One of the first things you learn when you start blogging is that a blog is a ravenous beast. It demands to be fed. If it is not fed at least three times a week, it does not thrive. There is always pressure to put out something new. If it has been four days or more since the last post, awareness of the need for fresh content can take on the characteristics of guilt. It gets to be like work. Like a job. Except, of course, that only a relatively tiny number of bloggers actually make any money out of it. So, there are many of the downsides of being a wage-slave, but without the wage.
If I haven't posted anything new for several days, it's almost certainly for one or more of three reasons. It could be that I'm just too busy with other stuff. I do have something I like to think of as a life outside my solitary efforts on behalf of Scotland's cause. Or at least, not related to those efforts in a way that is visible. For example, I have lately been trying to organise facilities for doing a podcast. There's a fair bit of technical stuff involved and as anyone who own a computer will know, keeping the machines in good working order can be very time-consuming. And it always seems to be time which you've set aside for something else.
This week, for example, I had intended putting the finishing touches to what I pretentiously call my 'studio'. (Well! You have to call it something! And 'studio' sounds better than my wife's preferred term "More ******* clutter!".) Almost immediately, I encountered a problem in that the computer I was using - a Chuwi HeroBox which has hitherto done good service - had some sort of falling-out with Bluetooth. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to foster a reconciliation between the two, but they were having none of it. Chuwi and Bluetooth would not share a platform, with neither accepting responsibility for the breakdown in relations. Remind you of anything?
Long story not nearly short enough, having attempted every 'solution' suggested by the World Wise Web, I eventually concluded that there was no option but to hit the reset button on Windows 11. Which I did. But it didn't. Reset, I mean. The process encountered a problem in that it failed to proceed. Windows helpfully informed me that the process had encountered a problem and could not proceed - adding only that the problem was 'unknown'. Which simply isn't true. Far from being unknown, such problems are only too familiar to anyone using Windows.
Long story getting longer, I had to do a clean install from a Windows ISO. This installed Windows 10, as that was what the Chuwi originally ran. That takes a while. I then had to install all the updates for Windows 10. Which took another couple of whiles, before upgrading(?) to Windows 11 - which took several more whiles. Plus, another while for updates. By the time I reinstalled various apps, I was overdrawn on my while account. I'm now sitting here writing this instead of facing whatever the next 'issue' might be. On the plus side, at least it's fresh content. Sort of.
Another possible explanation for a hiatus in my blogging could be that I have nothing new to say. It has all been said. I dislike repeating myself. Which in itself is a handicap for a political blogger as there will always be a need to repeat stuff. There is a tendency (or is it just me?) to suppose that when you hit that 'Publish' button you are broadcasting to the world. You aren't, of course. If you are among the top bloggers, you may be casting your article to tens of thousands of people. It's even possible that more than half of those will read what you've written for them. The article may be shared by any number of people. But where it feels like you're broadcasting to the world when you put something on the Web, you are in fact only reaching the equivalent of a large town, at best. Most of us don't even make it to a small village.
This is why the same message has to be repeated. We do so in the hope that each repetition might reach a different village. Or a different hall. Or even a couple of folk in a phone booth. My dislike of repeating myself means I'm always seeking new ways of saying the same thing. As you'd expect, that gets increasingly difficult. Eventually, it reaches the point where writing the message is not just work but an onerous task. What do we do with onerous tasks? We put them off. We avoid them. We procrastinate.
The third reason there may be a gap in my blogging schedule is that I have succumbed to the despair which is inevitable if you are analysing and commenting on the constitutional issue in Scotland. And doing so in as honest, forthright and objective manner as possible. The despair of which I speak will be familiar to all in Scotland's independence movement who take a realistic view of our predicament. A predicament which only the most terminally deluded might portray as anything but dire and desperate.
I despair when I listen to Scotland's professional politicians, who seem to have neither an understanding of that predicament nor any awareness of the urgency of resolving the matter in Scotland's favour. I despair when I hear the vacuous claptrap they attempt to pass off as a 'strategy' for restoring Scotland's independence. I despair when see the self-serving cowardice of our political leaders. I despair.
I despair, too, when I witness the fractious factionalism that is crippling the Yes movement. I despair when I see what has become of what was once a massive force for political change.
I despair when I read suggested 'solutions' that are so far detached from the reality of what is practically or politically possible as to be pure fantasy. I despair when I see self-styled independence supporters throwing puerile jibes, taunts and insults at other self-styled independence supporters in exchanges made bitter and drained of all rationality by fierce, mindless partisan loyalty. I despair.
Considering all of the foregoing, it's a wonder I write anything at all.