I know postings here have been a little sparse. This hasn’t been by choice, of course, it’s just a culmination of several things that have made writing somewhat difficult. Like most things in life, it’s not just one reason that causes things to break down, but a number of things that cascade together to cause the problem. I’ve thought long and hard as to why my posts have been few and far between and I think I have a plan to get things back on track.
Issue #1: Too Many Blogs
For starters, I have two other blogs that I write on, so often times I just don’t have the bandwidth to write on this one. One is at TV.com and the other is at NPUG. The blog at TV.com really deals with my activity with TV.com and isn’t really all that interesting, unless you’re a member. I’ve thought about combining it with this blog, but do you really want to read about how many points I have as an Editor for “The IT Crowd?” Yeah, I didn’t think so either. 😛
The “Director’s Log” at NPUG is going to be going away though. The idea was to have a place to talk about running a PUG, much like the TV.com blog is about being an Editor at TV.com. Unfortunately, there’s so much work that goes into producing the monthly meetings and maintaining the site, that everything I want to say has already been said. There’s simply too many other areas in which I can and do have a voice that the Director’s Log is a bit redundant – so it’s going away.
Issue #2: Not Enough Time
There’s been a lot going on since the start of the year. I’ve taken on 5 new clients, I’ve started up several new projects, including a new podcast, and there’s been a lot of family stuff thrown in there as well. Unfortunately, I don’t see that there’s ever going to be enough time to devote myself to my blog as much as I would like. So, I’ll just have to make better use of the time that I DO have available.
Issue #3: My Approach Is Too Formal
Everyone has their quirks and I’m certainly not immune to my own idiosyncrasies. When it comes to the blog, I have had a tendency to write articles vs. shorter posts. In fact I’m doing that right now. Instead of a quick post stating that I’m going to change things and doing 3 bullet points, I’m writing a post of 750+ words and this could even be considered a short one :O
In addition, I’ve had this feeling that there always has to be an image associated with each and every post. As you might imagine, having to create and image takes a lot of time, so when I think of writing an article, I also take into consideration that I’m going to have to fire up Photoshop and spend some time creating an image to go with the article. Do I HAVE to have an image with each article? No, of course not, but like I said, this is just one of my quirks. The further ramifications of this “image issue” is that it makes it difficult to post using a Palm OS device, or a friend’s computer if I have to include an image with every post.
So going forward, I’m going to drop my “requirement” of having images with every post and I’m going to try and post shorter and more frequent posts.
Issue #4: That Topic Doesn’t Fit On My Weblog
I’ve had people tell me that my weblog is a bit like a “brain dump,” where anything that’s on my mind get’s posted here. When I first heard that, I took it as a criticism and decided to narrow my focus a bit. I moved TV stuff to TV.com and I was planning on moving Palm OS stuff to the Director’s Log. In addition, there’s been posts that I’ve wanted to make, but felt like they didn’t fit into the categories I’ve created, or was too personal or what not. Well, that’s going to change.
Maybe this weblog is a “brain dump” and you know what? That’s OK. I no longer mind having this blog be a bit more random and off-the-cuff. If it means I post more frequently, then so be it. :
So there you have it. Those are the top four reasons why I haven’t been posting as often as I would like and my ideas of how to fix it. I hope you’ll enjoy the changes. 🙂
This is really great news Mike! Seeing that you’re reducing the barriers to posting here is very encouraging. I think it will result in a more real, relaxed, interesting weblog.
Now, that isn’t to say your weblog now isn’t interesting — but as you note, the high levels you assign for each post must filter out those spur of the moment type postings, or just smaller “check this out” type posts. I know your level of perfection, which I’m pretty sure must hold back posts.
I’m like you in many ways with my own weblog; tend to write longer, thought out posts — but I’ve also been considering the shorter posts. I do them probably more than you might, but I still have a high standard for my own posts. Maybe that’s a protection against talking about foolish, uninteresting details of my life not worthy of the weblog, I dunno.
Anyway, this is good news. Stop writing columns for the newspaper and tell us some stories, show us cool tidbits, throw out questions, etc. I think it’ll make your weblog experience here more fun. 🙂
Bring it on!! Love to hear from you more often, even if it does sound a bit more random. 😉 BTW, missed you at Mardi Gras this year – Good times were had, and they would have been better with you here!
The bootm line is, it’s YOUR weblog and you get to make the rules. If it’s not working for you, and you still want to be blogging, then change something until it does work.
Thanks guys! Your words of encouragement are VERY special and VERY helpful. Thank you. 🙂
Shutting Down The Blog
I had high hopes of doing more with this blog than I have, but the simple fact is that everything that I feel like discussing is either discussed on my main blog, or it’s discussed in other areas of the…