Wednesday 13 April 2011

The hours I spend on this blog...

Several people have mentioned that I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on this blog lately. There are two reasons for it appearing so. One is of course my innate courtesy. It only takes me twenty minutes or so to write a post each day. Having done this, I feel that it is polite to answer any points which people raise about what I have said. I do so even if those commenting are complete bloody fools. I may also observe that when I am out for the day and unable to respond at once, people tend to get a little ratty and accuse me of evading their questions!



The reason that I often respond to comments fairly swiftly is not, as some apparently suppose, because I am sitting here all day, chewing my fingers anxiously and waiting for people to react to what I have said. I am aware that it is often claimed elsewhere that I am a man who craves attention and that this is my primary motive for keeping this blog, but this is not really the case. I simply wish to provide a counter-balance to a lot of the idiotic things which people write about home education. So how come I am online so much? Don't I have a job to go to? Does time really weigh so heavily on my hands since my daughter went to college that I have nothing better to do all day than argue with other home educating parents? These are fair questions and a number of people, (or the same person a number of times, it is hard to tell with all the anonymous comments), voiced such concerns yesterday.



The answer is simple enough. I am working on the computer a lot of the time these days. I have four books due to be published in the next year and I type them on the computer. While I am typing, it is easy enough to flick over to the Internet and check other things at the same time. That is why I seem to be online so much. Just to reassure readers who might be thinking that the books I have been writing are about home education, titles perhaps like, Why I am Right and Everybody else is Wrong or Autonomous Educators are Idiots and I alone know how to Home Educate, I can reassure everybody that these books have nothing at all to do with education, whether at home or anywhere else. They are about history and archaeology, which are by way of being my specialist subjects. The first will be published in a couple of months and for those who are interested, it may be found here;



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unearthing-London-Ancient-Beneath-Metropolis/dp/0752462741



I shall actually be posting about this book in the next couple of weeks and giving a link to a clip where I talk about the book and explore its themes a little. Won't that be a rare treat for all you lucky readers; a chance to see and hear me in person? I hope that this explains why I have been unusually quick off the mark in recent months to answer comments, although that should not really be thought a bad thing in itself; more a matter of common courtesy.

22 comments:

  1. 'Why I am Right and Everybody else is Wrong or Autonomous Educators are Idiots and I alone know how to Home Educate' Don't forget, 'Women Are Slightly Hysterical'

    ;-)

    Seriously though, the London one sounds like an interesting book!

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  2. This looks like an interesting book Simon. I look forward to seeing talk about it in more detail. Now why is it that you seem to keep us ignorant to the interesting things you're up to and have an interest in? You've only mentioned your book now, and not in any real depth. What are the titles of the others?

    I also say that a book detailing your experience of home educating your daughter would be very interesting and even, dare I say, useful to someone like myself.

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  3. to seeing you.

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  4. Oh and is there any chance of contributers to your blog receiving a signed discounted copy? With a sentimental note included too of course. Perhaps something like 'Wishing you much joy, light, and peace on your home education journey' or some such?

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  5. samantha says-Oh and is there any chance of contributers to your blog receiving a signed discounted copy? With a sentimental note included too of course

    we dont want one! best place for his book on home education is on the bonfire!

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  6. Simon said: Won't that be a rare treat for all you lucky readers; a chance to see and hear me in person?

    I'm actually quite excited about this. Not just because I get to see and hear you for real, but because I actually quite enjoy the subject which you will be talking about.
    Shall I also put on my best frock for the occassion? :P

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  7. Samantha said: Oh and is there any chance of contributers to your blog receiving a signed discounted copy? With a sentimental note included too of course. Perhaps something like 'Wishing you much joy, light, and peace on your home education journey' or some such?

    Couldn't help but giggle at that one...:D

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  8. Peter and Carol said: samantha says-Oh and is there any chance of contributers to your blog receiving a signed discounted copy? With a sentimental note included too of course

    we dont want one! best place for his book on home education is on the bonfire!

    For the love of all the Gods in all the Heavens...it's not a book about Home Education!

    I'll make it simple..it's about a bunch of fellows digging about under the streets of London (our country's capital) and finding stuff, the talking about it. pftttt

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  9. Loz said,
    "I'm actually quite excited about this. Not just because I get to see and hear you for real"

    You don't have to wait any longer then Loz. See Simon and his daughter sticking up for HE on The Wright Stuff via YouTube.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0AQuqo7IAg

    Can't claim to agree with much Simon says, but I appreciate his efforts in this clip.

    The books sound interesting, Simon, I may even request them from the library whey they are published (I buy very few books, but at least you still get an income from library books). Glad to hear you are giving HE books a rest though.

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  10. "Why I am Right and Everybody else is Wrong or Autonomous Educators are Idiots and I alone know how to Home Educate,"

    Perhaps 'A day in the life of a narcissist', would be more fitting.

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  11. '"Why I am Right and Everybody else is Wrong or Autonomous Educators are Idiots and I alone know how to Home Educate,"

    Perhaps 'A day in the life of a narcissist', would be more fitting.'

    I'm glad to see a home educator using the word 'narcissist' again. For a while, this word became one of those buzz-words and phrases so beloved of many home educating parents. 'Conflate' was one of these and so was 'ultra vires'. I was wondering what had happened to 'narcissist'.

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  12. Loz says-For the love of all the Gods in all the Heavens...it's not a book about Home Education!

    Webb wrote a rubbish book about home education and the best place for it is the bonfire you can put your best frock on when we put it on the bonfire!

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  13. "I'm glad to see a home educator using the word 'narcissist' again. For a while, this word became one of those buzz-words and phrases so beloved of many home educating parents."

    You should never "fit someone in a box" but because you fit so neatly it is far to tempting.

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  14. Is this going to be a wafty floral patterned frock affair of more of a tweed and natural fibres 'do'?... :P

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  15. Anonymous said: You don't have to wait any longer then Loz. See Simon and his daughter sticking up for HE on The Wright Stuff via YouTube.

    Thanks for that. :)

    Loved this comment...LOL

    'Lowri Turner needs some home schooling from my fist
    Periculis08 2 months ago'

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  16. That book does look interesting. My boy was very taken with the idea of mudlarking when we saw it mentioned on the TV the other night but it seems there are all sorts of restrictions on who can wander about the edges of the Thames looking for interesting stuff.

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  17. Peter and Carol...
    you've confirmed it, you are bookburners.

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  18. Sounds like you might like this little website..
    www.28dayslater.co.uk
    They're urban explorers.

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  19. Wow a fiction book about archaeology - that'
    s a first

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  20. W. Wenbb admits the truth

    20 minutes to write - - - -

    So now we know what everyone had always suspected; the garbage you write is produced without thought or research!

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  21. 'Wow a fiction book about archaeology - that'
    s a first'

    A comment presumably by the only person in the Western World who has never heard of the Da Vinci Code

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  22. 'W. Wenbb admits the truth

    20 minutes to write - - - -

    So now we know what everyone had always suspected; the garbage you write is produced without thought or research!'

    I am assuming that this comment refers to me, although my initial is not W, nor is my name Wenbb. See how fickle my readers are! Yesterday I was being reproached for spending hours writing blog posts amd now today somebody is complaining that I don't spend enough time on them. Ah well, one cannot please everybody!

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