One thing I promised myself I would not do on this blog is blog about blogging. One reason is that I have noticed a worrying correlation between my favourite bloggers taking up the subject and their subsequently giving up writing.
I am going to break my promise partly because I have found something I want to say about it and partly because I want to recommend some other sites to visit.
There are times when, having put the finishing touches to a 20 paragraph account of somthing amusing my cat has done, I find myself wondering if there really isn’t something better I could be doing with the precious hour of life I have given to the exercise. However, like many of you I feel compelled to express myself so I drift into thinking that perhaps my blog should aim to “make a difference”. There must be something I can denounce or someone I can inspire. So I sit at my keyboard with my brow beetling and my fingers poised and then out comes a blog entry about train delays.
I do not myself read blogs that trade in the kind of big message posts my subconscious is apparently determined that I should produce. That is not to say that what is written about on the blogs I do read is not important or that the writing is unambitious. Gamba has produced a memoir which is an astonishing piece of writing. Its ragged emotion and unflinching self-analysis are utterly moving. Mike, Menace and Disguntled each have apparently light-hearted blogs with a serious purpose. They are serious about their writing and even the shortest entries speak of the thought that has gone into them. Others are serious about being funny: Sweatpants,  Emma and Riley are to writing what Meryl Streep is to acting: you are conscious of the performance but dazzled and beguiled by its skill. Others like Kevin and Steve seem to draw from some bottomless inner well of humour. They neither varnish nor polish and somehow therefore communicate their personalities directly. Some bloggers write because their heart is so full of love for their children that it simply has to spill out (there are so many examples that it would be invidious to choose) and that moves me to tears. Finally, others have blogs that feel like conversations; their blogs are like an open invitation to friendship the beauty of which reflects their own inner beauty (Katja, Spinning, Fox and Cranky are all examples).
I feel I should mention everyone I read but will restrain myself. With apparently infinite numbers of blogs I read yours because of the beauty it distills. Anything that lifts the heart is beautiful and if you find me lurking in your comments section it is because you are inspiring others or at least you are inspiting inspiring me.
…and we read you because no one does forty paragraphs of cat cuteness quite like MOOBS!
I denounce things, but I don’t expect to make a difference but just because it’s what I happen to be thinking about at that particular time. It would be nice to spark a national uprising which agreed with my views on everything, but I don’t generally expect people to agree with my viewpoint (if they did would I need to express it?).
I read your blog because it is well written and often very funny. You read mine out of a misplaced feeling of obligation.
Sometimes I think about slapping on a little varnish. Maybe a nice smooth, polish to help prevent ear and tear and harsh weather. Every week I say to myself,
“That’s it, it’s time to polish this place up the weekend. Make everything nice and clean and spiffy looking. This weekend everything is going to change!”
Then the weekend arrives and theres something good on TV.
Or there’s a cool new G.I. Joe auction I just won on ebay.
Or I end up on the internet starring into a vast sea of inflated porno tits.
Sigh…so sad…
This weekend though…this weekend it’s all going to change. I swear.
Steve~
OtJ – At last I have found my vocation.
YD – It is the very immediacy that you describe that makes your vlog so interesting. You do just set out how you feel about the things on your mind and that is always good reading.
I blog, therefore I am.
Ah, Moobs, you great sweetheart *ruffles hair*
It’s funny, Moobs. This post is one of the reasons I read your blog every day. You are surprisingly sweet, kind and honest. A solid and open heart such as yours is a delight to read.
Thanks for the compliment Moobsy. And let me say yours is a way superior blog to most out there, and every post you write is heartfelt, erudite, amusing, touching and …please don’t ever stop.
Further to the last comment, you also write exceptionally well, sir. That’s why your blog is bordering on a kind of Blog Hub: people come from miles around, looks like.
….
I’m at work. Reading blogs at work is edging into Sackable territory, so I’m not here long. But, having read a few of Gamba’s posts, I realise I’ve missed another source of exceptional writing. (Feck-arse).
Ah well, that’s what Archives are for…..
Although…..do we really inspite you?
That sounds a bit grim.
😉
Thanks Moobs. I’ve been summarised at last!
I think I put you on my links list a very long time ago because your sense of humour matched mine. I visit you nearly every day because I know I’m not wasting my time – there’s always something great to read on your site.
Mikeachim is right though, you attract people from all over to come together and comment on the war with the cat, the police, and all manner of normal real stuff that just seems to make sense everywhere.
We love you Moobs.
I saw that Mike. I’m not sure about inspiting him at all. I mean, does he like it? If so, I’m happy to carry on.
He never struck me as a masochist though.
Gosh, moobs. You dark horse.
Arf.
I was thrilled to find your site because you write the way I wish I could.
And it isn’t just writing skill….you make us feel welcome. You open up your home and heart and we are honoured to take a peek.
We blog for our own purpose….no matter what that is.
oh you’ve gone all meta! what brought that on? was it the drink, d’you suppose? hope you’re not about to implode in an auto-referential frenzy.
Ooh thanks, yours is the only ‘cute things my cat has done’ blog I read and believe me they are legion …
But, but, but – I write about train delays … is that a bad thing? If so, the posts on mine are going to be few and far between.
I think it’s mandatory that we blog about blogging at least once. It’s cleansing to the soul.
It should go without saying by now, but you are a gem among bloggers, Moobs. I’m honored every time you stop by to say hello.
Aw, Moobs! I love coming here even when I don’t get a namecheck – you can’t imagine how excited I am right now. xx
I write exactly how I think, so sometimes it is long and boring…but I figure those days make up for the days where I am wity and entertaining.
Keep doing what you do Moobz. Just try not to overthink it. That’s when people go away for awhile or for good, when they think too much about every single post.
Moobs, you are an altogether impeccable person, a man of exquisite taste and refinement, and a masterful blogger. Sometimes, it’s true, you flinch in your self-analysis, and your emotions can come across as other than ragged, but that only makes me adore you all the more.
Wow! Thanks. I feel very pretty now. Very.
I love it when menace utterly sincere. He nearly always is, you know.
Damn. IS utterly sincere.
hello – i don’t have anything to say. not a thing. but i want to check i can log into other blog types than blogger, which has frozen me out. boooo
Moobs, please keep the cat stories and train delay essays coming.
I can so relate at feeling guilty that I am not writing a ‘big message.’ Although I do feel that somewhere in the universe my story about eating wieners at a warehouse store is making a difference somehow, somewhere…
(This sounds suspiciously like a ‘farewell’ post. It isn’t is it? Because you know we’ll all have to come over there and beat you senseless.)
Sweats – I’m not giving up but I have been staring fexedly at my cat for 3 days now and all it has done is lick its rear. As soo as it does something more interesting I will be back
Sniff, Sniff…
SOOOWWWBBB!!!!
Oh,it must be Christmas as I feel a giant love-in happening at Moobs’ place…
and I am with Jessica, NO ONE, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE DOES forty paragraphs of cate cuteness like MOOBS!!!
stop. you were correct with your first observation.
as soon as bloggers start analyzing why they are writing and consider “making a difference”, it is the beginning of the end.
so, just stop analyzing and keep writing.