Sorry for the rarity of my posts these days. The end of the year is a very busy era.

Do It Yourself
At a recent dinner, a friend asked me why I’m doing this whole weblog stuff I had just told him about (one says that France is technologically three years late with respect to the United States, and weblogs are totally unknown here, even in the I.T. community). This question made me really uncomfortable : WHY am I doing this ? Unable to find a satisfying answer, I must have replied with a neutral comment about alternative ways of using the internet, or something…
When I come to think again about the underlying purpose(s) of running a weblog, I end up comparing this activity with the panel of other ones offered to us.
Consume. Most of us, most of the time, when we want to enjoy ourselves a bit, to relieve our souls tired by corporate work or university courses, we GET stuff. Drinks, DVDs, books, restaurant meals, furniture, clothes, CDs, and so on… But think about it a minute : how long does the pleasure last ? How long are you uplifted by this brand new leather couch, or this damn good fine dinner, or even this wonderful novel ? Very soon it melts with the rest of our environment, as an unnoticeable sign of our fading ability to enjoy the treasures of life. Go to your bed, you’ve got to wake up early in the morning on weekdays…
Now, I’m talking to you guys who ever tried to create something with your own hands/brain/heart. Whatever you’ve done, painting, writing, composing, coding, building etc…, doesn’t it shine as one of the few worthwhile moments ever in your life ? Don’t you feel proud, fulfilled, caring towards others, a true human being, when you happen to experience again the fruit of your dedication (reading your article, standing near your building, running your software, looking at your sculpture…) or even merely think about it ?
When I have to sum up my life in a few words, I end up mentioning composing songs (lame ones, you can’t imagine, but who said you’ve got to be Mozart ?), gaining a degree, writing articles, building a relationship, and I realize I forgot writing role-playing games, arranging gaming nights, recording stupid radio-shows, and so on…
This is what life, for me, is about. Giving away bits of myself, sweating over my creations to do the best I can. This is why internet in general, and weblogs in particular are choice tools. Your potential audience is the world, your actual public is only made of the people who choose to come and see what you have to offer. No limit, no obligation.
(This is also why I hate all those websites designed to sell me stuff, bringing me down to my condition of consumer I should never have left in this neo-liberal society.)

But, hey!, what’s that need to offer the world something coming from me ? A lot of people just live and let go. Why do I feel almost compelled to leave something out of my brain, heart and hands ?
I plead guilty : I’m afraid to die. Like everyone of us. I will get back to dust and that scares the hell out of me, true. The most moving thing on earth is those people who survived through their work, their kindness, the love they still inspire, the friends they still bring together.
So, next time, I will swallow my pride, and to this same question about the reasons that drive me doing this weblog, I will answer : « Because I’m scared to die sooner or later, dude, and that you could forget me all ».

Now, more relaxed stuff :
– « quite a lot of percussion, big, sweeping sort of stuff » : this is the pleonastic way Tom « Chemical Bros » Rowlands describe the new material for the fourth album of my favourite duo and this is the best piece of news heard lately !
– While browsing again the Annals of Improbable Research, I found this hilarious article about sex in an elevator.
– A genius dude has wonderfully re-made the three Star Wars episodes in 5 minutes each and in Flash. Congratulations.

Quelques mots en français :

De nombreuses analyses montrent qu’on est en face d’un marché de surconsommateurs d’images, des gens qui achètent quantité de DVD et vont quand même au cinéma, ont le câble, Canal +. Ils achètent au delà de leur goût et même de leur simple capacité physique à les regarder, il y a un désir très fort de posséder l’objet dès qu’il parait.

C’est dans le libé d’hier et c’est symptomatique.
Le site ultime en matière de mp3 ringards (ou parfois pas). « Où est passée ma chemise griiise », de patrick topaloff et sim, est un hit au bureau.