Six Honest Men

I Keep six honest serving-men: 

(They taught me all I knew) 

Their names are What and Where and When 

And How and Why and Who.

- Rudyard Kipling (The Elephant's Child)

Kipling had six honest men; I think I'll settle for a few of them. There is no better post than the first; to give an insight into the origins for this blog. It would make much less sense if I explained it somewhere down the line. I'll start with the why.

Why?

This isn't my first blog. My first blog (if I remember correctly) was started somewhere in 2004. I stopped writing frequently in 2007, and although I tried many times to re-ignite the spark that kept me writing, I was unsuccessful. Years rolled on by and every now and then I used to look back and rue the fact that I was a voracious reader once upon a time and an avid writer. Books are a little out of my budget at the moment and I'm not too fond of reading old books. There is a marked difference in the feeling I have reading a crisp new book. So I decided, that I would write instead. Cheap-skate that I am !

Now for the URL. I had a few mental rules of what the URL shouldn't be.

• It shouldn't be a cliché. No ramblings, musings etc. 
• There shouldn't be any numbers.

Based on those two simple rules, the idea for a 'Latin phrase' came into my head. The two strongest contenders were 'tabula rasa' and 'nosce te ipsum' were taken. Similarly, quite a few 'decent' phrases were taken. It annoyed me no end that many of those were blocked by what appeared to be 'cyber-squatters'.

As for the name, 'The World as I See It' just popped into my head. And as with everything these days, I did a quick search to see if it was worthy. It turned out to be the title of an essay written by Einstein. If he found it good enough, who was I to disagree? My conscience consoled me with the oft repeated adage 'Great minds think alike' as the name wasn't as unique was I wanted it to be, but after searching for 3 hours for a 'unique' URL I wasn't about to do the same for a name. After all,

What's in a name?

- William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

Due to certain career aspirations of mine, it is required of me to increase my vocabulary. I am ashamed to admit that it has more or less remained stagnant since I passed out from school. 

What?

Next stop concerns the content of the blog. What would I write about? Should I be specific and stick to one area of interest? Or be as diverse as possible? For this, I had the help of my previous blog wherein I scribbled about anything and everything that caught my fancy. From random observations in the day to movie reviews, this blog too would cover the same. Why restrict myself when I'm just starting? Just go with the flow! For some reason the last sentence played out in a "cool Aussie surfer voice" in my head. The after effects of watching Finding Nemo!

When?

Back when I used to write, I had this mental reminder in my head that I ought to post at least once a week. Towards the end it felt more like a chore instead of a hobby. I don't want to make the same mistake again. Yes, I'd still like to write once a week but I will not focus on it. If it happens, it happens. Like I said; I'm just going with the flow, riding the EAC. Damn! There's Nemo again!

How?

How did I end up with 'Semper Fortis'? That's really interesting because at 3 A.M. it was 'http://cave--canem.blogspot.com'. Yes, that's right; two hyphens. All due to the aforementioned cyber-squatters blocking any decent name. Out of sheer frustration, amusement (since I am afraid of dogs to an extent) and eagerness to see me have a URL booked I decided on that name. When I woke up the this morning the words 'Semper Fortis' kept repeating in my head. A quick internet search (I'm starting to think I have a problem) and I found out that I had looked up this phrase ages ago. Well not really the phrase but specifically the U.S. Marines. It was part of their motto and stood for 'Always Brave' and since it didn't involve any double hyphens or any other modification of the sort, I decided to stick with it.

Well there you have it. My four honest men. I see no need for the company of Who and Where.