policy, politics, poetry, and pop culture

All Things Must Pass

My will to blog, as infrangible as it may be, is subverted by life events like ingratiating myself to new employers and getting ready for a summer class. All life living events taking precedence the next week or so. I’m still here, but forgive me the videos and pictures. No dearth of images and videos lately; that’s for sure.

Like many of my readers, and bloggers I read, I have no financial stake in blogging, no goals related to it, yet at some point in time a mental stake was pounded into the ground of blogging expectations on which I stand. I fade to a fuzzy dysphoria when I haven’t written something. If you’ve noticed of late there are more videos and images than you are used to finding here it is merely because patches of life sometime insert themselves. Life must be lived, papers written, even while that feeling of post something, post something gnaws.

Part of the difficulty stems from the fact I run a personal blog with very little “personal” about it. There are multiple reasons for this, one being my life as it is right now, as a grad student, is not much of a life, but also I’ve never really been into this blog as place to write about personal things. Sure, I might have slipped up in the beginning when no one read it, but it soon came to pass I preferred this blog as a platform for my opinions, using personal postings only anecdotally.

My opinions wear me out, as I’m sure they do you my friends.This won’t stop me from posting them, but I sometimes need a break from them too.

More significant unless I have the time to express these opinions succinctly and completely I tend to post short commentary accompanied by images and videos. Writing “complete yet succinct” takes more time than “blathering and lengthy with little substance”. My lack of time necessitates your suffering through a few more videos and images, for your own good, to prevent you from suffering through lengthy “had no time to really think this out” blather. ;)

Bear with me.

All Things Must Pass.

I have two days off though, so you may be free from videos for a couple of days.

Peace

46 Thoughts on “All Things Must Pass

  1. ah yes the blogger’s curse….to come up with something relevant and meaningful in a short time..
    however
    sometimes an image or video can speak a thousand words :)

    • I know there are many instances where that is the case, but until recently I rarely used either medium in the blog. It seems a substitute here.

  2. I kind of floated on a cloud while reading this. It was almost a poem.

    I’m the simple kind, videos and images don’t lead me to believe you’re lowering your standards I can take it either way.

    Most of your stuff is substantive. I enjoy the mundane as well.

  3. I know exactly what you mean. I like my personal blog but I’d rather put my eyes out and saw off each finger in turn than write about anything personal. Not that I’m recommending that to you (although a nearby whetstone and prehensile toes are a must!) No, more I’m just saying that I appreciate whatever you post, and saying it with a scene of graphic violence.Which, in blogworld is almost like saying it with flowers. No video, though.

  4. Two things:
    “yet at some point in time a mental stake was pounded into the ground of blogging expectations on which I stand.”

    sweet sentence among many

    I like it when you write, better than any video you could post, but I don’t mind them as an addition. I know time is tight, I’ll suffer along, which really isn’t too hard if I were to be honest.

    My favorite video you’ve ever posted was the first time you posted the pied piper vid and what went along with it, the second time also worked well with what you posted.

    “My opinions wear me out, as I’m sure they do you my friends, and though this won’t stop me from posting them, I too sometimes need a break from them.”

    This sentence totals why I read you still. You take what you do and what you believe seriously, yet you do not take yourself that seriously.

    I’ll take anything I can get. I come here as a beggar. Beggars can’t be choosers.

  5. Hi Cooper, I say go to it! LIVE your life. It is the MOST important . I really relate to that. Blogging can at times just drain and take away from day to day living. I am refuse to let it do that anymore. And you never have to apologize to me. You only encourage me to be more myself and do what I really need to do. Good for you!

  6. My blog is only pictures, so i can’t complain. I am a very visual person, so images can make points with me, as long as they are surrounded by the good stuff. I’m not a blogger it is just something on the web I do once in awhile.

    You’re different.
    when you left us there at deadjournal all those years ago, because you grew up, you left us to weep. It’s why, despite the miles, and the years away, some of us eventually followed you here and started blogs of our own, blogs we have no interest in except they let us have nice little avatars and give us a links when we post in your comments.

    I think we are all past the age of writing extremely personal blogs, at least blogs in the dramatically boring “my life sucks, my boyfriend is an asshole, i started my period, and I don’t have a thing to wear” way.

    You just happened to get there first. Images and all.

    kisses

    kait

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  8. I used to think that a video wasn’t a “real” post, but I have changed my mind. I am all for videos now.

