Recently, my father mentioned that, when visiting my blog, he was a little put off by the skull and crossbones logo.

The skull and crossbones goes back to my US Army days, when I encouraged the more aggressive side of myself to come out, and found great rewards in doing so. But that’s the third weigh-in that I’ve heard against the motif, which comes across as too heavy for a professional, and may sound its death-knell.

I’ve long considered how my blog is received on the Internet and seen how the name, which is not distinctive, rated in the search engines. I’ve long considering a new name and a new look. I originally picked “Ramblings” on a whim, since I didn’t know the direction I would take, and didn’t have a readily-available distinctive name and image that I could use to carve out my space on the Internet.

I’ve thought about it a lot since then, and the most most compelling theme that I can come up for myself is that I am constantly struggling to bring order to chaos. Since the laws of physics dictate that this is not natural, I have a feeling of impending doom in this effort. This effort is well documented in literature, so I’m comforted that I am not alone, and that we have a well-defined adjective for me - “quixotic“.

It took a while, but I finally settled on an antonym for entropy (the natural tendency towards disharmony.) It’s extropy - which makes me an extropicist. So I have a candidate for a new blog name - the Quixotic Extropicist. Distinctive, and literate. Better yet, there’s a compelling image of Don Quixote and his search for the noble - Picasso’s Don Quixote:

It would make a fine substitute for my skull-and-crossbones. In fact, it would make a fine tattoo, something I have also been searching for for almost twenty years. Its too complex for a brand; but then, we can’t have everything. My relationship with Cervantes goes back many years - when I left the US Army and moved to San Diego, my intention was to buy a boat and live on it while going back to school. The name I had selected was, following the unknowing example of Steinbeck, Don Quixote’s name for his mount - Rocinante - the nag.

So, pending protests of disapproval, I’m about to make a huge change. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Greg in My Website