Seriously?
I guess that I can blame my lack of posting to the fact that during that time away I've been unemployed, traveling in Mongolia, doing rally stuff, re-employed, living in Carlsbad, living in China, and then getting another job, getting terminated from that job, and being rehired again at the same exact place in a different role and title. All that since I last posted to this blog.
So yeah, I've been busy.
So why a return to this blog? Because I saw myself getting lazy. Facebook lazy. It was a simple matter to post a funny quip, a lame photo, or an even lamer status update on Facepile and reach a wide audience of my friends. So lazy in fact that I slacked off in my writing skills and very nearly forgot that I had a few blogs that I used to regularly update. Forgot about the fun and challenge in writing for the sake of writing. So I'm taking up blogging again in an effort to flex my literary muscles and firm up the area of my brain to the left of my lateral cerebral fissure.
Facebook made me realize that I was taking shortcuts in being what I thought was creative. Instead of posting original content like I used to in these blogs, I was instead copy-pasting some item I had found on Failblog, or linking to a news story, or worse yet, hitting the "Share" button on other people's posts. How lazy is that? Lazy-ass indeed. I also found, with some consternation, that I was posting things that I thought other people would react to in hopes that they'd hit the "Like" button or post some comment. Gone was my desire to write for writing's sake and in its place was an attention whore who needed people to press that "Like" button for validation. There was a time that I would blog things because I liked the freedom in not caring what other people thought, when it wasn't about the number of hits I got in a day. It was more about getting things out of my head and out on (virtual) paper and maybe for the occasional reader who stumbles on my posts and gets it.
It's not that I hate the Facepile of social networking per se, but when it comes to maintaining the creativity and the thought process that comes with actual writing, Facebook is to my writing what a McDonald's Super-sized McMeal is to my physical fitness. Sure, it satisfies a basal need but it's not something you want to be doing every day, especially when you want to write or run a marathon. So after using Facebook for the better part of the time away from this blog as my near-exclusive method of updating the world of what I was doing, I found myself trying to condense complex stories and experiences into a couple of sentences and maybe a photo taken with my iPhone. (Yes, I caved and got one. Best device ever. EVER. Shut up...) Being limited to just a couple of lines had reduced my normally verbose descriptions to:
The sunset was awesome today. So awesome...
When I really wanted to say:
Yesterday, as I was coming through the Caldecott Tunnel, I caught an amazing view of the sun setting over the Bay. The clouds had turned the color of orange embers, reminiscent of the color of charcoal briquettes on a summer night right before that first steak hits the grill. It was the perfect beginning of summer backdrop for the silhouettes of The City and the bridges. The view reminded me of the reason I came to live here in the Bay Area and symbolized the rich panorama of experiences I've had since leaving Sacramento almost 20 years ago. I don't think I ever want to live anywhere else.
I take it back. I do hate Facebook. Damn you. (Fist shaking)
Facebook does have its place, and though I most likely won't abandon it completely, I'll be posting more to my blogs. I think that my left brain will be thanking me for doing that. The three people that subscribe to this blog's feed might want to thank me too. If they existed.
Also, go to hell McDonald's. (Fist shaking)
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