At a Loss

I’ve been somewhat at a loss for topics to write about. We are currently in the middle of general election season — with all the silliness that goes along with that. As a result, it’s not like I’m lacking for fodder in that area from which to base blog posts. And yet I feel like I’m in the middle of the desert. (That’s a metaphorical desert as I actually do live in a desert region.)

Here’s the thing: I don’t want this to be a political blog. While I don’t mind putting forth my point of view, the fact is that writing about political stuff really gets my 1/4-Irish up. It stresses me for no useful end that I can see. Sure, I can rant, but does it actually affect anyone’s point of view? In today’s politically polarized climate with staunchly held ideas, I’m inclined to think that most people who drop by are of a similar mindset and that I’m just preaching to the choir. While it’s nice to know that people agree with you, that does nothing to advance the discussion. Then there is the other shoe: nowadays, a goodly number of people who disagree with you don’t actually engage in civil debate. Mostly it’s trolls filled with unsubstantiated vitriol and ad hominem attacks. Since I maintain a civil blog, that often means a lot of time is spent moderating the comments. That adds even more stress — and who needs that?

So…politics (and by extension, most current national headlines) are off the table. At first glance, this suggests there are still a world of topics I could explore. Thing is: I’ve explored a lot of the ones that interest me already. In real-world conversations, I often find myself starting with the citation, “I wrote a blog post about that….” For my areas of knowledge and fairly-informed opinion, it seems I’ve written about most of the things that I feel are adding at least a little something to the informational zeitgeist.

Compounding this lack of bloggy output is also the fact that my “day job” is the pursuit of committing acts of art and writing meant to be inflicted later upon an unsuspecting world. Both of these endeavors take considerable time and effort. Even so, whenever I’m passionate about getting a blog post out, I do.

Complicating matters a bit is the fact that I am a creator of things that are intended to earn me some reasonable fraction of a living. How is that a complication? The simple fact that you don’t want to alienate your audience by being too “out there” or confrontational. Whether family, friends, or fans, there is a practical necessity to curb one’s tongue…at least a little. I could go on rants about this, that, and the other thing, but that earns me only a little momentary narcissistic joy but loses me a lot of hard-earned good will, which I don’t think is a good exchange. (Obviously I don’t subscribe to the philosophies of Ayn Rand.)

It used to be easier to compartmentalize who knew what and what to tell whom, but with the Internets, those walls can be thin indeed. I was raised in a share-as-little-information-as-possible household. This was due to that aspect of my parents upbringing  being transferred to me as well as the more practical necessities of security clearances and the like (which haven’t been an issue for a while, now). I’m forced to choose how much information of my personal life am I willing to share. I’ll never be an open book to most, but neither do I want to be filled away in a repurposed closet in the third sub-basement. For me, it feels like a minefield; one I’m willing to cross but slowly and carefully. Prudence is the word, I think — something that is often in short supply in the modern world.

Still, I can’t stay completely silent. That is sort of self-defeating as well. I do post a fair amount on the various social networks. These are mostly off-the-cuff remarks that don’t require nearly the investment of time and research a full-blown blog post would. Since these constitute a fair amount of my daily commentary, I may have to consider integrating some of that into the blog — ideally, automagically.

I am left with a bit of a quandary. I want this blog to be blog to be vibrant and active. On the other hand, I don’t want to needlessly repeat myself when a quick search will find you words I’ve already written on a subject.

Many people would suggest that I focus my blogging on my most popular topics. Unfortunately, that topic is mostly done: The Connor Wars. While I do have material (i.e. new script word thingies) I plan on posting “real soon now”, I can’t hang my blogging hat on that. As much as I love TCW, the fact is there comes a time when all content creators have to stop clinging to their children. Though, as several TCW fans have discovered firsthand, I will happily talk about TCW for hours while hardly pausing to take a breath. Trust me: as much as you dear fans miss that world, I miss playing in it so much more. This might be why I’ve constantly pushed into the real-soon-now future the final stories that need to be told — I don’t want it to end, and I don’t want to let it go. Not just yet.

All of this is why my blogging output has diminished recently. A lot of it is time, and a good hunk is a lack of non-inflammatory topics or inflammatory topics where I’m doing more than shouting into the wind. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to say. Let’s face it, my spew toward the TSA and other things imposed on the US since fear was institutionalized in this country, isn’t going to win me any fans with the grope-and-scan crowd. I’ll likely continue to talk about it. I just don’t want it to be all I talk about. So, until I figure all of this out, please bear with the sporadic blogs for the time being. I do try to post something at least once a week and I want to do more. Thanks.