Why a website?
Pretentious Impulsive? Moi?

The other day I was idly thinking "I wonder if there are website addresses based on peoples full names...?"

So I typed a random name - 'Brian Jones'- into the web address box of the browser, throwing a 'www.' in front, and '.com' after. Sure enough, there it is - Brian Jones website, 'Pastor, author, speaker'.

OK, so simple names might be used as an URL - after all, there are probably a fair number of Brian Jones in the world. At least one of the BJs must think, "Hey! I'll buy the address 'Brian Jones.com". And did. So not unexpected for a common name.

But what about a less common name; say 'Stuart Fredrickson' ( I have pulled these names out of the air, they are not based on anyone I know or have heard of!). Sure enough,www.StuartFredrickson.com is  'up for grabs' (or at least it was when I wrote this).

Well, of course you know what happened next - I checked my own name. (And I bet you'll now check yours - if you haven't already!)

To my amazement, while 'LaurieMeadows.com' was taken, all the other LaurieMeadows (.info .net . biz, etc) were languishing there, unloved and unwanted.

Yeah, the truth is, I grabbed 'LaurieMeadows.info' on a split second impulse.


Are 'impulse buys' really worth it?

Now that you've got your name as a website, what do you do with it?

I'm a fairly private sort of person (altho', paradoxically, I enjoy peoples company, both  at the workplace, and in daily life).
So I have no interest in writing about my own (completely unremarkable) personal life, nor am I interested in writing about other peoples, lives. After all, people are entitled to privacy. And, of course, my family have that same right to privacy.

So, while these words come from my life, they are not so much 'about me', as my reflections on what I see around me, and what I think about what this world. These musings and observations do not pretend to be anything other than what they seem to be. And you interpret that.

What value, then, does anyone's 'published' written expression have?

Well, the value for for me, at least, is that its a bit of fun; its a chance to play around with making a  website.

The value for you might be in some of the ideas expressed, or information offered.

You know, parents have a captive audience - their children. Children, however, are not necessarily appreciative of the valuable gifts of sage advice and brilliant reflections offered by their elders! They seem to be born with a defence mechanism that automatically switches attention to 'off' when parental speech is longer than two sentences...and this paragraph is three sentences long...!

So, if you are hoping for an audience for your down-home common sense opinions, don't expect your kids to listen without argument. If you are hoping for an audience for your your 'good advice' refined from the blast-furnace of your own red-faced mistakes, don't expect your kids to have developed enough forebrains to be able to accept it!

Seriously tho', our kids are different people, and it can't be surprising that our own interests and take on life are not necessarily theirs as well.

Lets take solace in the fact that the worlds a big place. Someone out there may be interested in our thoughts. Thanks to the internet, I can choose to move from a potential audience of 5 to a potential audience of a bit more than 5.

Jonesey included.


A  discursive Personal Style

Everyone has a 'personal style' when speaking, and when writing.

Mine style tends towards discursive - expansive rather than brief, slow to come to the point, and tending to go off on tangential excursions before returning to the point. This is OK if you have the engaging urbane charm and powerful punchlines of master discursive storyteller Alistair Cook , for example. I don't. This may go some way to explaining why peoples eyes start to get that 'far away distant look' only 50 sentences or so into my latest brilliant commentary...


The point is
If you have read this far, you may be exactly the right sort of  reader for this site...