Hello everyone. I was chatting to DW last night and we were discussing the fact that Princess likes to invent songs which can last for up to twenty minutes and are little more than streams of consciousness set at various pitches in the upper register. Its not music as we might traditionally know it, but it is obviously intended to be and occasionally does take several bars from more well known tunes, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. DW also mentioned that Princess often talks to herself. I laughed for a moment and then it occurred to me that I also talk to myself. So I asked DW if she thought it was strange that I talk to myself and she said, "Not at all." I then asked her if she ever talks to herself and she quickly replied, "God, no!"

I should point out that I don't hear strange voices. The voices are all mine, only usually with different points of view. That is to say, that I often have an internal dialogue going when I am on my own. I am not saying that I argue with myself. That rarely happens. I suspect that most people have a similar way of processing their thoughts. Kids talk to themselves and no one thinks its odd. It is just part of the play/learning mental development. I guess I'm just still developing.

I suspect that the essence of blogging, at least the way I do it, is pretty much another way for the voices to express themselves. Stream-of-consciousness is a well-known method of writing and is especially good for getting past writers block. Perhaps the concern other people might have is when the voices in my head don't seem to agree and the debate spills out my mouth. Also, I think it must be human nature to want to know if you are the intended audience for any words that are being thrown about within earshot. If the words are intended for you, then you choose how to respond. If the words are intended for someone else, then you will often be curious as to whom they are intended. It may be disconcerting to see someone chatting away happily without anybody else around. Fortunately for me, modern technology has begun to reduce curiousity of this nature because of mobile phones with wireless and tiny headsets. We now assume that if we can't see who someone is talking to, they must be on the phone. So I've taken to popping on my bluetooth headset when on the train so that people assume I am talking to someone other than myself.

Only, I've discovered another problem. Human nature dictates that we eavesdrop whenever the opportunity presents, even if we try not to. If we are polite, we try to think about something else or at least try not to rememeber any of the content of the discussion. However, we are also very skilled at being able to work out what is being said, even if we can only hear half of the discussion. I recently heard the following on the train:

Girl: "Hi"
"On the train."
"About twenty minutes."
"Uh huh"
"Yeah, the..."
"Drove"
"If you like."
(smiling) "If you like."
(grinning) "Maybe."
(giggles) "Not at the moment."
(smiles) "Ok. That sounds good."
(flushes) "Uh huh."
(blushing) "I'll see you soon."
(smiles) "Love you honey. Bye."
Hangs up and continues to blush.

Now, this conversation would be a little odd if the girl had not been speaking on the phone. However, given that she was, it doesn't take much to work out what was being said. So our brains fill in the gaps and it makes sense. So now I have to train myself to only say every second thing that comes into my head.

A friend recently mentioned that she blogs on the loo. I'm pretty sure that's what she said. In fact she dedicated a whole blog to how she mostly blogs everywhere but where she should blog, which is online. In fact a lot of people do this. Who am I to tell people they should blog online, you may ask? Well, my very simple argument is the fact that "blogging" is a shortened term for "web logging", which is, by definition, the logging of events online, specifically in the form of HTML, the language of the web. So, by that definition, if you blog anywhere but online, you are just talking to yourself. I'm not trying to say that that is a bad thing. I'm just pointing out to all those people who "blog" offline, to themselves, you are just as crazy as I am.

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: I was sure I didn't suffer from multiple personalities until I took an internal vote and lost 5:3. On the bright side, I'm not the only one who thinks there's just one of us.