and so it begins, not with a bang but a whimper
I’m going to start this blog in somewhat contrary fashion. Yesterday I was reading my weekend guardian, and came upon a piece by Shazia Mirza. At the end she wrote “I can’t understand people who write a blog of their everyday life… I really don’t care. Bring back the diary, where people kept their thoughts to themselves.” And the thing is, I agree.
So why am I sat with my laptop on a late Sunday morning writing my first blog entry? Well, it is in large part down to Lablit, the editor of which, Jenny Rohn, has been on at me to blog for literally years. The conversations go something like this.
Jenny: but why don’t you write a blog?
Bill: because I can’t understand why anyone would give a toss about what I have to say.
Jenny: that’s not true. You’re passionate about science, society and culture and you’re as opinionated as anyone I know*, and you like ranting and writing about it. Even if it is only to get things off your chest, it would be good for your blood pressure.
Bill: Yes but there are a million blogs out there nobody pays attention to. It would be like pissing into Niagara.
Jenny: Agreed, but by refusing to engage you make sure that nobody pays attention to you. Have the courage to have a go. You’re not scared are you?
Bill: look do you want another drink? the bar’s closing
Jenny: Don’t change the subject. What’s the worst that could happen?
Well. We are about to find out.
I was going to write something long and involved about lies, politics, the NHS and healthcare reform. But I have to go to the park and play football. Yesterday I watched my team, Arsenal, prove that reports of its demise were much exaggerated as they tonked Everton 1-6. I will remember that success as I fail to bring a single ball under control this afternoon.
*I may be wrong, but I suspect this means I am really quite opinionated.
Welcome to Bill! Looking forward to reading more. Hope someone other than Jenny and me is reading…
Keep writing, I’m reading too. Yes, pissing into Niagara would be pointless, but having been there I think you could improve the world by aiming to the left or right, rather than the waters themselves.
I keep reading that as ‘pissing into Viagra’. Not good.
Rpg, I think you’re doing it wrong.
Bill, glad to see you’ve succumbed.
At least you are not a Liverpool fan (sigh).
Welcome to the blogosphere. It’s the quality of your readers that counts, not the quantity ;-).
Many thanks all. Feeling massively untechsavvy in contrast with the likes of Rpg and Maxine (you managed to make a little smiley faced thing!) but will catch up…
The big secret, Bill, is that it’s not difficult… which is why you get pimply 13 year olds doing it. And Henry. (ducks)
We love you despite your unfortunate choice of team.
team is not a choice.
There are no sides.
We are all in this… together.
ahh… the Lablit blog! Wonderful!
I will be reading! And looking forward to more posts. And een though I sort of understand the Niagra, wouldn’t it be similar to the whole “if a tree(post) fell in the forest”…
isn’t there some relativistic argument that the tree doesn’t make a sound? Replacing ‘tree’ with ‘body emitting electromagnetic radiation’ and ‘sound’ with ‘something on which that electromagnetic radiation is incident’.
More posts to come. In the meantime, can you tell me if anyone has explicitly modelled influenza and pneumococcal co-transmission?
Bill, you remind me of one of the most mystifying moments during my biochemistry degree. (One of the most, from a large number of very’s.) The man in the pulpit was taking us through some convoluted experiments proving some or other protein catalysis mechanism, with a critical point being deductions from the pH of an organic solvent having no H’s to give a pH. That seemed tenuous logic to me but the explanation was (I paraphrase) that a tree doesn’t need to be there in order to make a sound when it falls. The sound is the same whether it’s there or not. Well, the answer was good enough to get me through the exam so it had some value.