About Irregular Una

Unlike many people, I didn't muck around when it came to deciding on a name for my blog. That came to me in a flash of inspiration, while on the torlit. The hard decisions were my 'by-line' (I knew I wanted one, but what?) and the fundamental one: to blog or not to blog? Something I had pondered, like many people, from time to time (especially while on the torlit).

I conveniently had an existing pseudonym, Una Kempt (not my real name**), that I employed when writing for my (not only 'my') zine, Hair Pie DIY (the second and subsequent 'episodes' of which may or may not ever see the light of day. I think you can still buy the inaugural 2010 Xmas special episode from Format on Peel St. And Sticky in Melbourne). And 'irregular'? Well - 'irregular' can mean so many things. Feel free to pick one that suits your purposes. I chose the current by-line because I think it sounds mysterious and hence possibly alluring. Perhaps my by-line might be written more fully as: 'because one is... full of shit'. Because while I know I'm not gonna go (metaphorical) do-do with any pretence at regularity, I seriously need to dump a load from time to time, you know? But this is not a blog about constipation. Well, at least not exclusively. I digress...

Which brings me to the next part: why b(l)og?

There are many reasons; to save everyone time and because I once studied law and thereby learned to appreciate the unequivocalness of a well-turned clause, I think I will itemise the main ones:

1) because I'm copying my friend Leon.

No, not really... because (with equal measures of shame and integrity), I don't have anything like the same zeal for a worthy cause, and because I don't seriously expect anyone to read this. But I won't pretend I won't get a buzz if you do. And especially if you respond to what I've written. But I warn you right now: my target audience is me. You can read and respond to Leon's very stimulating blog at: http://limetreeleon.posterous.com/

2) because

a) this way, I can write (mainly, as and when I choose) in the Queen's English, and not in that bastard lingua franca sired by evolving communications technologies and their restrictive character limits.

While I'm not too shabby at coining a pithy slogan to summarise what I'm thinking or how I'm feeling, I am finding restricting myself in that way increasingly soul-destroying, and

b) because there is no word limit (that I am aware of), I can digress and use parentheses, ellipses and other optional grammatical characters; lyrical flourishes, conceits and other forms of literary trickery as often as my heart desires.

And it does… and I shall.

And what was the ultimate catalyst, you ask?

3) because I should be studying. Yes, that old chestnut.

Those are the 'pros'. All those pros can, of course, be rephrased as cons. I'm sure it depends on where you're standing. The one additional con I can think of is that my girlfriend will probably kill me when she finds out I've done this. Because she already feels like a study/FB/Twitter widow. So on balance, I probably shouldn't be blogging at all. But that makes it crazy and wrong and those are two things I can't help being attracted to... so here we go.

** I will enjoy engineering in some tautologies and redundancies from time-to-time.