Due to current circumstances... I am forced to work between 50 & 60 hours per week. Also have not been feeling well at all.
So I had to give up on blogging (at least blogging regularly). I am working 2 demanding jobs.... and they keep me completely stressed.
Have had plenty to say all of this time. But by the time I get home... I am exhausted. I have given up on the whole political process.... and have been left disgusted by everything... so I have not been motivated.
Blogs...and the whole concept of blogging has declined in popularity since the mid 2000's. So as the internet changes... I will have to change at some point. If you do not have one of the top 10% of blogs... site traffic is marginal. Only a few of the bloggers/blogs that were around chugging along 5,6, 7 years ago are still going. Many of my peers from years ago have left blogging. So I don't know if it's worth it to write for 100, 200, 300, 400 readers. At it's peak, I was able to draw a few thousand, depending on the material posted.
But I still hope to revamp the blog at some point. Perhaps a new name... and a more varied focus. I would like to have a blog about restaurant/food reviews. Would like something else on photography. SquareSpace is a great blog host.... but I am not sure if that is something that I can afford. And to cover all of the areas that I would like to cover... would require someone with a normal life. I don't have a normal life right now. Not even close to one. I am working more than I ever have in my life.... and I am earning less than ever (relatively speaking). Nothing is going very well right now. Issues with health and income have had a negative impact on every other part of life.
But eventually I would like a blog that covers the above all in one. I am still interested in politics... but not with the same passion. It just seems like this Country makes the same mistakes over and over again. With so few political parties... it's just a predictable cycle. We have now come full circle... back to where things started just a few years ago.
I would really like a biweekly or monthly column for a major paper or established website.... like Salon, Gawker, Slate, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post etc... But that opportunity hasn't come along. That was one of my original goals when I started the blog.... to some day work my way to a column or guest writer opportunity with one of the big sites. I had a couple of breakout opportunities back in 2007, 2008... which would have launched me... but I never took them due to issues of anonymity (I might tell that story some day). But I think a column or guest writer spot is doable under a real name, without much of an issue.
Doing the research for real writing is time consuming. It has to be worth it for me to divert time & energy forsaking other interests.... (like a personal life, dating, and a family for example). I got tired of doing tons of background reading and spending several hours a week working on narratives and trying to find interesting topics, when I was not getting much reader feedback. It just didn't seem worth it. But when I come back, it will mostly be for me... focusing on things that are enjoyable... so writing won't feel like work.
I am going to keep everything going for now. Everything has gone to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The only public social media that I have is Twitter. I do have a FB page... I finally broke down and joined a couple of years ago (with trepidation) but if I told you about it... or showed it... I would have to kill you immediately afterwards.
