Box of Mystery

Clearly this is another one for drunken ramblings, half an hour is not an appropriate time to sober up. I would have uploaded a picture, but me, my mac, and google couldn’t come up with a method of reducing the picture to a size that wouldn’t give modem users a heart attack (hey, my first modem was 1,200bps…). I’ll dedicate some time tomorrow in between some long overdue gardening (yeah yeah, I know, middle aged, blah blah blah…) to figuring out what I actually need in order to send some random pictures up. Is that good for blogs? Ahhhh, who knows. I’m making this up as I go along.

Oh, yes, there was a reason for two posts in one day. According to my stats, 2 people who are not me have actually seen this blog. Well that was quick… how? I keep remembering the internet when it was just >< that big, with gopher and all that stuff. If it was the green that scared you away, sorry about that, I kinda like green. If I knew what a CSS was if it rubbed me roughly in the face, I’d modify the greens – but it would only go wrong, and you know it.

Apparently I can upload an avatar. Hmmm. All the obvious ones would be too obvious. I’ll give it some thought. I anticipate it’ll keep you on the edge of your sofas.

So before I go to sleep and begin regretting starting this blog, here is something cool. As Douglas Adams said, space is big. Really big. For some reason, a few weeks back, when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself that picture was somewhat inspiring. Amazing things surround us all the time, whatever we’re doing. Sometimes our minds get all miserable and we forget to see them. I’ve had quite a few opportunities recently to be reminded of why it is a privilege to be alive (and yes, they were ALL better than the picture of Saturn).

As one would say in hex ASCII, 474f4f44204e49474854.

Welcome to blog 27,348,234 on the Internet. I’d have signed up for a dating site, but the decent ones require a rolling subscription and I hear “bad things” about the results. So I thought I’d write a blog. I think it’s anonymous, but who knows what buttons I pressed wrong, what checkboxes I checked and what links I accidentally set whilst trying to avoid spilling my wine. Maybe I’ll meet someone. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll be the only person who ever sees this blog, and maybe I’ll meet some new friends. I live on that United Kingdom island thingy. I picked this place because the guys that set it up look like the kind of people I could enjoy a beer with. Oh, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that “free” wasn’t a great help in making a decision.

I read many blogs. I have no idea how people find them. What makes them interesting? Does someone starting a blog when he’s had a touch too much wine sound like a good idea no matter HOW broad-minded you are?

The problem with private diaries is that you never get to share them with anyone. For an infinite number of reasons, this is almost certainly the wisest course of action. But sometimes, don’t you feel the need to just speak? Just say something? Say what’s on your mind without anyone hearing, yet you really want just SOMEONE to hear? Maybe that’s a good reason to start a blog. Even if one person reads it, and even if the entire blog generates just one solitary comment, I’ll know that someone, somewhere on this vast world read the words that I wrote. I’m not sure if that is good news or I should be unpacking the world’s smallest violin.

I opened saying something about a dating site. That is probably my cue to talk about myself (well, it IS my blog) in as anonymous way as I can muster. I’m a bloke. In my “mid 30s”. By my use of quotes, you can tell that it isn’t the <35 side of 3, but technically I can still say mid 30s. Apparently, I look 10 years younger than that, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as someone once said for some odd reason. I own a little house with a little garden and I work in the IT industry (yes, that does imply a certain degree of nerd-ness, sorry). Somone once said I looked like that de-caprio bloke out of Titanic, but, well, again, beauty is in the…

Needless to say, I’m now single (it wasn’t my choice). I have been for a few months now, since before Christmas. And one thing I did is write a LOT of words. It’s kinda funny now that my brain is beginning to function again to look back on them all. I wrote poems. I wrote songs. I wrote stories. I wrote letters I never posted. I drew pictures. I wrote a 10 day non-stop diary (20 sheets of A4, hand-written, closely spaced) of what I was thinking — and NONE of that will ever see the light of day. Unless I drop dead, of course, and some bugger finds it hidden in my loft. Come to think of it, maybe I should burn it just in case… And believe me – I’ve never written a song or poem in my life before (oh, and in case you’re curious, they were rubbish, I currently retain them for the entertainment value alone.)

So I figured a blog would be entertaining. Like so many things, it seems like a good idea at the time (by time, I mean ‘right now’). Maybe this’ll be the only entry. Maybe it won’t. If you read this, remember to say “hello”. If you live in England, you’re female, 27-42 and single, say “hello” twice… (it’s like a secret handshake – we’ll take it from there *grin*)

I’m 3/4 of the way through a rather delicious bottle of wine and I have some chinese spiced chicken legs to work my way through (I should probably have eaten before drinking, but we all make mistakes) so I’d better stop typing and see what falls out of the woodwork. If I’m drunk enough later, you may get the displeasure of yet another entry. So to speak.

The first challenge was finding a name I could use. I guess mid-thirties is a little late to come to blogging. Although I do remember gopher, if that scores me any nerd points (25 quid to the first person who can tell me the relevance of P0PP051000*)

* – promise of money may contain only trace amounts of your recommended daily dose of truth and fact