Monday, April 12, 2010

Kill the Blog ?

“A blog is a broadcast, not a publication. If it stops moving, it dies.”
- Andrew Sullivan*

I've been thinking about killing the blog.

I'm not really traveling anymore, so is this a travel blog? I go places, but that's because my visa is always expiring. I could call it 'Ali's Visa Run Blog' but [bxA] who wants to read that?

Ali’s new passport (April 2010).

Do you really want to know about my 12 hour ordeal on a bus to Burma sitting next to a hungover Russian prostitute crashed out cold with her mouth hanging open and one of her long lean legs slung across my side of the seat we were sharing?

Then there was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last week and next will be Colombo, Sri Lanka.

But in between these trips inspired by my expiring visa, life is pretty ordinary.



Cleaning supplies at my house in Phuket (April 2010).



Like today, for instance. I cleaned house with emphasis on removing gecko poop from hard to reach places. The tribe of geckos I live with are cute, quiet little roommates but they’re not potty trained (and they give me an inexplicable urge to buy car insurance?).



Beyonce – I am Sasha Fierce (2008 Sony BMG Music Entertainment)

It was a sunny day and I was listening to Beyonce because the shops in K.L. played “Halo” over and over again. I liked the song so I bought the CD on iTunes.


Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

With Beyonce blaring and sponge in hand, I answered the door to a neighbor I’ve only met once. She invited me snorkeling tomorrow with ten others who have chartered a boat to Ko Phi Phi. I said yes which meant a walk to a dive shop near Chalong Pier this afternoon to buy fins.

That was my day. See how boring it was?


Malaysia – Sony Ericsson billboard in the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) monorail station.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking a lot about the internet, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, social networking and the information age in general. There’s a lot of fascinating stuff going on. (I could blog about it. Hee.) Sometimes I think I need to press forward and really get into it – blog often about everything, anything.

Most of the time I think I’m ready to become an eccentric recluse. Sure, I’ve been postponing it as long as possible. But maybe ‘as long as possible’ ends now?

What do you think? Do I kill the blog?

*Blog post inspired by Fiona Stalker who sent me Andrew Sullivan quote today.

16 comments:

assie said...

noooooooooooooooooooo................... DON'T KILL THE BLOG !!!! i LOVE your writing !!! and i so love reading everything you blog about !!! you make nothing boring !!!! your blog completely rocks and i'd have no reason to come on the internet anymore if you killed the blog !!!! JUST SAY PHUKET FOREVER !!!! xxx's

Anonymous said...

Don't kill the blog. I am living vicariously through you...and I want to see how this continues.

Anonymous said...

ARGHHhhhhhhhhhhhh
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - you can't, you can't, you can't, cripes above didn't you know that you are not allowed to do that, for shame Ali Flint, for shame that you should've even brought it up. There are us out here (me being one of those 'us') that love reading what you are up to and if it doesn't involve travelling, then so what eh? so effing what I say !!!!
Have you any idea how much I've experienced because of you, well, have you, HUH ?!?!?! Let me tell you that I've sailed the seas to here and there and laughed myself silly in between. I've discovered that there is this invisible green line that one can travel across to get to an icecream palour in Acrafieh, and as it is invisible I have yet to find out how everybody knows that it is actually green in the first place!! I now enjoy park benching so much, it can be such lackadaisycal fun (it's not productive, but I take fun where I can find it, to hell with productivity) I've experienced Envy, Sloth and Lust, all of which are vodka drinks to be had in a bar called Sinners. I've been camping and managed to do without my swimming cozzie, or any mozzie repellent or hiking shoes, bugger the blisters. I've hung out in Hamra. What's in your head? In your head. Zombie Zombie Zombie. I've hitched a ride which I'd never done before, I've gone to India and done Yoga and have had mayhem days and magical days and learned about life in the ashram. I celebrated your 39th birthday with you. I've been eating donuts as if there's no tomorrow and have partaken of such exquisite and exotic yummy foods. I stuck a dot on my forehead, smackbang in the middle between my eyes so I'd know that this third eye is the one I should poke, if I ever have need to, without fear of injury. I've seen breathtaking scenery and experienced kindness of fellow man and discovered that Australia does not have the monopoly on dickheads and that if I chant ohhhhmmmmmmm.....ohhhhhmmmmmmm.....ohm trayambam yajamahe sugandhim pushtivardhanam I'll manage to survive driving with a crispy black haired eejit in a banged up car that was hell bent on seeing how long his luck would last before he'd fling us all into oblivion forever, I've rafted the Ghanges, I've experienced so much and I've LOVED every bit of it. Everywhere you went and everything you did lit up my kapok tree - I've had excitement, adventure, laughs, insights, near misses and I don't want it to stop - don't take that light out of our lives Ali or you'll live to regret it - even if you are not going to be gaddabouting, just write what you feel, what you see about you where you are now, and, and .....ah, for F'sS, just keep on writing, ok !
Sincerely and with love and affection, I remain your blog apostle, Myra Kapok.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx's

