This Time, It's Official

Gone for Good.

Well, that's short, sharp, to the point, and up to the usual standards of accuracy around here. But it is time I took an extended and official break from blogging.

I admit the timing's crap, for two reasons. Anyone who's feeling a little bummed out at Chris Sheil's recent departure from the 'sphere has just been handed another bummer. It's not exactly the best way to respond to all the encouragement and compliments I got on Thursday night from them as attended the meet up at the Golden Terrace Restaurant. It's way overdue.

Sorry folks, but the ideas just aren't coming. It's that simple. Looking back over the posts of the past few months, and looking back on the writing of them, I've come to the conclusion that I've been trying too hard. The horse I've been flogging might not be quite dead, but it's certainly in a critical condition. To put it another way, no-one's going to be fooled by nailing the parrot to the perch – especially not me.

By way of passing on wisdom to other bloggers, I'll restrict myself to two simple apposite rules:

• Don't force it.



• Know when to stop.

Disabling comments doesn't seem to be an option with Haloscan so I've banned you all instead. Or tried to. We'll soon know if this last petty act of censorship and suppression of free speech has worked.

I'll probably update this post later, with links to the all-time greats; you know penis-gourds, possum-packers, libertarians at yum-cha, drunken bankers ...

Penultimately, the fact that this post has been the easiest one I've had to write in a long time ought to tell you a lot about why I'm off.

Finally, and most important, a big apology to David Tiley, Nabakov, Boynton and Helen from Cast Iron Balcony who are among those who came up with encouragement and compliments.

ve been going through the archives to locate a selection of better than mediocre posts from the past. Perhaps it's my personal bias, but there appear to be a few more than I thought, so this could take a little while to finish.

Here's the first batch from 2002:

Penis Gourds

Spy for the Dole

Modern Wage Theory

Slavery and Double Effect

The Courage of a Modern President

Walking Through Wills

Coiffeuses sans Frontieres

2003

The Tug Boat History of Australia

• The Arrival of the First Fleet.


• Draggy Bits of Australian History: 1788 to 1795


• The Birth of an Australian Tradition

Gummo Does Just War Theory

• Long Overdue War Blog


• The Whackiest Little Constitutional Monarchy in the West


• When Meaning Well Is Not Quite Enough

Gummo's Adventures on the Public Transport System

• Strangers on a Train


• Something Pleasant, for a Change

The Secret Origin of “Colostomy Lugs”

Phil's Amnesty Badge Speaks Out

Santoro Watch

Double Backflip With a One and a Half Twist

Palliative Care for Cats

Repeat Offender

Can Libertarians Do Yum-Cha?

There's No Damn Bird in the All Green Hand

Appalling People I've Known

Grandma Trotsky's Mandolin

Well, It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time

The Annotated Henry Reynolds

From the sizes blow (and other poetic gems)

Socrates

2004

Culture Crimes

If You're Happy and You Know It, You're Probably Wrong

Drunken Banker Week

Chris Sheil is taking an indefinite break from blogging. His last post is up at Back Pages.

I've little to add to what Ken Parish and Tim Dunlop have already said.

Curiosities

At 2.9 million light years from the Earth, the Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant astronomical object visible to the named eye. According to one discredited but still popular theory of the origins of life on Earth, it probably shouldn't be visible at all.

Similarly, the Large Cloud of Magellan isn't due to become visible for approximately 170,000 years. Assuming, of course, that the apocalypse doesn't intervene in the meantime.