Good Advice

Lingo Slinger, in response to my below request was so nice in giving me some advice. I'm going to lay it out here and try to give my honest response because it touches on some fundamental issues regarding what I want from this blog.

• You have great opinions on things, you have a great way of communicating, and are more insightful than most... You also have (as displayed in this post) a sharp sense of humour, a confident wit about you. That's the aw shucks I'm blushing part over. It's nice of Lingo to say these things. Such positive feedback is worth a lot.
• I do think that the OU stuff might be a bit heavy for the average blog reader. It is very interesting, but could perhaps be a bit much for some. She's right here. I was thinking, if I stick with it (and I have time) that maybe I should open up another blog just for OU stuff and simply put down the start of an essay here with a link to the whole piece on the other blog. I don't have time at the moment to do this but I might in the future.
• Here's some ideas:Expose yourself - photos, personal stories and experiences. This is the tricky part. I shy away from exposing myself (sound like a failed flasher, don't I!). There are personal issues, deeply personal, that I want to explore but I'm afraid to start, to fess up.
• Opinions on current events & news or just things in general that you feel strongly about. Who's got the time! Of course I feel strongly about current events. Tony Blair's a cunt because he's in the pocket of that other cunt G.W. But they have teams of PR people and spokespersons (Isn't that the people who follow Lance Armstrong in a van in case he has a wheel failure?). And the last truly decent leader of the Labour Party was Michael Foot and he got gutted by the press, and all the honest men and women who could have made a difference are dead: Mo Mowlam, Robin Cook, John Smith, Donald Dewar - real people who didn't give a shit for image makers and spin doctors and focus groups and all the rest of the shite that politicians think they have to surround themselves with. Current events! Fuck current events.
• More photographs - you, your fam, your friends, your environment. I use this to get in to another environment. Maybe I'm creating a parallel universe where - no scratch that. Parallel universe dreams are bullshit. There is only one and we are stuck with it. Anyway my universe mostly is work, and this will not be about my work.
• Desert Island type themes. Used to be Roy Plomley but now Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs ask their guest to choose eight records, one book (they've already got the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare), and a luxury to ease their days stranded on a desert island. It's marginally more interesting than Gardeners' Question Time on BBC Radio 4.
• Poetry Interpretations - ask others for their interpretations. Good idea. I'm not any kind of expert. English literature is something I want to get more involved with. It would be good to exchange ideas and I should positively seek opinions, rather than just make comment for the sake of it.
• New words - scour the dictionary for new words and post one every day (perhaps in conjunction with a post) to give your readers a healthy dose of vocabulary. Old Horsetail Snake does this so well. I'd feel such a fake. I like words though, and improving my vocabulary. OK, I'll think about it.
• Short stories or poems written by you. This needs time and when I was doing the OU short course in Creative Writing I could just post my work straight on to the blog. Long term project.
• Short history lessons & links to interesting things found on the net. I'm reluctant to come on all pedagogical (today's word - see new words above) but if it flows naturally from what I'm studying then fair enough. Interesting things I have found on the net. Mmmm. Do you mean like this?, or this?