As you may have noticed, I’ve slowed way down on my blogging over the past several months. But I’m certainly not the only one. I’ve noticed a huge decrease in blogging activity during that time frame. Quite a few of the personal blogs I once read no longer exist, and many of the ones that are still around are rarely (if ever) updated. I even found a blog a few days ago that was once a fairly big deal that seems to have been a victim of domain sniping and content theft some time ago. Either that or the blogger threw in the towel and sold the domain name and the rights to the content.
All this got me to thinking: Why aren’t people keeping up personal blogs any more? I know that blogs come and go, and sometimes it’s simply because life happens. Health or other responsibilities make it difficult or impossible to blog on a regular basis, so it falls by the wayside. Or money gets tight and you have to let a domain that isn’t bringing in enough revenue to break even go. In both cases, I’ve been there. But blogging was once all the rage, and now it seems to be used more as a business tool and less as a way for people to be heard.
I think the rise of Facebook and Twitter have had a lot to do with it. It’s much easier to post your rantings and ravings on there than it is to maintain a blog, not to mention that you don’t have to pay for hosting and domain fees and such. You can’t write elaborate, long-winded posts (like this one) there, but it kind of seems like nobody’s interested in doing that any more anyway.
As for me, my lack of blogging activity has had a lot more to do with depression and lack of time than Facebook or Twitter. I like Twitter, but I have a hard time coming up with anything to say that contains 140 characters or less. As for Facebook, I use it daily as a source of funny pictures, to play games, and occasionally to check up on old friends, but otherwise I’m not a fan.
What do you think about the decline in personal blogging? Are you relieved that the Internet as a whole has become less about navel gazing and more about business and entertainment? Or do you miss being able to read the thoughts and perspectives of bloggers that you have a lot (or absolutely nothing) in common with?
When I start thinking that life sucks, there’s something that often cheers me up: the fact that I’m doing something that I dreamed of doing when I was growing up. I haven’t reached my goal of writing a book yet, but I wanted to be a writer, and I am a writer.
Of course, that wasn’t the only thing I thought about being when I grew up. I also wanted to be a rock star. I kind of knew from the start that it would never happen, but it was fun to fantasize about being on stage in front of thousands of people. I’d go shopping for wild stage costumes and nice guitars and fancy Mackie mixers with all the bells and whistles. I’d party with famous people and sign autographs and do photo shoots. What a life!
There were a couple of problems with that, though. For one, I’m just not very musically inclined. My dad was an awesome musician, as were my uncle and grandpa. And Pumpkin is shaping up to be a great fiddle player. But it appears that musical talent skipped a generation in my case. I’ve tried to learn piano and guitar, but I didn’t get far at all on either one. I did play clarinet in the band when I was in middle school, and I did reasonably well with it, but I ended up quitting due to lack of interest and intense dislike of the band director.
The other problem would be stage presence. Not stage fright, mind you. I get butterflies if I have to get up in front of people just like anyone, but I can do it. The trouble is keeping the audience engaged. For some reason I just can’t do that. When I would do class presentations in high school, the teacher always had to tell the other students to be quiet the whole time. Sure, they were kids/teenagers and they were going to be unruly at times, but it was much worse when I was speaking. Maybe it was because I wasn’t one of the popular kids, or maybe my voice was easy to tune out. At any rate, it seems like that’s still the case when I’m talking to a group of people. So that probably wouldn’t translate to being a good entertainer.
Oh well. I don’t suppose I’m cut out for the rock star lifestyle anyway. Traveling would be nice, but I wouldn’t want to do it all the time. I’m also one of those people who needs plenty of alone time, and I don’t imagine rock stars get much of that.
What did you want to be when you grew up? Are you doing it now? If not, why? Discuss in the comments!
It’s been over three months since my last post. Wow. Just… wow.
Nothing major has happened to keep me from posting. Just the usual ups and downs. I’ve actually been getting along pretty well for the past few weeks. Better than usual for me, at least. I’ve still been tired more often than not, and I’ve got some other health crap going on that I need to get checked out. But I’ve been doing a decent job of not letting it get me down.
Pumpkin also has some health junk going on. She’s been getting dizzy a lot, so I took her to the pediatrician. She checked her out pretty thoroughly and did some blood work. Turns out she has low vitamin D and elevated TSH. The TSH is an indicator of underactive thyroid, so she put her on medication for that and made her an appointment with a specialist. We were scheduled to see her yesterday, but it snowed just badly enough to keep us from making the 2-hour trip. So we rescheduled for next week. I’m anxious to get her down there, because I’m ready to find out just what exactly is going on and whether or not it will explain the dizziness.
A little good news: I’ve got the finances under control for the time being. With Hubby and I both being sick a lot over the holidays, we got in a pretty major bind. But we got our tax refund, and that helped us get caught up on everything. It would have been nice to splurge on a new dining room set or a SimplyVanities.com bedroom vanity, but I’d much rather have the peace of mind that comes with knowing we’re not going to lose everything we have. We’ve still got more debt than I want to think about, but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to dig our way out before we’re old and gray.
So there’s what’s been going on in my life in a nutshell. I almost forgot how therapeutic blogging was! It definitely won’t be three months until my next post.
Posted on 29th November 2011 by Kristy in holidays
Christmas Creep is a condition I seem to suffer from every year. I start thinking about Christmas fairly early, and I figure everything will fall into place in plenty of time. And then Christmas gets closer, and closer, and closer… and I’m broke and haven’t even come close to getting all of my shopping done.
