Reason number 18: Just because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean you should

I'm back, and I don't even have to write this one. Thanks to Go Flock Yourself, for this and everything else.

Reason number 17: More people to misunderstand you

marcelmarbella has a few things to say about our blog.

someone says that there is no point in establishing a blog .... rather dumb if this is beeing argued on HIS OWN BLOG

He's got us bang to rights on the logic, but fails to appreciate some of the subtleties. There are enough people in London (where I live) who fail to appreciate all of my subtleties. Do I also need them in Marbella?

Reason number 16: Comment spam

Minutes after the last post, I got this comment.

You have a great blog here! I have a scented candle site. You can find everything about scented candle as well as candle supplies, gel candles, jar candles, and how to make your own candles. You'll find it very informative. Check it out when you can :)

There are so many things wrong here. It is deeply irrelevant and - what's worse - there is some software that thinks a post in praise of misanthropy equates with the kind of people who buy scented candles. Artificial intelligence has a hell of a long way to go.

Reason number 15: Misanthropy is frowned on

I like misanthropy, I believe it to be healthy and under-appreciated. What upsets me is when people are relentlessly positive and bubbly and think everyone else should be too. They think everyone is lovely, all their friends are beautiful (there are sadly few poeple for who this is true) and anyone who deviates from this worldview is some sort of deviant.

I came across a thread vanity-googling for this site that, I think, provides a good illustration of the kind of abuse that misanthropes have to put up with in their daily lives. The Dutch, a poster, makes the entirely reasonable proposition that blogs are shite and "Google [has] been fucked right up by a shitload of whiney blogging twats who, for some reason, want to share EVERY bloody moment of their vapid little lives."

He goes on to describe blogging as the "most self-obsessed, masturbatory thing you could possibly do" (surely not more than wanking?) and therefore gets a lot of people telling him he is evil and wrong. Best of all, that if you don't like a blog then don't read it. I'm still crying with laughter at that last point. Who reads diary blogs anyway? His reply warmed my cold cold heart.

But then I don't get to act bitter and hateful towards a bunch of strangers, and if the internet isn't here for that reason then I don't know WHAT the hell it's for.

Reason number 14: This blows

I've been thinking for a while that we're never going to find the 101 distinct things wrong with blogs that will allow this blog to fulfill its destiny.

What I (or we, if Gutenberg ever gets back on board) may do is begin to post links to the worst blogs we find. This is perhaps a bit meanspirited but this is is a blog born of mean spirits. And we think it is pretty shite too.

The first in this series (if you ignore the post about Puppy Dog Tales) is the blog of the HK delegation in World Harmonica Festival 2005.

This is how it describes itself.

This is the first of many Blogs created by the Delegation. As the story develops, it has become apparent that one single Blog is not the best way to present it. Consequently, this Blog has become the trunk of a tree, with off-shooting branches that record individual events or describe more special topics. These branches can be found as Links to Related Sites in this Blog's side bar.

But that really doesn't do justice to the pictures.

Reason number 13: Small but unexpected addendums

From the blog recounting Guardian Unlimited "political blogger" Matthew Tempest (as his Wikipedia entry has his job description) at the 2003 European Social Forum - a place where lots of leftwing types get together and imagine how much better the world could be if more people thought like them. Despite the peace, love, harmony, etc. it is also the kind of place for the kind of people will write a "small but unexpected addendum" on the delights of the French communist party HQ.

A small but unexpected addendum to the blog. After a very pleasant afternoon admiring the architecture of the Paris office of the communist party - I can't find any piccies online, but this is the sort of thing Niemeyer does - it was home time.

Yes, I know Niemeyer is bigger than any political creed but while the day of leisure write up is a straight out of reason 4, it is this blog's contention that only a political blogger (see reason 10) could write anything quite so strange.