Pointless photo of the day:

And, in an unusual move for Yours Blatheringly, it's completely uncropped and uncorrected. This is the photo as it came off of the camera.

Well, I did rotate it a bit so you wouldn't have to stand on your collective head. I'm nice that way.

The subject matter ticks me off too much to make me want to comment on it, but the picture's here nonetheless.

Before I go any further I should state that I currently have a headache. Not a bad one, but I expect it'll make me sound like I'm in a worse mood than I really am. There's your warning.

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As I sit here I'm being stared at by an electronic eye. It's not on, but I still feel like I'm being stared at.

You see, my father recently picked up a webcam so that he can talk to his grandson. Or rather, to my brother. As far as I know, the nephew isn't quite so clever as to be nattering away at the ripe old age of four months. I would imagine, then, that the conversation will consist of my brother sitting there with the baby on his knee, making him wave and trying to keep his fingers off of the screen and the keyboard.

And when that's not happening, I get to be stared at dumbly by the plastic spy.

For anyone thinking that this will lead to pictures of The Blatherer ending up here on the blog, the response is no bloody way. If I'd wanted a photo of me to grace the pointlessness it would have been here a looong time ago. I'm perfectly capable of pointing the real camera at myself and clicking away, as certain people out there in the actual world can attest.

I don't happen to want a shot of me here, that's all.

Those who visited the old blog can tell you that various body parts (or photos of them, at any rate) were posted there whenever I was too bored to take "creative" shots of the icicles on my balcony or the occasional spider. It's not like I'm shy about being seen.

In fact, it seems to me that I once gave Wheat a bit of a start by posting a close-up of one of my eyes without warning him first. Good times, good times.

I just don't think you should have the desire to see all of me at once, that's all.

Part of it's a privacy thing, admittedly. I'm under no illusion that I'm unfindable (anyone who thinks they can't be tracked down via their internet footprints is too naive to be on the internet), but I don't feel the need to share more of myself with the cyberworld than I have to.

There's another reason for the lack of self-portraiture, though.

My two fans (I mean, the fraction of you who don't already know me in that alternate dimension known as Real Life) probably have a mental picture of me from reading the blatherings. Some of it might come from the occasional description I sneak in there, but a lot of it comes straight from your imagination even if you don't think it does.

I like that.

I like the fact that, in your minds, I look just as you'd expect me to. I like it that, even if you're incredibly mistaken, you're probably comfortable with the picture of me that you've created.

It kind of puts a different spin on being all things to all people, don't you think?

For the most part, I try to be truthful in what gets posted to the blog. I don't make stuff up. What you read here is me... or as much of me as I'm willing to put into a pointless blog. I'm not posing as anything, or trying to prove anything, or hoping to enlist you to a cause. It's all just silly things that occur to me on the spur of the moment.

Even with that, it creates a different me for everyone who winds up reading it.

That's cool.





And do you really think I want to spoil the effect with an unflattering webcam photo?

Nope.








I'm really going to have to put a box over that thing to get it to stop looking at me.