Leftovers

Today is another day where I look at the title line of my blog and simply watch the cursor blink impatiently for me to give it direction. I don’t have anything important to say today, however I’m trying to revive my love of writing and the only way to nurture a thing to life is to give it your attention. So the keyboard is going to get my attention whether it wants it or not.

It’s been a semi-slow week this week at work. Tim has been sick since he returned home from skiing last week and I’ve been working remotely for most of the week because most of my work has been keyboard labor; fixing computers remotely, correcting email issues, setting up new accounts and the like. It gets claustrophobic sometimes but there is also something to be said for working all day in the comfort of pajamas with the coffee pot three feet away, especially on these cold, rainy, miserable days we’ve had lately.

I’d like to take a moment again to thank those who read the blog, and especially thank those that take the time to comment, whether here on the blog or on the facebook co-published blog. If you are one of those facebook users who are reading through the notes feature of facebook, you should come on over direct to the blog by clicking on the link in the title. It’ll bring you straight here to http://carolinaregion.blogspot.com/.

A blog face-lift:

I’ve been thinking more and more lately about changing the entire structure of this blog. I probably won’t change the URL as I have much too much Google traffic to consider that, but I am thinking of a name change, something to signal to myself and others that the blog is evolving even as I too grow and evolve through my life. The “Scooby” days of the blog seem to be over, much as they seem to be over in my real life. Very few people know what makes a person a “Scooby” and those that do have the consideration not to talk about it (insert sardonic grin here). If Ed only knew all those years ago what he was starting when he uttered that first phrase back in 2001. I’ve enjoyed the Scooby years of my life, but there comes a time to put away those things and move on with the rest of life. Whether I choose willingly or not, that seems to be happening and now that it is I find myself much more content with my life, thanks in no small part to Amy who makes it something much more shiny and bright than it was before she was in it.

It suffices to say the original Scoobs have mostly all grown up, married, taken on more consuming jobs and personal lives, and our time together is much more rare these days. I miss each of them daily, but I know that I too am so busy with life that I can’t blame them for being the same way. The older we get the more things fill our ever-decreasing waking hours until there just isn’t time for all the things we used to do. And thankfully, we have better sense now than to do some of the things we used to occupy our time with.

As such, I’ve been considering giving the blog an entire change of face, complete with a new look, a new name, and a new approach. Maybe I’ll get to this one weekend soon or maybe it will remain on my to-do list for another few months like so many other things. It’s too early to tell.

I guess the truth is I need to find something to say that’s worth reading, and then get in the habit of saying it. Narrowing that down and organizing that information is proving difficult. Sure, I’m honest enough to admit that I’d love to have an audience of two-thousand viewers per day, and maybe even find a way way to make some money from my blog, but it’s not something that happens overnight.

I’ve considered making a section for my woodworking, and another for my technical how-to articles, another for my travel, and yet another main section for me, but just what “me” is eludes me, so I can’t very well create the section without first discovering what percentage of rambling thought I share on here are “me” and what others are other stuff. ME in it’s most basic form (and here I go referring to myself in the third-person) is just a guy. I’m a guy with a great daughter I don’t get to see enough, a wonderful lady who is crazy enough to want to marry me one of these days, a small business of my own that barely floats some days, and a dog. Who wants to read about that? And if people do indeed want to read about it, what will they find interesting? What will retain them? And is even trying to structure this blog in such a fashion an affront to the stream-of-consciousness approach I’ve been using all these years? I just don’t know. I looked just tonight on my blogger dashboard and was surprised to find that in the years I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve written well over three thousand pages. That’s more text than a full version of the King James Bible. If I’m going to write that much, why can’t I write a book of my own? I’ve always wanted to, yet never been able to sustain the drive to push it towards completeness. Of course these three thousand pages have taken me much of the past five years to complete. February 9th will be the fifth anniversary of my blogging addiction. I’m not even sure if that’s good information to know myself. I’ve been writing for five years? I should probably take a day one day soon and click all the way back through the archives to see where my life has come from, derailed to, and is headed towards, but I don’t have the time right now.

I also have to consider the monetizing aspect of a successful blog, but the truth is after running my own business and personal web sites and creating and monetizing web sites for customers I really don’t have the energy to do the same to my own. It’s probably much like owning a restaurant in that after cooking all day for five hundred people, do you really want to come home and start all over again for yourself? Of course they have the luxury of leftovers… Maybe I should invent that.. leftovers for blogs. Actually.. that’s an interesting name… I’ll stew on it! HA. I kill me… did ya? haha? Catch the joke? Cook? Stew? Ha!

That was very much in the style of Jonathan Watson humor… you’d appreciate it if your minds were more fully developed!

Now that I’ve worked the gears up in my mind and the rust is off, I find a need to go explore new blog options, so I’ll leave you with my sincere thanks for reading and bid you adieu until next time.