Change Is The Only Thing That Never Changes

Bonjour, mes amis!

I have a lot to tell you. Indeed, I may not be able to relate all the facts and events of the last few days before I run out of time, and have to spill this post over into another day. Ah, the suspense!

Well, to begin. You may (or possibly may not) know that there are, and have been for several weeks now, no less than TWO versions of this blog. No, no, I hear you say, isn't one enough, or even more than enough. I do sympathise, dear reader, but que voulez-vous as the French say. This is how it all started.

The original blog was entitled "How I Became A Zen Catholic" and those of a perceptive disposition will still be able to discern the abbreviated username style version "zencath" in all kinds of dodgy, and even occasionally not-so-dodgy, places on the web. That blog was inaugurated on a snowy day in early 2008. Later the name was changed, for reasons which I actually can't remember, to "That Reminds Me."

That blog was on Wordpress. Anyway, after a while I decided that it would be better to move the whole thing, lock, stock, and barrel, to Blogger. The main reason was, because in some ways Wordpress seems, you know, a little bit too serious? a bit earnest? or is it just me? Secondly, you can't use Java on Wordpress, and I had a deep yearning to paste on to my blog some of those jolly looking adverts that flash on and off. Also the ones that guess what your visitors would like to have, you know, AdSense? I love to see what they'll do next.

I should add that I didn't want the adverts in order to make any money from them. So if you see one on this blog, whatever you do, do NOT click on them, or else I will end up with far too much money that I will not have ANY idea what to do with it!

So anyway I decided to move to Blogger. After protracted negotiations with the Zencath International Fan Club (as it was then named before the change), working out of its World Headquarters in downtown Ulan Bator, the move was made, and I set up this blog where you now are, under the name Journal of an Ex-Philosopher. I put up a "WE HAVE MOVED" sign on the front door of the Wordpress version, and there I thought the matter would end.

However, I noticed that the people were still going to the old place to read my ancient articles from former times, notably it seems the article "Normandy - Some Interesting Facts" was still a consistent success. Considering it does not contain any interesting facts about Normandy or anywhere else, I found its popularity puzzling. The title was actually meant to be an ironic joke. Those who have followed my adventures will know that I occasionally sojourn in the fair land of Normandy, and that I have been inspired sometimes to write of my experiences there. These stories have included the strange antics of mon voisin francais and his girlfriend, that formidable woman, and his blasphemous budgerigar, Claude. There are one or two examples of them in THIS version of the blog. Anyway, "Normandy - Some Interesting Facts" was actually a rather insipid, vapid, and unspectacular episode in that long running saga. Why it continues to hog the popularity ratings is beyond me.

So the upshot is that I decided to re-open the Wordpress version, but I didn't have the heart to close up this one. So there are now, and probably ever shall be, not one but two versions of this blog. I hope you're keeping up with this. You know you really should pay attention; I shall be asking questions later!

Incidentally, I posted one of the Normandy experiences on the new Qassia website, which is a kind of social network/forum/search-engine/article-submission site. My post came in for some criticism from a couple of people who said that they hadn't a clue what it was trying to say, they couldn't make head nor tail of it, it was so coming out of left field, it should be given a complete overhaul etc etc. Fair comment. It was so rambling! It seemed, to start with, that it was to be about Spain, and my Spanish vacation, but really it was a rather lengthy account of the singularly dramatic events that followed the disappearance of Claude. Some of my other efforts that I contributed to Qassia have been a bit more successful at cracking the nut, cutting the mustard, putting the icing on the cake, and so on.

The Worpress version of this blog is now called Everything Is Radio for reasons which you will find out when you go there.

A bientot! Sphere: Related Content

Reflections Of Spain From Somewhere Nearby

Good day to you, gentle readers, no matter where in the world you are. Welcome to another zencath post by me. This one will not greatly presume on your patience or your time, because I have to confess to being a trifle fatigued, having only recently returned from Spain. I was on vacation there, and in the course of that vacation I visited every one of the autonomous regions, except the Basque country.

Let no one try to fool you into thinking of Spain as a small country. It may not look all that big on a map, but when you are inside it, you realize that it is truly enormous, full of deserts and mountain ranges. You may not know this, but it is a fact that Spain has mountains over a greater percentage of its land area than any other European country, except Switzerland. The land of Spain has many many towns, and I feel like I actually visited every single one of them during my stay.

My neighbour has declared, with typically Gallic logique, that such a thing is impossible, the adundance of the cities it is too great in order that one might visit to them all with much of ease. My reply is to try to patiently explain that he, being French, has too rigidly scientific a mind to comprehend the English love of hyperbole.

I toy with the idea of pointing out that the ancient Romans recognized this, since their name for us was the "Hyperboleans" (the lovers of exaggeration) but this would not be strictly accurate. They actually called us the "Hyperboreans" (the people from the back of the north wind).

I am sure that my neighbour and most of his countrymen believe that the English are crazy. However, I KNOW that the French are crazy - splendid fellows though they are.

For example, there are more tight rope walkers from France than from any other country. Also, the hot-air balloon was invented by the French inventor, Montgolfier. Need I say more?

Incidentally, when they made the first flying balloon, they had to put sandbags in the basket to hold it down on the ground. When Montgolfier was asked how he would fly if the balloon was full of sand, he replied that, in order to fly, why of course they would throw out the bags of sand.

So how would he get back down again? Montgolfier answered, But naturally, it is very simple, monsieur, we will just put the bags back in the balloon again. Sphere: Related Content