I know it’s not even December yet, but I already know that I won’t have much money coming in between now and Christmas. So instead of an iPod for Pumpkin and some nice TSW rims for Hubby, it’s going to be more like some warm clothes for Pumpkin and a pocket knife for Hubby. And I’ll be lucky to scrape up enough for that.
As is so often the case in recent years, I’ll be glad when the holidays are over. It’s all way too stressful.
Rapper Heavy D was found dead outside his home yesterday. I’m not a huge fan of rap these days, but he was one of my faves when I was younger, and it’s tragic that he passed at such a young age. His music was fun and positive, and songs like the one in the video above still put a smile on my face.
There’s a store in town that I keep meaning to go to, but I never seem to have any money to spend there when I think about it. It’s a tobacco outlet, but I don’t smoke and I’m not looking to buy anyone any Garcia Vega cigars. I want to buy some candles.
Yes, that’s right, candles. Tobacco and candles are a rather odd combination for a store to sell, but that’s what they specialize in. And they’ve got some really awesome candles in dozens of heavenly scents and every size you can imagine. Unlike those cheap discount store candles, they burn very evenly and throw out plenty of scent until they’re gone. They’re not cheap, but they’re worth every penny they cost.
I need to get some pillar candles for this set of large vintage candleholders my mom gave me. I’ve had them for a while, and I had some cheapo candles in them, but after burning them a few times they looked horrid. So they just sat there collecting dust, and removing dust from crappy candles is next to impossible. I ended up throwing those out, and my pretty candleholders look so lonely sitting there empty.
The next time I have some cash to spare, I’m going in and picking up a couple of nice scented pillars. And maybe a few votives while I’m at it. I firmly believe that you can never have too many candles.
Pumpkin made a list of stuff she’d like to have for her birthday. It was a loooooong list, and it included several expensive items. She got two of them, a microscope and a telescope, because I found a ridiculously awesome deal on them. But now all I’ve been hearing about is how much she’d like to have one of the other expensive items on that list for Christmas: an iPod Touch.
She has a PSP, and it does just about everything an iPod Touch can do, except it doesn’t have a touch screen. I know you can’t put apps on it, but I don’t think she really gives a flip about anything but the game apps. And games are what a PSP does best.
I’ve explained this to her, but she just thinks the whole touch screen thing is so cool. So I’m trying to come up with a less expensive compromise. I haven’t really found a viable alternative to an iPod Touch, but I’ve run across some killer deals on tablet PCs. Hmm…
I’m thinking about getting her one. She’s mentioned in passing that she’d like to have an iPad, and an Android tablet is very similar as far as what it can do, but much less expensive. The biggest difference between a tablet and an iPod as I understand it (other than the OS) is that the tablet is larger. And she’d probably like having a larger screen.
If anybody knows more about this stuff than I do (yes, I’m hopelessly behind the times on these technological wonders), please fill me in!
I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmas shopping lately. I’m not sure why it’s on my mind this early. Maybe because I’m afraid that I won’t have any money to buy gifts. If I can get enough work done maybe that won’t be a problem. But I’m working on contingency plans just in case.
I’ve been busting my butt to accumulate as many Amazon gift certificates as I can. And I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for Gap or Old Navy or Abercrombie or Urban Outfitters coupons in hopes of getting some killer deals on clothes for Pumpkin and maybe Hubby. I also have some credit available if worse comes to worst, but I’m hoping I won’t have to use it much or at all.
Am I the only goofball who’s thinking this far ahead? Let me know in the comments!
The past month has really, really sucked. I spent the majority of it laying around feeling like crap. It was like my digestive system just totally turned against me, leaving me in terrible pain and not functioning properly. I would go into more detail, but you probably wouldn’t want to read it so I’ll just leave it at that.
I did go to the doctor, but I had to see the new NP, and she isn’t worth a hoot. I tried to give her a chance, I really did, but she just doesn’t listen. I told her about some other strange symptoms that I was having, and she just looked rather perplexed and gave me something to help with the stomach problems. It helped a little, but not that much. Luckily it resolved somewhat on its own a week or so after I finished the medication. But I’m still not at all back to normal, and I think there’s something underlying that’s causing it all.
Anyway, because I was feeling so horribly, I didn’t get much work done all month. Once I started feeling better physically, the depression that always sets in when I can’t get any work done kept me from getting much work done for a couple more weeks. Today is the first day I’ve been fairly motivated and clearheaded, and wouldn’t you know it, Pumpkin got out of school early and is having a three day weekend.
I feel like a car that’s been sitting on the side of the road, waiting for the breakdown service people to get there. And once I get towed and repaired, something else tears up right after I leave the shop. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I’m trying to keep up hope that things will get better. But when they’ve been like this to some degree for the past few years, it gets rather difficult.
For a couple of weeks, I was doing a much better job than usual of staying motivated. I thought maybe things were finally looking up. But as usual, my hopes have been dashed to shreds.
I started having stomach problems a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t seem like a big deal at first, but it didn’t resolve itself. I took some medication that I’d taken before, and it didn’t help. Then I tried something stronger, and it helped somewhat. But when I don’t take the medicine, I go back to square one.
It has really worn me down this week. I’m beginning to wonder if the stomach issue is a sign of a bigger problem, because I’ve had some other strange symptoms. And I’ve been very tired – I wake up each morning feeling like I’ve been beaten with an industrial rubber hose all night instead of sleeping.
All this has led to a major decrease in productivity. I had high hopes for this week even though I didn’t have any looming deadlines, but as it turned out I’ve gotten very little done. As much as I hate to, I guess I’ll be making a trip to the doctor next week.
