Some are asking why I don’t blog about politics any longer.
Why? Several reasons.
For one, I happened on the Hanford archive and started doing those digital paintings. Which to me are both human interest and political. At least to me they are. And that was eating up a good bit of what would have been my blogging time, because each pic took a while. I know these are highlighting a specific topic that not many will be interested in but that’s what the internet is good at, archiving for the small base as well as running with the broad.
When I began the blog, I wrote political essays and once written I hadn’t too much else to say on a topic. Other people manage all that every well fielding the timely and topical. Frankly, most every project I’ve taken on, to do with the internet, is one with a small base appeal. Things that aren’t timely. Over the years I’ve set up a variety of information databases and made a number of lengthy transcriptions, making available to the internet material that would not be on it otherwise. And to me that’s more important than the blog–working on, updating and maintaining those databases. (Some of which, I really need to attend to by the way.) I decided that these topic specific concerns were ultimately more valuable than anything I had to say politically, at least as far as the blog goes. I don’t have the mind for plugging into the short attention span aspect of it all and riding it and I don’t have a mind for doing the short blurbs. I’ve decided it really is like surfing and the blogosphere moves in waves and swells and either I’m not water-wise or current-wise. And I’m just not that appealing a blogger. But I can archive! And I think I enjoy sitting in my little tub among the waves.
Two. Blog writing takes away from my regular writing in a serious way. Except for certain pieces I do that don’t fit into my regular writing and again have a very narrow appeal. A blog format is the best way to do them, I feel, and these narrow appeal pieces serve the function of disseminating information on that particular topic and these do get search hits of people looking for that particular narrow appeal info.
Three. Writing, painting, working, taking care of those other projects and doing the homeschooling leaves me with only so much time. I blog a little about H.o.p. here for friends and family, and would blog more but we go through our long phases of tiresome redundancy.
If I was doing political blogging these days, all I would post would be, “Oh, they lied? Imagine.” And about the Dems I”d just say, “Oh, they made kind of a show of a show but did nothing? Imagine.” Really, that’s all I would post on the timely. And it’s not a matter of me being cynical either.
I sat down to blog this AM then the email started coming in and I got slammed with some unexpected work I had to get done today, and now am just getting some time to get back to what I had had planned to do today. And I better do what I’d been planning to do because late tonight I think I’ve got some more work coming in that needs attending to in a pronto kind of way.
In the meanwhile, and probably through the night, am listening to some new music by Atlanta’s Telegram, which I was listening to last night as well. Just right for the right now.
H.o.p.’s standing here with the chocolate ice cream. OK. S’right.
Update: Creek Running North has a good post on the State of Things.
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