2012 thoughts

Today I bought the Christopher Hitchens Autobiography. I started to read it in a fine pasty shop, where I consumed an excellent pasty, a passable coffee and sheltered from an entirely unexpected downpour.

I know little of Christopher Hitchens. I admit I'm somewhat late to this party. I was aware of him mainly through his association with Professor Richard Dawkins, but having read the various raptures of grief and glee at his tragic death I decided to seek out his works, beginning with Hitch-22.

From the first words, the most imperative Idea I was impressed with is the assertion that life has a deadline, the time we are on earth is finite, a fact you have to agree with even if you disagree with his stance on religion. Whether our death is preordained by a deity, or is the result of natural cellular deterioration, or an errant cyclist, we all have a fixed time in which to achieve the things that we desire.

I am reading this on New Years Day. That I have extrapolated this particular lesson from barely 20 pages of text may reflect as much on my mindset at the text itself, but either way the lesson, although sounding something akin to the tolling of a funeral bell is also liberating. You have a finite allocation of time, it is a duty to use it to achieve and enhance your dreams and desires.

I have already decided to devote a bit more time to the blog this year, hopefully the practice of writing about myself will keep the 'New Novel' free of such intellectual bum-gazing. This is the place for that.

For 'Intellectual Bum-Gazing'

In my malarial New Years Day imaginings I will write a blog every day. Of course this one won't be going up on the right day as Nokia phones don't interface with this particular blogsite, so ho-hum... I wonder when a New Years Blog ceases to be topical.

Nontheless I will endeavour to contribute to this as frequently as I can. If only as an exercise. My other ambitions are the same as every year. Get a novel published 'properly' (i.e. In a way that actually allows people to read it without you having to knock on doors, drag people from their homes and staple the pages to their foreheads... That or spam emailing). Write and release another album. Maybe work up a live show.

Sounds easy doesn't it?

Ok... For anyone thinking 'what a prick'... I also have a job. I'm not Nathan Barley... Although give half a trust fund, I would be...

Is it self obsessed to write a blog?

Not as much as expecting anyone to read it...

I have so far managed to immunise myself against this eventuality...