To begin again..

The question of ending my blog was not that I did not particularly want to write in it any more but rather that I felt that I should write in it. When I feel like I should be doing something on top of everything else that I do, I discover that I no longer want to do it. And not even that I should be writing in it, but that I should be writing about the important things like politics and philosophy. I shall deal with these one at a time;


Politics: The reason that I feel that I really should be writing about politics is because the world is pretty shit at the minute; it seems to me to be more shit than it usually is - trains blowing up, racism bubbling over, an innocent men being shot and police cover-ups, everyone determined that they must have an opinion (oh dreaded word) and that their opinion has a certain rightness to it. I am subjected to this opinionness when I am at work and have to spend hours reading the messages of right-wing racists, "left" wingers who support TB without question, and those who change "their" opinion depending on who is popular that week. As if opinion is ever anything more than culturally manufactured popular-speak. So anyhow, this has put me off writing on politics. Not that I don't think about it or feel that certain things need to be put into words but there are people who can say it far better than I can and I don't feel that I have much to add. When it comes to politics I do not yet feel knowledgable enough to say anything about it and I refuse to peddle opinion on such important matters.

(Actually, this shouldn't really be a problem for me as I am more concerned with philosophy (not that the two are mutually exclusive) but I once appeared on a list of political blogs at some university and then felt that I should write about it).

Onto the Big 'P'

Philosophy: This is perhaps more problematic; surely, as a student of philosophy I should want to write about it. Well I do. I spend approximately 80% of my waking time reading, writing and talking about philosophy. The rest is spent watching Neighbours, The O.C. and other trashy tv. So, what it comes down to is that I don't want to really spend my spare time writing about philosophy on my blog. Not only that but I'm about to oversee a phenomenological warfare between Levinas and Hegel which will undoubtedly keep me a little bit busy. If I look away for a moment from the battles that are about to commence then Hegel may have gouged out Levinas' eyes or Levinas might castrate G.W.F. Who knows what is possible when phenomenologists are at war?



So I have started this blog. The old one is gone, I was sick of it. I may even be sick of this one. But when I got rid of the old one I thought of things that I wanted to write about. Not philosophy, not politics, just things. Philosophy will not be written concisely on this blog. If you want it you can go elsewhere and if you're unsure of where to go then look at the linklist to your right and ake your pick. If you want to read something philosophical that I've written then you can send me an email and I will send you something if I feel so inclined. If philosophy does appear here it will only be by accident and probably quite flippantly.

Instead, this blog is what it says. I have given up the old name in favour of a new acronym gb2 - this can be gleebot, gleebok or gluebot or whatever you prefer, it's not important. And the blog is titled "Popular Observations." The title was not coined by myself but by the always charming sphaleatos. There may have been an element of sarcasm in the coining of the name but I think that it contains some elements of truth:

1. I will be making observations

2. They will be popular, if not with anyone else then at least with me and that's all I want.

this will not be opinion about any important matters but rather observations about things. Not things that have anything in common, just general stuff.

So that is my current Modus Operandi. I may post a lot or I may not post at all but it is nice to have a new house without all the crap cluttering it up.