Getting back into writing mode (and other obsessions)

Every time I get into my blogs I want to reinvent them -- there are so many cool blogs out there that do so much more than mine does and I want to know how to do that too! But blogs are just a symptom of what ails me. My overwhelming disease is simply a need to know. My nephew characterizes this as 'useless knowledge' and I'm still waiting for the opportune family gathering to pin him to the wall and get to the root of such a bizarre mind-set. It's a philosophical debate, to be sure, as to the nature of knowledge. Is it ever useless, even if the possessor never uses it? I'd say not; the more I learn the more I can learn, the more it leads me in directions that I want to learn. And who is to say what is useless? I may not use the initial bit of information that sends me webseining in the first place but I generally run across something that I can use in the course of my life. In fact, I'm the go-to-gal in the family when it comes to research. Steph, who is in line for the presidency if the President and the Vice President are killed/incapacitated at the same time? Speaker of the House -- it rolled off my tongue and I hung up the telephone, but some inner itch wondered how I knew it and if it was true. So off to the Constitution; nothing there. ??? Off on a search to get just the right set of search terms, and thus to the Codes that do indeed state that the Speaker of the House is next in line. Why? Got me, but it's so, and the legislation that says so is such a short and vague piece of work it sets up new worries. Who gets it after the Speaker? Got me pal; if the Malicious Powers That Be get the President, VP, and Speaker all at the same time we are really in trouble on a number of levels, not the least of which is the succession problem.

I know where to go to figure out how to create latex molds of faces. I don't think I'll ever get into it, but I know where to go if I or someone else needs to know. I've found the most interesting museums online. They range from an immediate urge to spend my life savings just to visit, to the 'you've got to be kidding me' reaction, to the 'I'd burn it myself if I had the chance'. I make no pretence that I embrace everything; embracing everything leads to idiocy and the dumbing down of the entire culture. I also do not pretend to be the uber-expert on all things artistic; what I do not like and refuse to embrace may still be art in someone else's eyes. When I figure out how to link I'll post one on the bottle-rack; the artist in this case took a manufactured bottle-rack, signed his name, and called it art. Now I think he had a profound statement to make, but I'll be double-dipped in resin before I'd call it art.

In the immediate future I'm going to attempt to kick-start my writing chops. I used to be fairly competent but lately my story-telling has lacked anything that would make anyone want to read it. Acck. I think I've given up on ever being published -- or even wanting to be published, really. My stories are content, even eager to be written down but I don't feel any great anguish over not being the next Stephen King or Ursula Le Guin. Except for the usual money problems (always wanting $20 more than I could ever spend) I am content. What I really want now is to figure out how the heck to get my blog to behave the way I want it too -- more webseining, to be sure -- getting the house clean, getting the beer brewed, the cheese made, the gingerbread cookies baked, figuring out a good female name for the new child (male name already picked out), find new communities to interact with, convince my spouse that remodeling won't result in death or divorce....oh, the list goes on. Right now, however, I have to clean off the kitchen table so the kids can art and craft to their hearts' desire. Oy, these could be blogs unto themselves, much less blog posts!