  9. Thanks for you comments over the past months. I appreciated the stop bys even though I did little to post “complete yet succinct” thoughts, usually going into a “blathering and lengthy with little substance” trains on endless tracks. (And I can…like now.)

    I figured I’d make the final passby today to all the meaningful or avid readers of my blog – so, that’s like 5 or 6 blogs…. :)

    I hope you garner great success working in a NGO or maybe as a United Nations liason or something of the sort. (maybe more substantial, Ms. President of the United States???) I don’t know exactly how or why we stumbled into each other’s blogs, but as bloggers go, you aren’t so bad on the fingers…

    I won’t be coming back to any blogging….as much as I like it, at times, I’ve come to some conclusion that I am just wasting other’s time (and of course my own…)

    How much of any blog is really worth all the read? But since I can’t address that wide question, I asked, how much of mine? 10%? 5%? 1%? Really, where the rubber hits some blacktop, I find I am finding dead man’s blogcurve. I ain’t going anywhere except back to some primordial ooze so far from the 21st century of nanotech that I just ain’t going to matter.

    You’re smart, and as I look at it, I ain’t.

    And really, why pollute an all ready polluted landscape of cyberspace.

    But to get beyond that, I hope that people like yourself can continue to produce some well meaning ideas and thoughts out of the maliase of this society. Make a difference. Maybe fix a bridge or two. Or save someone worth saving…it’s gotta start somewheres, might as well…be you.

    So that’s it.

    Good Luck , O. Cooper. It’s been a bloggin’ good time…

    • I seen many blogger friends go and stay gone and go and come back and so on and so forth. It is often hard to keep track. Should you decided to return give shout.

      Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
      William James

  10. anybody who posts a vid of “Teen Angel”….

    Oh the curse of the opinionated personal blogger who doesn’t want to spill all. Please don’t

    In the name of politics I have written some extremely personal posts that I wish I could take back though I suppose they served a purpose once

    I give the appearance of saying anything. My pre-blogging friends and family will laugh at that as so much else has been left out

    I don’t like to say negative things about the people in my life or things they wouldn’t want their children to read should they have them or might have them in the future or…so that leaves me

    The sale of my apartment is driving me crazy. I’m sorry if some people find me materialistic or obsessed but this can’t help but be important to me. And I have only myself to blame for getting it on the market late

    I am an ambitious writer and feel funny for saying what so many people refuse to say but it’s obvious they are–as it’s obvious you’re a serious blogger who writes extremely well and will use those skills in grad school and beyond

    I will have the first, first person article about living with non verbal learning disorder in a “major” American publication, and should be feeling great about that but it’s so personal that I feel torn open.

    Yet somebody had to write it–I asked for somebody else to write it not about me. I work well with the editor and it turned into a fun experience and is a blatant plea both for people to understand this and for a book contract for moi.

    Once again I have written a post in your comments–the place I feel most comfortable in in the blogosphere

    Even your posts about nothing are about something and something about them makes me react

    • See this is why I love these threaded comments, so you all can post the real posts and I can post…..videos. ;)

  11. Blogging is like a curse, a monkey on one’s back with no high as reward, a virtual indication that one does indeed exist simply because of the repeating question, Why do I do this to myself?

    Cooper, you are my inspiration. I’ll take whatever you have to give, read whatever you care to post.

  12. See? I have a personal schedule of how often I should be posting. When I fail to post on a day I’ve designated to post it truly eats away at me.

    Then again, I have no shame in blustering away about something tragically insignificant so that may be a contributing factor in why I ramble on and on about myself. All I write is personal stuff that I’m sure no one wants to hear.

    In fact, I think I may be the antithesis to your site because I so very rarely comment or opine about the world at large, Cooper.

    • I would never have guessed you were a stickler for a schedule….

      not

      I have no bother reading people personal lives. I’m rather voyeuristic, I just prefer to keep mine close.

  13. Hey… as long as you pop over and comment often enough to remind *me* to post…

    I understand completely. This summer, I’ve had my first real vacation in years, lost a job, started a new one, and balanced freelance project among everything in between. If I didn’t rely on personal experience and observation to inform my perspectives, I’d have nothing.

    Nobody wants to read about which sandwich I had for lunch, but they might read about my daughter’s Vacation Bible School if there is a lesson about Game Theory tucked inside.

    Keep fighting all those good fights Coop… and see you in commentland.

