Another move

It's been a while since I posted on here, though I see it still gets a few hits.

My last post was to let you know that I'd moved to Wordpress.com. Well, I decided to have a go at running things by myself, and seeing how I got on.

You can now find me at http://quietwatercourse.co.uk.

Watercourse: Reloaded

I've decided to take the plunge and make a change. No, no, not a sex change, this isn't a Culture novel!

I've moved my blog to Wordpress. I think it offers me more flexibility than Blogger.com, Blogger has served me well, but it's time for a change.

You can find me here.

Making it real

I was thinking the other day about our habit of making things real that don't exist. I think the technical name is Reification.

Amazing thing when you think about it, let me try to do something here, I'm going to try to argue that Britain does not in fact exist. Though this could go for any nation.

What is Britain? A patch of land, air and water? Some buildings and cities? I don't think so. After all what is it about those things that makes them British? Put some under a microscope, analyse it, and you won't find any molecules of Britishness there at all.

In my view, Britain is a set of ideas and concepts, yes there are passports, driving licenses, all sorts of things, but subject them to the analysis above, you'll not find any Britishness. Without the idea, the concept of Britishness, they're just so much paper and ink. Our minds are responsible for making it real.

We do this with our problems as well, I've caught myself doing it a lot recently, treating problems as a physical thing. I went to a Buddhist meditation session at a local Buddhist centre last weekend, the focus there was on just how much of what you think is important isn't, it's all in your mind and it's just temporary.

I was amazed at how freer I felt when that finally sank in.

Going through changes.

Well, it's been a while since I posted. A lot has happened, those of you who've cast an eye over my updated profile will have guessed that my long term relationship is over and I'm trying to find my way on my own again. It's a difficult time and I'm just taking things one day at a time.

Its been a huge change in my life and the ramifications of this are still being played out. I can't help but feel that these things happen for a reason, and I'm focussing on what I've learned from the last three and a half years and just getting into being back in the Black Country.

I've been looking at things and I've realised that as things gradually settle, I have a chance to completely revisit my core beliefs/interests and explore new avenues of interest. The whole thing is tinged by sadness that I have nobody to share it with.

Single willed

I've been reflecting that a divided will halves your power. I've been trying it at work, if I do somethign else while waiting for calls, then I find that I can easily be off balance when they arrive. Whereas if I try not to surf or do anything not strictly work related, I find that I react much better. Even if it is work related, I find that it's better to set time aside to concentrate on it fully.

This is another reason I dislike multitasking, I always thin of it as the ability to do two things half as well.