![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/110_hungrybird.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI finished a new painting yesterday, \u201cHungry Bird.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
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\u201cHungry Bird\u201d\u009d oil on canvas, May, 2014, 18\u201d\u009d x 24\u201d\u009d. Click for a larger version of the painting.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n I like how he\u2019s about to eat a yellow square from the underlying pattern of squares and rectangles. Maybe he\u2019s come into this abstract world from the funky analog world and he\u2019s eating it. I did that background pattern a couple of weeks earlier, and then one morning I saw an article <\/a> in the paper, with a photo of a hungry baby black-crested night heron. Some bird had been evicted from their nests near Merrit Lake in Oakland. <\/p>\n I saw this nestling on the local TV news last night, doing well, saw him gulp down a whole big fish in one bite. Followed by a yellow square…<\/p>\n This week, among other activities, I’ve been looking through my 25-years-long collection, Journals 1990-2014<\/em>, which I might try publishing next year, like in 2015. I\u2019m in my fourth full revision of the thing, wrestling it down to a more reasonable size, and revising it for better flow. I came across a bloggable entry on the topic of why I would enjoy writing a journal at all. And these reasons could just as well apply to why I blog. I came up with seven reasons.<\/p>\n Identity<\/em>. After my roles of husband and father, the most essential thing about me is that I am a writer. For me to write is to be myself. When I\u2019m writing, I feel I have a reason to exist.<\/p>\n Companionship<\/em>. I don\u2019t speak as clearly as I write. And it\u2019s rare that anyone wants to listen to me talk at any great length about my arcane interests. A writing page is a patient conversational partner.<\/p>\n Self-discovery<\/em>. In writing, I unearth thoughts I didn\u2019t know I had. And then I rewrite, organizing the thoughts into clear patterns.<\/p>\n Social utility<\/em>. The journal or blog writings can seed commercial works. If people enjoy reading what I write, I\u2019m performing a social good. And I can get money and recognition for this. <\/p>\n Transcendence<\/em>. I become an observer rather than just a participant. I get out of myself. I see things from a broader perspective. I forget my quotidien worries.<\/p>\n Craftsmanship<\/em>. I enjoy honing and exercising my craft. Writing a journal or a blog works at multiple levels: choosing the mot juste<\/em>, building balanced sentences, forming paragraphs that express well-formed thoughts, writing posts or journal entries that have an essay-like cohesion or perhaps a narrative zap, orchestrating the flow of posts or entries into a developmental arc.<\/p>\n Immortality<\/em>. When I record what I\u2019m thinking and doing, I\u2019m making a temporary barrier against my eventual obliteration by time\u2019s flow. On a more practical level\u2014I tend to forget things, and looking back on my journals or my blog brings back the past.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images5\/110_hungrybird_1200.jpg\")
\n[Photo by Paul Chinn, SF Chronicle<\/em>.]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n