  14. You really scared me there for a moment. I thought you were hanging it up for good. Hope that what’s keeping you from us is coming with as little stress as possible.

    • It will be less stressfull soon.

      I’m tempted to take a might out and go to a baseball game …that’s pretty bad, as you know hate ballgames.

  15. Oh how I do understand. This is one of the few places that I visit for an actual genuine thought. I know that it takes a moment to prep those thoughts, no matter how succinctly. I’m just glad that you’re going to hang around. These breaks are very necessary.

    Don’t work too hard, take care and I’ll just keep checking back hoping to find that galvanized thought!

    • I dug out my racket, I think I found a partner, and I hope she is as bad as I am. That will be a few hours of relaxation.

  16. hmmmm… one day the setup is all bright and flowery and cheery, and the next day gray.

    How would Freud interpret this sudden color change?

    • It went from freezing cold here to over 100 degrees. Bright colors keep me warm, more muted colors keep me cool.

  17. Ah, the “blog break”…I say you deserve every minute of it!

    Yours are thoughts of a woman who is thinking deeply, and are very much appreciated…even the videos are well-thought out and planned…I am always amazed by your way with things around here, and will keep you in my thoughts as you acclimate yourself to your new job, and other things…

    By the comments here, there is no need to worry…the love is here and we will be waiting with bated breath for your return!

  18. Acclimation is a good word ,it makes is sound like a fun time.
    i will be around of course.

  19. I do come here to post all the things I don’t feel comfortable posting in my blog. Not because Wonderland or not is a catch all garbage site quite the opposite

    Somebody in real life told me I would make a great political blogger. It’s not that I fear offending–sort of do that naturally, but my two years of political blogging left me crazed. I don’t need to hear my name echoed through the blogosphere, I would rather opine here

    This is a wonder blog Cooper and I just love it more and more. Keep those vids coming. I bought an Ipod touch just so I could put you tube vids in it–but I never thought of Teen Angel–see how easily happy I am?

  20. Sometimes I think I should post more pictures and less writing. I always enjoy following your perspective. It shows in your words as well as in the items, videos, links you pick out to show us.

    I suppose we all struggle with our blogs, wanting to put more into them than we are able at times.

    P.S. I was somewhat alarmed at the title “All Things Must Pass” – it seemed to head an announcement that you would give up blogging.

    • It seems that was what people thought but it just worked well as a title, don’t you think.

      I am just glad you are posting some these days Indie.

  21. A blog is a punctuation of life for most of us.

    I like videos and use them all the time.

    I don’t want to read personal blogs because I come from a huge family, it’s like one huge personal blog. I don’t want to hear about a stranger’s day at work or at the gym. I don’t blame you for not posting personal things I like the little bits of personal divulged with your opine.

    This place has always been cool, no matter what form of decoration or what image is placed. My regular lunch break stop.

  22. But I’m Here to Suck yer Suckable Toesies Baby!!

    ;PPP

    Feets Don’t Fail Me Now!!*************

    I can’t believe somebody Smart like U Flunked yer Skool Year + has to Repeat Grade 8 in Summer Skool!!

    Hey I got a Mickey o Lemon Gin I’ll meet ya out back by the Smoking Fence*

    ;)) xoxo Peace*

  23. I do have nice toes.

  24. What a lovely post. That sums up so much how I feel about blogging so often, yet I would of never been able to put it so nicely.

    p.s. I like the new design

  25. Blogging as life punctuation … hmmm … what about for those whom life is a punctuation for blogging?

    • “what about for those whom life is a punctuation for blogging?”

      I think the problem is to some that is the case. I think it hard to blog about life if you don’t have one.

  26. Blogging now is more about everything I’m NOT saying. Sure it’s personal — if it comes out of my head, that makes it personal, I guess. And my opinions wear me out, too, which is why I don’t often write them. Life does happen, and although I can also say that when I’ve not posted, it nags at me, it’s because the writing more often gives me some kind of an outlet which is more different than talking to someone who may not want to listen. At least those in Bloggsville can do drivebys and it doesn’t really matter, right? I can’t seem to even want to care about writing in one of my notebooks anymore. It’s boring. So if blogging is a punctuation of my life, then I’ll choose the question mark. I’d always like to be left with more than a period.

  27. Everyone looks at blogging so differently. That is what makes it so much fun to scroll different blogs.