Lucky 13

I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping... - George Harrison

Thirteen years ago today I decided to start this blog. As any Pen-Elayne readers still here may remember, I've always enjoyed one-to-many written conversations. In the late '60s and '70s, when postage stamps were like 6 cents, I had like 150+ penpals, and wrote stories and passed them around the classroom (I was on page 4 while pages 1-3 were making the rounds); in the '80s, when computers were just coming into vogue, I self-published a printed zine called INSIDE JOKE and contributed to a lot of apas; in the '90s, when web 1.0 was just getting off the ground, I joined CompuServe fora and Usenet newsgroups and message boards; and in the 21st century it's mostly been this blog and Facebook. I also have accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and a half dozen other places, but there are only so many hours in the day, and so much energy to muster.

And that's always been the thing with me. I go into something with great enthusiasm, almost immerse myself in the hobby, and after awhile a new time-sucker rears its interesting head and I'm off in that direction. So I no longer do comics reviews, or write for other websites, or even maintain this blog on a regular basis aside from posting daily content. It's not from lack of interest or desire, it's usually just that some shiny bauble elsewhere in my universe of interests has caught my sight, and there are only so many hours in a day, a year, a life to pursue all the available interests and media out there. At some point, something has to give.

I love checking off "things done" in my head (and, to Robin's consternation, often verbally). But mental checklists are kind of exhausting, and bear many seeds of possible disappointment (not the least of which is, "doing stuff" should be fun, and checklists have a tendency to make that more like a chore). So I'm gradually learning how not to make plans, because I'm never so crestfallen - on a deep, lizard-brain level - than when the plans I create in my head don't come to fruition or somehow go awry. These days, when financial circumstances and personal preferences have dictated that Robin and I spend most of our leisure time at home, I try more for vague ideas of what I want to do with my time. This weekend, for instances, the idea was to catch up on TV shows DVR'ed but unwatched since last spring (we've made a dent in that but haven't cleared it yet), finish my ironing (checked off!), catch up on reading the comics I just bought as well as the local newspaper which I hadn't perused in a month and a half (still working on that but should be done by day's end), perhaps fit in a bit of dusting and vacuuming (alas, not this weekend), and write this post and perhaps a blogaround (check, and we'll see).

It could be that I still have too many ideas and not enough wherewithal to organize them where they belong. Maybe it's because I'm so good at organizing during my daytime career that I don't have the acuity to keep doing it once I'm home. Maybe it's all too overwhelming and paralyzing, and the path of least resistance, littered with King online games, is more relaxing and fulfilling. Perhaps I need to have more of a think on it.

I'm not going to make any concrete promises on what this blog will become, or how much I'm going to keep writing in it, other than to speculate that I'll probably keep posting daily Silly Sites. Again, the desire is there, but other things occupy me. I don't care if blogs are going out of fashion, I'm always going to want an outlet for long-form writing, and as long as Blogger is free and avaialble I want to make use of it. How much I do so is another thing. Why don't y'all stick around and we'll find out together?