Happy Birthday, Blog.

     I have apparently been doing this for a year.   In many ways it feels much longer.  That may because the focus of the blog has shifted quite a few times (or maybe it never had any kind of focus and I just imagine that it was closer to what I thought it would be from time to time).  Or it may be because of how it started.
     I really just wanted a place to put some thoughts regarding the movies I was watching on Netflix.  Seeing as how I closed that account on 6 July, 2011, it wouldn't have been inconceivable for me to just close shop on this fledgeling enterprise and just ruminate on films and such with no outlet.  That seemed like a worse option at the time.
     The second post-Netflix post was my paper on Steven Pfiel.  It is undoubtedly the most read thing I have written since a very short, not entirely clear short story ended up in the RSI updates for the Hyborian War play-by-mail game in 1992.  I didn't get paid for either, but that isn't the point.  I tried to use the blog as a means to make sure that I could get back into the habit of writing on a regular basis.  That wasn't always successful.  I have quite a few posts that are old school papers or transcriptions of things written well before the time of the blog.
     Still, it did get me back to writing.  Losing the Netflix account meant not having access to the streaming documentaries, and that got me to stop watching documentaries.  That is the lamentable part.  Less bothersome is the severe reduction in the amount of time spent watching movies or old television shows for no purpose other than distraction.  Watching complete seasons of recent shows was never going to serve as inspiration for writing, at least not original fiction.  No, with the amount of time freed up by not watching a movie a day I was able to actually start reading in earnest.  They say you have to read if you want to write.
     And I have been writing.  Not that much of it is of the quality that I want to share with people.  There is at least one short story on the blog that I wish I had given more than a cursory revision.  At the same time, I have over a dozen pieces that have been frozen by my need to rip them apart before they are finished.  But I feel that I have not been able to give the time to the writing that I would like.  Sad as it is, the limited moments here and there this thing requires sometimes interferes with the scheduled time for writing (and more often, with the fits of inspiration where story ideas get sketched out).
     So I am going to step back from the Monday-Friday posting schedule here.  At least for a while.  I'm still going to post things, thoughts on movies (I'd love to get back to the more complete reviews that fell by the wayside), books, and television.  I'm sure I'll have a few thoughts on the campaigning for the Presidency of the United States of America.  But my goal is to start getting the fiction into focus.  Probably posting the almost-finished versions here so that my few followers can see that I am working on something.
     At the same time, I very much want to keep this as a place where I can put things up that are all about me.  Or at least in part about me.  I have a rather long piece about what it was like to live with my father (while he was living) that is just screaming for photos – proof that I am neither lying nor exaggerating – I would like to share with the world.  Not that there is reciprocal interest in it.  Or most anything here.
     But it is a year's worth of work here to date.  And seeing how the first sixteen days of the blog's existence (June 2011) garnered 59 views, I am surprised I found the strength to keep going.  This was never meant to be a mostly private, yet somehow public, endeavor.  Hell, part of me hopes that certain people (who have decided to not maintain a cordial relationship with me) can read a few posts and get pissed off all over again. 
     So...that is my long way of explaining that the schedule is going to become erratic for a while.  Maybe a short while.  Maybe longer.  There will definitely be posts coming.  They just won't be rushed out because of a deadline.  For now.
     And at the same time, I want to throw open the gates and get a few more contributors to break up the monotony of me-think.  We'll see if I can convince anyone else to join in this meager endeavor.  It certainly would make the place more interesting.