking about my so-called “profile”—what’s anyone to make of my wide-ranging interests and opinions? Surely for everything I say one person applauds, another will cross me off their list. I’m not a public personality at heart, and still have that work to do I mentioned earlier. At bottom, as a writer, why I should blog when I should be writing?

I’ve decided from now on to post anyway, however infrequently, because posting on my blogs, however insignificant, is still my best shot at reaching out to others and sharing passing thoughts and ideas. I am a writer, and this is not a journal. It’s just a conversation. We’re all busy, and I have no inclination to be chatting away here daily.

Hope you enjoy my (likely to remain) infrequent posts.

What People Say

When you’re not in the room, how do people behave differently? Rotate people in and out in your mind, as if there were a parallel universe for each combination of personalities. Given the same conversation, the same set of circumstances, the same topic of discussion, what is said or not said, how do people act, depending on who’s there?

Meta Sports

Sports are “meta” because in and of themselves they are nothing. The winner of the big game is the winner of the big game. There is no other accomplishment. Whatever sports mean, it has nothing to do whatsoever with who scores.

Meta-Meta

According to a heavily-flagged article in Wikipedia, Meta-epistemology is a metaphilosophical study of the subject, matter, methods and aims of epistemology and of approaches to understanding and structuring our knowledge of knowledge itself.

Put more simply, meta-epistemology might be meta-meta, right? That would make metaphilosophical (sic) meta-meta-meta, or what we think about what we think about what we think about things. Again right?

By the way, all these “meta” words should be hyphenated. One exception appears to be metacognition, which may be hyphenated or not, I’m guessing for no good meta-reason.

Metacognition

Metacognition is the awareness of one’s mental processes, knowledge about one’s own thinking, of the factors that influence one’s own thought.

Networking

Networking is the act of creating connections among computers or people so they can share information.

Networking is very meta.

Body Rebuilding

Exercise is remedial.

The Meta of Self

Wise preachers say God loves you as if you were the only person on earth, the jewel in the crown of his creation, the superlative of your best notions of yourself.

You are magnificent. Behave as if God exists.

For No One's Eyes Only

When persons who know each other intimately die--all those friends and lovers from past eras--what happens to their private moments together, their shared secrets?

Why Bother?

If the thing itself is more true than the art which represents it, why art?

Working for a Living

Your job should be like your home.

There You Are

Right now, this is all there is.