Funfare for the Common Man

I often feel that I was born in the wrong century and belong in a different era. I can hardly keep up with modern times, things are changing so fast. I know, I sound like Brooks from The Shawshank Redemption – but don’t worry, I don’t plan on topping myself (belated spoiler alert: sorry if you haven’t seen it). Oh great, another technophobia-themed rant Regular readers will no doubt be familiar with my posts on technology and its failings and my slavish adherence to Ludditism. I’ve long been a fully-fledged, paid-up member of the club. I don’t want to rant and rave yet again, but I had a few thoughts and reflections as I spent last week hiking and biking in the cool, fresh air of the Carpathians. (in western Ukraine, for my non-local audience) Now, I’m all for innovation and progress but…at what cost? The modern world and its gadgets confound and overwhelm me. And I know that every [good] artist has to change his canvas at some point, but…after a certain point, it al

‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ Socrates ‘What if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?’ Kurt Vonnegut ‘Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to.’ Saul Bellow I once quoted Socrates at the beginning of an angst-ridden, existentialist-funk themed post sometime in 2010. Relax – I’m not about to do the same. But it has been a while. February 2012 was my last post…I wonder if anyone had given me up for dead? I’ve been putting this off for long enough, so I think I can be forgiven for asking myself ‘where do I begin?’ At the end of that post, I pontificated on what it meant that 2012 was set to become a busy year with that wretched Delta on tap – what was it going to mean for this blog? I didn’t expect to junk it altogether. Although time got the better of me, the real reason was more of extended ‘creative’ writer’s block, plus a lack of inspiration and motivation. The Delta required such a dif