My Final Post

You can stop looking so worried, because this isn't actually my final post. Recently I mentioned reading H.G. Well's final story ''A Mind at the End of its Tether'. In the preface he wrote that:

he has nothing more and never will have anything more to say.

Which I found quite sad. It set me thinking about the final posts of bloggers who have died, which led me to an interesting (if not slightly old) Wired article, on the topic. An extract:

Adrian Heideman, an 18-year-old college student, wrote about hating his chemistry lab, his love of skateboarding and how he cost his Pi Kappa Phi pledge class "house chore points" for failing to take down a flag on time. It was a typical sort of entry on LiveJournal, a popular online diary and weblogging site. But Heideman, a student at California State University at Chico who posted the note on Sept. 19, 2000, had no idea it would be his last to the site. Two weeks later, he died in an apparent fraternity-related alcohol poisoning. He left behind a grieving family, a mournful college and an impromptu electronic memorial that has generated a deluge of comments from friends, classmates and total strangers. Eulogies and random postings have continued to appear on the site in the years since Heideman died, and the journal has become a place for grieving and friendly banter among old colleagues.

Potentially our blogs might last as long as the species (though whether anyone will really be interested is another question). Finally I saw an amusing article over at the BBC, about the UK's first internet mourning service:

A Northern Ireland undertaker has begun broadcasting funerals live on the internet. In what is thought to be a UK first, the County Down firm says the move allows mourners from across the world to watch the funeral service of friends and loved ones.

The firm installed a network of cameras and microphones in the churches attached to their funeral homes in Bangor and Newtownards. "The pictures are so clear that people watching can see the faces of everyone in the crowd, and hear everything clearly, so they can spot relatives they might not have seen in years," said Jim. The internet service is offered as a free, optional extra in the Clarkes' funeral package.

I might not be able to actually blog from the grave, but you can all be there in 'spirit'! If anyone's interested, I added this sentence to my random thoughts at the bottom: Although it doesn't really matter, I'd like to think that you won't just delete this blog when I die...