Serendipity

At its best, the Internet (capital letter courtesy of the Blogger spell check that insists upon it – at the same time as claiming that its own name is incorrect. There really should be a word for spell check programs that don't recognize the name of the program they live in ... would WordPerfect's stumble on Wordperfect, or even more strangely demand Word Perfect?) is a source of serendipitous encounter.

At times annoyingly distracting – how did I end up losing the afternoon to LOLcats? (and this example is recursively addictive as one must google LOLcat to get a link for the discussion, and there are so many links, and ... oops, where did the afternoon go?) – it simultaneously claims wonderfully mesmerising linkages as a peculiar virtue. An example:

1. I use the word "theriomorph" in a story bit with only an inkling of what it might mean. Story completed, I check the definition on the Internet and find, instead a fascinating set of posts on time, and writing, and feminism, and anti-racism, and dogs.
2. That leads to Theriomorph's virtual dog site on You-Tube where Gilgamesh the Lab rolls and gallops (and how can one resist a lab called Gilgamesh, after all?)
3. And those lead to one of the best personal essays on grieving that I've ever read. The site has essays and poetry and photography by a guy called Chris Clarke (and some equally cool friends) and is well worth spending a couple of hours exploring.
4. And then a bunch of stuff lead to a bunch of other stuff, and to protect the innocent(ish) I'm not naming who or what originally lead me to this site. All I can say is that, strangely enough, I'm more tempted by the photo in the bottom right corner than by the blonde babes in the slide show. Guess I'm getting old...

This post has been brought to you by the number zero ... as in zero good books to read at the moment ... and the letters ADD ...