Yes, as the title of this post implies, I am going to take another hiatus from my blog effective immediately.
Why? Well, I’ve been having quite a bit of internal debate recently as to whether or not to retire my blog. I just haven’t felt very inspired to write much recently, and it seems my political-themed posts have gone over like a lead balloon. As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I have been refocusing my priorities to concentrate on areas of self-growth and self-improvement that I’ve been neglecting. Right now blogging just isn’t high on that list. The weather here in Arizona is absolutely gorgeous right now, and I want to take full advantage of that before the hot summer arrives.
Given all that, I would be inclined to quit blogging altogether save for two things: I’d miss the friendships I’ve made through my blog, and believe it or not, I still think I might have something worthwhile to say again: something political, something heartwarming, something thought-provoking, and yes Craig, perhaps even something funny.
Going on a second hiatus is pretty risky as last time I did it my blog readership dropped by at least half and never fully recovered. That may be the case this time as well, but shutting my blog down completely would lose all my readers. I’m afraid I’d come to regret the decision down the road.
I also lost a lot of readers when I shifted to writing more about current affairs and politics. I’ve even received complaints via e-mail about it. I guess this is the way I see it:
Imagine that I am walking down the street, and I see a building on fire. Very few other people notice or are aware the building is on fire and that people could be getting hurt by it. I try to alert other people to the situation so that they can help do something about it, but instead they say to me, “Ya know Scott, I used to like you better when you didn’t talk about burning buildings so much. Can’t you be funny again?” Of course, after the fact these same people will be the ones asking when the building burned down and why nobody did anything about it.
That’s not to say that I’m going to be so politically/activist-minded when I come back as I have been, but I do see it as my responsibility to use my blog as an opportunity to help people see the world that they live in. My blog is just a small drop in the ocean, but together we can make a difference. Take the recent provision providing retroactive immunity to telecommunications providers who helped the Bush Administration conduct illegal wiretapping prior to 9/11. Thanks in part to the roar on the blogosphere, the Democrats in the House stood firm and kept the provision from being included in the larger security bill that was passed.
When I come back from hiatus, I’ll still provide information on subjects like that, but I hope to write more about my own life and experiences. God knows that’s material ripe for picking.
As I said, I won’t be gone long; look for me again sometime in May. The easiest way to know when I return is to subscribe to my blog’s feed via e-mail or a feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader. You can always unsubscribe as soon as you get notification that I’m blogging again.
Thank you so much for being a reader. It means a lot to me. See you soon!
P.S. I’ll continue to update my status on Jaiku in the sidebar. If you want an invitation to join Jaiku yourself, e-mail me.
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