Apr 29
*unknown*
You know, when you’ve been out of the blogging game for as long as I have – You can’t even figure out what you’re going to title your posts.
I’m SO sorry that I have basically dropped off the face of the blogging world but lately I haven’t been able to find anytime to write a half way decent post. (See this one for example). And because I haven’t been able to write anything half way decent, I’ve just kinda…
Stopped writing. (#):(
Why I’m Not Writing
I’ve been thinking about this one a lot and while there are a ton of reasons, I think the biggest one is that I’d like to think that my posts have always been of pretty good quality. (Or so I’d like to believe anyway). I know I’ve said it before, but when I write posts, I tend to have my posts blocked out for the entire week and when I start one I’ll write a draft, revise it sometime later and then finally eventually post it with some pictures when I think it’s pretty good.
With how my time has been lately, I just don’t have the time to do that, and at the beginning I just thought it’d be ok because I’d eventually find the time to post some quality stuff. But I haven’t. And then after that I didn’t want to just occasionally pop on to the blogosphere with a random post here and there I mean, usually I’m writing 5 posts a week. That’s what I’m supposed to do right?
Why is this Blog Here?
The easiest and truest answer is that I like talking to people about my common interests. But in its current form, Bush Mackel exists to discuss technology, video games, blogging etc… Now that doesn’t mean that the “truest answer” and the “current form” of the site are contradictions of each other but somewhere along the way I started blogging with a very professional mindset. Which is GREAT don’t get me wrong, but at the same time I think I started imposing a lot of standards on this place which I tried to adhere too. The problem with it now is that I don’t honestly believe I can still blog regularly and live up to these standards.
So What Do I Do?
I don’t know. I miss blogging. I want to blog. But I don’t know that I have the time TO blog anymore, at least not in the capacity that I was. And a lot of that DOES have to do with my job which is very different than the one I had before it. This job pretty much takes up all of my time and the people here are a lot more friendly than at my last so there’s always someone over my shoulder which means it is a STRUGGLE to try and blog from work.
Plus, it doesn’t help that outside of having to show up and the 45 minute commute on both ends, I really don’t mind my job. It pays very well, the people are good and the projects are interesting. Now if my blog were making enough for me to live on, we obviously wouldn’t be having this conversation but the truth of the matter is that it is not and I don’t know that it would anytime soon w/o me spending a LOT of time on it.
Conclusion?
If you’re looking for a conclusion to this, you’ll have to look elsewhere because I don’t have it. I remember when I brought all this up in the past, someone said they understood me taking sometime away from my blog because “work comes first”. That statement stuck with me because if you get to know me, you’d understand that that statement really bothers me. Well, let me say this – Work coming first over my blog wouldn’t bother me. My 9-5 over my blog does. I could go on and on on this point but if you’ve read this blog for a while, you probably understand what I’m saying. Thankfully, even though I haven’t been working on my blog I have been working on my design company and I think it’s coming along nicely. Hopefully soon I’ll have my first client too.
But yeah, I just don’t know what’s going to happen to this blog. I’m sure it will continue but I’m not sure when and I’m not sure how. It’s killing me that I can’t find the time to update it, but I don’t know that I can find the time. I just don’t know.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Don’t you know that all you really need to do to put together a quality post is post pics of your son? Come on now!
April 29th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I know the feeling. One of my blogs is just… stagnant and I really need to do something or other with it. Ugh.
April 29th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
You worry too much about quality. While we appreciate, well written, thought out posts as much as the next guy, we realize they take time to put together. But your regular readers just like to know what’s going on with you sometimes. So don’t ever feel guilty to slap a quick little personal post together once in a while just to keep us up to date! I like Black Belt Mama’s idea too!
April 29th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Do not ever worry about the quality and frequency of your posts, like what Teeni has said. Frequency doesn’t matter because the posts you write are definitely of top-notch quality, and if you’re losing readers because you’re not blogging that often, they’re not your true readers afterall. In the blogosphere what determines the successof a blog, I reckon, is not the number of hits it gets, it’s technorati rank, it’s Google page rank or whatever, but is the discussion that is going on, which is largely related to the quality of the post. Bush, never worry about that, I bet everyone enjoys reading your blog, that is exactly what keep us coming back for more.
Everyone has real life commitments, so blogs do go on hiatus or breaks. Faithful blog readers will never drop your blog, because they themselves are aware of real life commitments. I’m glad that you’re placing importance and priority of your job and life OVER blogging – now that’s the true nature of blogs. It’s part of your life, but it doesn’t take precedence over your life
don’t let it be your tripping stone or your two left feet – you are of total control of it and not the other way round.
So don’t worry! As long as you don’t close Bushmackel.com down, I will always be poking around for interesting stuff!
Cheers! And take care
April 30th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Hey bud, I hear ya! Just keep on keepin’ on and we’ll keep the light on for you.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Ah Bush it’s the age old problem of not knowing what to write, or even if you want to continue doing it. We all go through these phases, hopefully you come back bigger, better and stronger than ever.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:23 am
@BBM – Ha ha, I DO have to get some pics of him up on here. On that other blog that I have… ha ha Hope you’re doing well buddy, I’ll be by to say “hi” soon!
@Kali – As I’ve “come back” I’ve noticed a lot of sympathy around the blogosphere for this stuff I’m going through. Looks like we all go through it every now and then.
@Teeni – Good thoughts and that might be where I have to go with this site as much as I don’t care to… Well let me back up for a second. I DO like the idea of updating the site so you guys know what I’m up to which is why for a long time I was considering adding a Tweeter feed but I really like putting together solid articles too on subject A and subject B. Who knows what I’ll do!
@teddY – Well thank you for the words of wisdom and support buddy! And your comments are very interesting because just yesterday I was poking around my server’s control panel and I noticed that this site is transferring just as much bandwidth as it usually does (if not maybe more). And I confirmed this through my Analytics account. So it was weird seeing that, but felt good too and re-enforces what you’ve said and what I’ve heard before about when ppl go on little sabbaticals.
But yeah, this site won’t be closing down anytime soon so don’t worry! (#):)
@Mark – “Just keep on keepin’ on” … That MAY be my phrase for 2008. ha ha. Thanks for the support man!
@Pete – I can REBUILD it! I have the TECHNOLOGY! No, no, I’ll be back in blogging form, but I just may have to change the content a little bit… Or how often I write. I dunno. We’ll see. (#):)
May 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Take your time man. It is difficult to manage time between job and blogging. Just take it easy.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hey Bush, lie everyone else says…. your readers are here. I won’t be cutting you off my RSS and if the posts are rare…. so be it. I will look forward to them even more.
I would like to see just little life posts every now and then if you don’t get time for information posts.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
@Madhur – Yeah, I’m trying to. (if you haven’t noticed) (#);D
@Forest – Life posts huh? Hm… Interesting. I’ll def keep that in mind!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Hey buddy! I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. I’ve been in pretty much the same situation lately…not enough time to blog like I used to. So I had to step back from it as well.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I’m still here as a reader…always will be.
Shine on,
Aaron
May 7th, 2008 at 1:26 am
@Aaron
Suck up! LOL
May 7th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
@Aaron – Pay no attention to Mark. (#):D
@Mark – (You’re so right)