Anonymous said...

Ya know what Ali, if you send your blog to R.I.P. land then your name will forever be stamped on my little heart as "Smelly Ali"...
With lotsa love from your secret blog admirer, Rex :o)
PS: you know why I'm 'secret'? well, um, actually I'm not really all that secret, only a 'sorta secret' coz only you and Flutters know who I am, and Flutters is a 'sorta secret' too, by name only though, because only you and Myra know Flutters and Myra is kinda a'sorta secret' also because only Flutters and you know Myra, who by the way, was once upon a time Lola's brother Michael, until he decided it was time to turn he into she, which was so cheesypeesyeasy to do, only needed one letter and anyways that's another secret ......hmmmm, lotsa 'secrets' here to contemplate, I'd contemplate my navel instead but I haven't got one....wahhhhhh)
x's

Anonymous said...

don't kill the blog, don't kill the blog, don't kill the blog, don't kill the blog, don't kill the blog, on'dt illk the blog, nod't lilk het blog, tond ikll et glob, peek no globbing hokay !
upya vegemites too !

Anonymous said...

Hey, who the heck is the 'vicarious' anonymous dude ????? come on, fess up, who are ya, eh !!! I don't like secrets, well, sorta secrets are okeydokey, but total secrets sorta suck, um, they don't sorta suck, they do suck !

Anonymous said...

Can Andrew Sullivan also please explain what happens to a publication......it is not fair that he has only revealed (may I add, entirely in his own opinion at that) what happens to a blog if it 'stops moving'. I wish to know what happens to a publication; if a blog moves (would also like to know where it moves to because in my experience it never has, each time I click on the shortcut to the blog site, it is still there in the same place as it was last time !!!) am I therefore to infer from this that a publication must be stationery, forever in limbo, neither moving here nor there (which personally, I do find this hard to believe). So what happens to a publication, is it doomed ????
Any light that can be shed on the plight of a publication would be appreciated, thank you.
Lola

Anonymous said...

Why dontcha cut out the 'travel' bit in your blog title and leave it as 'just say phuket' - I am always saying phuket, well, not totally 'always' only always when I need to vent frustrations of an industrial size magnitude and then it's 'phuket' to the rescue, works wonders, really does :o)
x's

Anonymous said...

Don't kill the blog for I see the world through your eyes. You go to places that I know that I never will.

Anonymous said...

another anonymous !!! hey, have you got a name, you can make one up, it's better than just being called anonymous, anonymous is such a common name :o)
Rex

Anonymous said...

Oi, Assie - how can I do it so my name comes up like yours does,
fanks,
Rex

Nad said...

Well, Ali, you are a yogini, and therefore you should not harm anyone... or anything. As a yogini, you simply cannot kill the blog!!!
You have an amazing writing style. And technically, you are on travel because you are not in your home country. Anyway, this is not only about your journey from one country to another, but also your spiritual journey.
Don't kill the blog. There are a lot of people who visit often or have it on their favorites.
Nad

Anonymous said...

Whoa, whoa, whoa - NO to killing the blog, Ali! Essential weekly escapism from GEC...

Kathy Smith said...

When I read this I put forth a cry of dismay like when you're in vacation in another city & Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 instead of 7:30. Let the poor innocent blog live; it has taken on a life of its own.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the blog! It is a great way for those of us who still engage in the dull life you left behind to have a glimpse of the good life!

slj

Anonymous said...

Keep the blog!

Don't feel obligated to write unless you are in the mood, that is what takes the fun out of it...
just write what you are doing and thinking - remember to us even a boring trip to the snorkel shop is interesting!

By the way when are you moving to Charlotte, I have shampoo and geckos.