on blogging

Some people are able to write in a blog like this weekly. Clearly I am not one of these people. Those same people often also manage to write eloquently about their place of residence, their daily activities, their favourite sandwich shop, mode of transportation and what not. Being unable to do so however should not keep me from trying. Maybe I owe an apology to those people (however few) that have returned to this blog to see if I had written something new yet, to find that no, the same old entry was gracing the top of the page. Well, it's not like I didn't want to. Every time the thought popped into my head however I was in transit. Probably just then, because every other moment of my life the past few weeks has been crammed with activities or things to consider. No, not the cool exciting story-of-a-lifetime activities. Simple daily uninteresting stuff like... Studying, writing a paper, meeting friends for coffee. I like doing these things most of the time but do not really think that you have the need to read about what I've been talking about with who, what my research paper is about and why, and so on. Surely you have better things to do with your time; at least I would, and have.
One recent event I think deserves mention here. About two weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I won something: In a random draw an online magazine I favour picked me as the recipient for four books related to the topic of the magazine; the personal essay. Furthermore, contrary to a lot of prizes I might have won but didn't I actually consider this a useful prize. I have been reading these books, "One Man's Meat" by E.B. White, "At Large and at Small" by Anne Fadiman most relevantly. What I really like about these books - and what makes them worth mentioning around here - is that they concern private thoughts relating to everyday things. If I find the time for it, which I might, considering that the coming month involves mostly research projects, I will see if I can somehow implement their style of writing here. Maybe we both will find it more fitting and hopefully more interesting than the alternative, and I will get to feel more like I am actually doing something by writing here.