Alpha to Omega

I’ve never had much appreciation for the word “Blog”. I assume that my illiteracy must play a key role in this and that I simply don’t understand the process whereby expressions, abbreviations and aliases become accepted words in the English language. Frankly, it annoys me. Creating a word like “Blog” really only saves you writing two extra letters and it makes for an obnoxious sounding word that is really just a grating communicative assault. I think I will have to see what Chomsky says about these types of “words”.

In the meantime, here are some random thoughts on the word “Blog”.

The first thing I think of when I hear the word Blog is Blah. This is a reflexive facial expression/emotion/sound that I generate when someone says to me “I have a blog, here’s the address” because I know that I’m in for an art-opening type of experience in which the person I’m speaking to (in all fairness to myself and others like me) should have their pants labelled “Insert Hand Here”. I have the same reaction when someone tries to get me to visit their web-site. Now that I have my own Blog, and intend to insert my hands “there” quite often, I feel that it is my duty to be much more sympathetic to my fellow “Bloggers” (another terrible word). I have yet to be entirely convincing when doing this.

The second thing “Blog” conjures is a primordial swamp, overgrown with Spanish moss, steaming and sweating up the surrounding environment, in which slither creatures long thought extinct, until you venture to the bar on a Saturday night, pissed off and on a mission from hell.

The third thing I have to say about “Blog”, and this is in keeping with the previous paragraph, is “Blog you motherblogger”. This is an important passage for anyone who knows me personally, or is lucky (?) enough to encounter me in any context. I think it is important to define intentions and boundaries in a relationship. Don’t blog with me, or I will blog you back (In some cases I may use pseudonyms when speaking about certain people. In other cases I may use someones real name). I don’t think this is particularly mauvaise foi (in Bad Faith), because even though vengeance is undoubtedly a major motivation in most peoples pursuit of fame, money, and sex, I have no use for the first two, nor the third as a means of flaunting or trophying about (I can make up expressions too, damn it). Therefore, I think it is safe to say that my intentions are purely masturbatory.