Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, etcetera and so on. Probably doesn’t do much good to start out with blatant plagiarism. Then again, Charles Dickens (that’s Dikkens with two K’s, the well-known Dutch author) has been dead for 150 years so maybe no one will notice. Unless Phil Dickens, his great-great-great-grandson, has a penchant for surfing obscure, just-started blogs for kicks. But as I understand copyright law (a level of comprehension sandwiched somewhere between “layman” and “utter ignoramus”), I think I might be okay.
Look at this – a brand new blog, born on the fourth of July! Aw, crap, there’s the phone, it’s Ron Kovic’s lawyer. Yes, sorry about that. Birthed on the 27th last day of the seventh month, is that better? I suppose this riff on infringement and plagiarism is a roundabout way to ask if the world needs another blog. According to the Great Encyclopedia of Earthly Knowledge (G.E.E.K., better known to you as Wikipedia) there are 156 million blogs on this planet. 156 million and change variably informed people holding court about politics, religion, celebrities, recipes, their damn kids, the history of Romanian cabinet making and just about any other esoteric topic you can think of (see “Long Tail of Media, The”). What could I possibly contribute other than the merest infinitesimal escalation of the background noise?
More to the point, what is it about the internet that compels otherwise reserved people to spew their ramblings into the void of cyberspace? I’m reminded of Voyager 2, which has been flying through space since the late 70’s on its way out of our solar system. This tiny hunk of metal, at latest report over 13 light-hours from earth, still sending streams of data back to its masters on the blue speck out there in the darkness, and continuing to do so until its power trickles down to nothing in the next 13 years. Crying out even though no one may be listening. That’s your blogger in a nutshell. If you’re lucky, somebody who’s interested picks up the transmission.
What it’s really about is the exchange of ideas. But to get started with that, I’ve gotta put my ideas out there. And I have more than a few to share. If you read something of mine that makes you smile, makes you think, makes you punch through the screen screaming “fffffffffuuuuuu,” then something worthy has been achieved. (Maybe not the latter so much – you might think I owe you a new monitor.) What you can expect – my declaration of principles as it were – is my three H’s – honesty, heart and hope.
So let’s see where we go with this thing and what we find along the way. And feel free to let me know how I’m doing. If you like what you find here, or if you just think I’m an utterly pretentious douche, say so. It’s the only way I’ll learn.
Namaste and welcome aboard,
Graham
Graham's Crackers 