Friday August 13, 2004

Nothing can get pretty heavy

I was just reviewing my week. That last entry was getting a bit heavy. I think it's time to wrap up my work week with an entry from the lighter side. I'm changing a few things, and I have a challenge for you. As ever, I think you will find something here you will enjoy.

I realize that my last entry zoomed through history hitting a few small events along the way and tryed to draw meaning for the next transition we are currently going through. Did you notice the difference between that and the other entries? Another uncomfortable transition to be sure.

If you are struggling to wrap words around the specific difference, I think I can help there. All of the other entries were looking at one fairly small concept and digging deep for more meaning or insight. That last one did exactly the opposite: it teased apart a trend from a long history that folks rarely even consider these days.

Ok, now for the real order of business. What is with that name "Paul's World"? I think that pretty much describes my contents so far, but I value uniqueness. When I do a Google search on "Paul's World", I get 2800 hits. That sounds like a confusing network of like-named worlds to navigate. I'm definitely not erring on the side of unique with that name. I need another. Here are a couple of ideas:

• "Paul's Planet" - 147
• "Paul's Place" - 7120
• "Nothing Land" - 593
• "Nothing World" - 984
• "Nothing is Everything" - 4090

Really, I had no idea that people were so hugely interested in nothing. I mean, to have so much invested in nothing seems unhealthy somehow. How could nothing be so intriguing? Let me keep trying. I think this is important...

• "Paul's World of Nothing" - Nothing. Nada. Ok, I found a unique one.
• "Paul's Cranium" - Once again, nothing.
• "Underneath Paul's Hat" - 0, but I don't really like this one.
• "Under Paul's Hat" - 1 - Maybe that's acceptable, but it seems like I would be compromising...

Ok, so take a step back from this for a second. What did I just do? I was using Google, not to find something, but to find the absence of it. I'm sure others do this too, but isn't it a bit odd when you think about it?

In some parts of the country, I have heard phrases like "Let's see if I can't do that". Seeing if one can't rather than can, with the end result being the same. Specifically, that the outcome is that you will know whether or not you can do the thing, irregardless of how you phrase it. Seeing if the glass being half empty makes the problem of dealing with a half full glass easier to handle somehow. Such an odd place.

But in my case, I used the world's best search engine to search for the absence of others that think like me. One can never be sure, of course. It could be a false negative that I am assuming means that similar results didn't exist. Just a funny thing. I'm going to toy with that a bit on my next drive... No! I'm going to see if I can't toy with that on my next drive. Yes, that's much better.

I would like to also solicit my dear readers for ideas for the title of my blog. Such an odd sounding word, blog. It makes me wonder if the Borg (from Star Trek) have a tendency to blog in their spare time. A denial of service attack might ensue: "The Borg have blogged up the works!". Frightening thought, that.

Anyway, if you have a preference for one of the titles I have considered above or have a clever one of your own to submit, I would seriously consider it. Please send your comments.

The Challenge

As I was searching through the Internet one day (do you ever read the Internet like a dictionary or an encyclopedia?), I came across this site: http://www.monkeyshand.com. It seems a fairly normal site, I suppose, but there is a huge problem with this one. You have to think about it. Hard. Try to channel me if you can. What is wrong with this site?

Send me your thoughts. Perhaps next week I will talk about the issue. That will make for an interesting read to be sure.

Well that's it. I can't believe I wrote this entry, really. Most of it being about my own site and all. Not my favorite topic, I guess. I don't like to blog about my blog.