I can’t write here, I can’t write there. I’m stuck in some kind of Seussian tech-warp. Lacking motivation, time, energy and talent, still I soldier on. If I can’t keep this blog current, the reasoning goes, then perhaps I shoule build another blog that will be better, fresher, more engaging. For instance, Class War is a journal worth keeping. Simmering on the back burner I have a pot of stone soup I’m calling “the sandbox.” Both Class War and the sandbox are intentional in a way that Listics and it’s antecedents (the typepad Sandhill, the Radio Sandhill, and a few iterations before that) have never been. Class War? Well the title tells it. Not too many cute kitten blog posts there. “The sandbox?” Something is taking shape but it’s early days… too early to say much.
Blogs are pretty straight-forward. They are a little corner of the web where you can express yourself, explore ideas and relationships, stash interesting links, and maybe even provide some news, some art and some entertainment. I almost said “provide some truth and beauty,” but I’m learning.
I’ve been geeking out on WordPress for four years or more, since I left typepad in the spring of 2006. Right now Listics and Class War both run on WordPress 2.9.2 using the Thesis theme, release 1.6. The sandbox runs WP 2.9.2 with the latest Thesis release (1.7) from Chris Pearson. Chris is working on a 2.0 release. I’m wondering how Chris will address WP 3.0. The Thesis 2.0 release will probably dovetail with it.
I may need a sandbox2 to fool around with WordPress 3.0. After almost forty years working with computers, I learned that you absolutely want to keep releases with a zero suffix away from “production.” WordPress 3.0? Thesis 2.0? Not ready for prime time, no matter when they’re released. Wait for the bug fix release, Frank!
Talk about scattered. Also, it’s spring and I’m behind on my gardening. Also, I’m in the middle of a new garage project. What started out as a simple shed is becoming more elaborate. If the project scope creeps just a little more, I may have the Garage Mahal on my hands. (I stole the label Garage Mahal from my neighbor. I wish I’d made it up though.)
One Comment
Sounds like what started as fun is beginning to feel like (gag) work! Let me recommend my approach. Fuck all this empty chatter. Retire from the oppression of having to read or write out of any sense of obligation. E-mail was bad enough. I learned to hate the idea that I was actually expected to stare at a computer screen any more frequently than I goddam well pleased and I’ve found a certain contentment in checking in a few times a week only when I actually feel like it. While on vacation I ignore it completely…unless, of course, I feel like checking in and stop at some exotic internet cafe and poke around for an hour. But mostly I don’t. I am completely disinterested in twittering or facebooking or, for that matter, any other form of typewritten social networking out of a genuine concern for my own privacy and total unconcern over what almost anyone else is doing at any particular time (unless they’re engaged in hot sex or in the middle of an earthquake or tornado). Christ, I’m not even interested in what I’m doing most of the time. So I dabble. I’m a webitant. I let everyone else do the work and I mostly peek in the windows over a glass of wine late in the evening and if (and only if) I feel like it I leave a few sentences (like a trace strand of DNA) usually with no sense of obligation to ever drop in again. I spent last week in New York. Left my laptop home in Wisconsin so I read Stiegg Larsson”s first two Lisbeth Salander books and Richard Dawkins “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Never even checked my e-mail. Did I miss something? I sincerely doubt it. I am certain, however, that I suffered no guilt over not posting some shit on a self imposed deadline. So Frank, as someone who loves you, heed my humble advice. Never apologize for not writing, Rather apologize for writing when you have little or nothing to say. Which, if you’re anything at all like the rest of us, is most of the time. As for me…I’ll be checking back in next week if I happen to get around to it. Love always, Harv