What’s Up with BillyBlog?

Hello, readers. Those of you who have been visitors here since the blog’s inception in September 2005 may have noticed that I occasionally will have posting droughts that leave fans o’ BillyBlog thirsting for more.

Usually you’ll see one of these self-reflective posts pop up during these dry spells, pondering the life of the blog, ruminating about its future, or whatever.

The National Poetry Month 31 Favorite Poems project sapped me mentally. Not that it was difficult, the poems were written, and I just had to rank them and post them. It was the feeling of obligation to the blog itself that took its toll. It became a chore. And I even resented it a little.

Perhaps what we’re seeing is the nature of the dual blogging mentality. BillyBlog used to be a year-round blog. But the beast that is Tattoosday, born in the heat of last summer, is rising again after a quiet winter. And even regular visitors over there will note, I’m not posting every day there either, despite the fact that tattoos smother the sidewalks of New York City like cherry blossom petals in a koi pond.

That’s why Umbrellacide has been a fun and easy diversion. Easy-peasy. Take a picture of an inanimate object, upload the photo, say where I saw it, title it cleverly, and schedule it.

And so here we are, thinking out loud. On April 26, I went to a poetry reading. There is a recap in the works, but it’s taken a while. I have read several books that I want to discuss. John McCain had a slice of pizza at OUR pizza shop, on the same block on which we live, my brother Seth came to visit and we went to a Tigers-Yankees game (if only the Tigers could play the Yankees all year long. It seems to be the only team Detroit can beat this year), Shayna’s been playing baseball, Jolee’s a blogging machine and an “A” student and I still have a dozen video clips I want to post and share from her drama club performance in February. The extra day that month didn’t help.

And here I am rambling about nothing and everything simultaneously. My sister Alicia just finished her master’s program and they had a big party for her out in California. I am sad because I missed it. Everyone understands why it wasn’t feasible to cross the country for the event, but it still makes me sad. The consolation prize is that she’s moving next month to Delaware to start a new job. Hooray! Congrats Alicia!

I’ll end positively with that note. No I won’t.

Do not give up on BillyBlog, folks. Try this exercise. Google “average life of a blog”. Use the quotation marks. Note the variance in average blog life spans. The range is 3 months to 3 years.

As Kurt Vonnegut would often say, “so it goes”.