all quiet, but only sort of

I havent been blogging – you may have notced. However, sadly that does not mean I have been soaking up the rays of golden sunlight on my allotment, rather I have been working.

I’ve also been planning – I may have mentioned that I am back on twitter – this time by the handle of @numonastic, I’ve also been asked to set up a twitter stream for world horizons, which is up if not running as @whorizons.

In order to avoid the addictive productivity sapping interface whic ensnared and then upset me last time I used twitter, I’ve been beavering away on a suitably productive twitter plan. This involves me writing the majority of my tweets in advance, and scheduling them using twuffer, which is a very good tool. I’ve just written a dozen or so twitter haikus for a start.I will also post random ‘fresh’ tweets when I feel like it.

I’m also planning to take a more planned approach to this blog, which will mean (hopefully) better content… watch this space, but don’t hold your breath.

Today I’ve mostly been mucking around on the computer

I’ve been working on my new ‘emmaus encounters‘ project, its all been a bit multimedia-mongous today. One thing I did, was the thing I said I wouldn’t do… I  signed up for twitter again – if you want to, you can follow me at @numonastic. Don’t expect anything hugely amazing or entertaining at this stage, it’s all part of the development of a combined strategy for networking and promoting the various workshops and so on that we’ve got planned.

At the moment there are two workshops advertised on the site, one of which I mentioned here the other day, the other one is part of a UK tour that Nicholas Vesey of Norwich Meditation Centre is doing, to promote his book, which is named after the course ‘developing consciousness‘ that he runs. It looks like a good read. There are a couple more in the pipeline, including one on the Enneagram – and  I have another two larger scale things coming along too. All in all, it’s looking quite promising.

I’ve also been busy creating a new mailing list with Mail Chimp – I’ve never used it before, and have to admit to having been a bit grumpy about it before hand, but now I know how well it works, I must say I’m impressed. Takes an age to create the list though, or at least it does if you have a pre-existing list of any size.

And if that isnt enough to keep me occupied, I’ve got a school drama club ‘mime assembly’ to sort out. Yikes. Oh… and a labyrinth.

Thoreau and blogging

I note that Joe quotes Thoreau in a recent blog post, and as it happens I too have been reminded of a quote by Thoreau this weekend.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end,… We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.

It, along with other things I have been reading recently about the value of silence, the encumbrence of possesions and the use of alienating media (sorry Adam, I still think computers alienate us from the end product, rather than bringing us closer – please dont get cross) are making me reconsider the whole thing of blogging.

As more and more of my friends are on facebook, I find myself more and more glad that I am not. I dont miss twitter, which I found made me less productive, and more inclined to be a twit. Blogging is a useful outlet for writing, but I wonder if I might not be more inclined to find other outlets, were I not able to spout off online quite so easily.

None of my great heroes were bloggers – not that blogs existed in their time – but even if they had, I doubt they would have bothered. Indeed most of the people I respect and admire greatly were deeply insignificant to the world around them, and only a few made it to great public acclaim in their lifetime, and that was despite their lack of profile.

Even Jesus seemed to go out of his way to avoid PR, and did a pretty good job of it too – (how come everyone forgot about his miraculous birth?)

Anyway, I’m not stopping just yet, but its on my mind, and may yet come to pass.

Updates

I’ve rather lost interest in blogging, and in the internet in general recently. I sometimes go through periods of doubt as to how good it is for us generally and me in particular to be bombarded with all the information in the world. It seems to somehow abstract me from reality rather than connect me to it.

However, that notwithstanding I have read a couple of blogs recently, including this one from the provocative and prophetic James Stacey, a great guy who is part of the Jesus Army, and has something important to say about the faux Christian commercialism of Christmas.

There is also a paper here by Mark Berry, giving his take on new monasticism and spiritual seekers.

So I’m still sort of in limbo on the blogging, tweeting side of life, I may recommence, I may pack it in… havent quite decided yet, I’ll let you know if and when I do!