Let The Pigeons Loose

"One of the hallmarks of a truly advanced intelligence is the ability to reverse course on any previously uttered position or belief."

I've always loved that line, as it seems to both identify and criticize one of my most heartfelt complaints about people: that they refuse to think. It's one thing to claim some belief or opinion based upon next to nothing—to merely roll the dice and claim something as "what you believe." It's another to do the research and develop an informed opinion. But it's still something else to do the research, come to a conclusion, and THEN, at some point farther down the line, re-examine that earlier work to see if perhaps there was a flaw in the calculations, or if perhaps conditions have changed such that the original premise and conclusion no longer have relevance.

Plus, let's be honest, sometimes it's really damned convenient to be able to pull a Bat Turn and do an instant 180-degree turn for no reason beyond childish amusement.

Such is my take with blogs, at least, it is today.

For years, I have scratched my head wondering what the hell the big attraction of this whole "blogging" thing is. Harsh though this might be for some to accept, most people can't write for shit, and most people can't tell a good story for shit, and the overlap of the two minorities who CAN both write and tell a story seems like such a specialized subset that people falling into this camp ought to rate some special label (which of course they do: "writer geeks").

I have friends who blog (and well), and I see a few strangers and civilians who manage the trick, but let's be honest, gang—the vast vast majority of blog sites out there have no real reason for being. They make their hosts feel happy and creative, and maybe the three or four semi-regular readers of these sites will claim (with a touch too much vehemence) that they LOVE this person's writing, but in truth you could probably demonstrate the old 90% Axiom ("90% of everything is crap") by culling any random 90% of the blog sites from existence. It might be amusing to actually do this, if only to watch 90% of the remaining 10% of those blog sites re-dedicate themselves to excoriating the Liberal Elite/Right Wing Moralists/Brain Dead Centrists who are secretly behind this great culling.

So what have we got? A few truths:

1) I've never been a big fan of blogging
2) most blogging is a pointless self-absorbed waste of time
3) few decent people care much about what gets said on any blog
and
4) I tend to drop into far too many parenthetical sub-references

Therefore, I have decided to dabble in blogging.

If you do not have pigeons to release, we can wait a few minutes while you rush to the local pigeon store, as I'm sure there are crowds of people hoping to be part of the big celebration at this news.

I reserve the right to again reverse course and return to the previous/original line of claiming that blogs are a pointless waste of time, but then, such is a hallmark of higher intelligence.

And, yes -- that line quoted above was mine. So apparently I already have the "self-absorbed" part of this game down cold.