Autumnal excuses
To be honest, I’ve found it hard to motivate myself to write much lately. This is not because I haven’t been thinking about anything I assure you. Certainly not. In fact, here are just twelve random subjects you’ve been spared my half-baked thoughts on over the past month:
- the genius of Mark Twain
- the alleged death of the long playing record
- the shoddiness of my iPod
- the strange long-term impact of school-forced poetry
- exactly why Bono is a tosser
- is it possible to have too much music?
- the Disney take-over of Marvel
- the joy of our compost heap
- whether it’s ethical to doctor your own blog stats
- the role of cherry blossoms in Japanese art
- Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
- my general annoyance with Christmas cheer in November
I think I’m distracted. I think I’ve got too much on. I think it’s an autumnal thing. I think it’s something we all go through. But it makes me wonder, exactly how many blog posts never get written because we’re too lazy?*
* And if this completely and utterly self-serving sentiment doesn’t put you off and if you’re a regular reader based in the South East (which I suspect at least half of you are) and you would be interested in a Christmas blogmeet over a drink (not a bottle of water from home), email me (top right) and I’ll see if I can arrange something.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:23 am
It happens to us all. I made a list which I found recently which had loads of things I meant to blog about but never did. Reading it I can see why really, but I just hit the keyboard and hope for the best most days.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I get annoyed with myself whenever I realise I’ve spent an evening looking at other people’s pictures on flickr and not written anything AGAIN. Too easily distracted by shiny things, like a broadband-enabled magpie. But then I also struggle to think of things to write anyway, without it turning into just another daily diary effort.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Back when I kept a personal blog (rather than an mp3 blog) most of what prevented me from hitting the “post” or “submit” button was material which seemed far too personal. Frustrations about the health of people in my family, irritations about the workplace, crap but relatively unknown bands or performers I’d seen… it seemed either improper to write about these things, or else would be stirring up a hornet’s nest if I did (relatively unknown performers always Google themselves – that’s the rule).
I was always very paranoid about my office colleagues or somebody in the IT Department finding out about my blog in particular, although this may have been slightly illogical.
I can’t think of anything I’d really like to blog about that I haven’t in recent months, which is probably a big reason why I stopped keeping a personal blog in the end!
November 12th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Here’s a few from my list of half-baked blog bits
A Simon Bates style ‘Golden Years’ guess the year of the tune comp’
The genius of Stan Lee
Guess the them tune
The Small Faces (I’ve got the title – Midget Gems)
I’d be interested to see your ideas on the Disney take-over of Marvel
November 12th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
F-C, does this mean that you have an actual physical list of things to blog about?
Simon, I don’t think you write that infrequently – and it’s probably me that should be apologising to you for leaving miserable, grumpy comments on what you do post. I have to ask though, what the heck is a broadband enabled magpie?!
I don’t like to think of this as a personal blog 23Daves. If it was, it would be far worse than what it is. Having said that though, if I was a more astute, kinder and sensible blogger I probably should have written about ANYTHING in the above list rather than moaning about office politics and annoying people I met in the pub.
Mondo, I’m liking the Midget Gems idea. You have to do that one. And with the Guess the them tune one, are you referring to Van Morrisson or is that a typo?!
Disney vs. Marvel is an interesting case (in my mind at least) of greed overcoming brand and vision. I’ve just recently read the history of the Disney company under Walt and I think he would be turning in his grave with this acquisition. Similarly, the appeal of Marvel is that they are NOT Disney. They are two completely different concepts. Both companies are completely missing the point of their own brands. In my opinion anyway!
November 12th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Sorry it’s a typo – meant to be TV Themes . Wasn’t the theory behind the Disney takeover to access the teenage boy market (something of a blindspot for Disney) – but the trouble is, the most sucessful names are under existing contracts and licenses so Disney can’t use the bigger brand names for some while yet.
I read Stan Lee’s biog earlier in the year, and the Marvel Universe is pretty much populated with his characters Spiderman, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, X Men (and loads more) all huge, huge money spinners across multiple formats Yet he barely receives any skim-off from the profits.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Disney only has an issue with teenage boys because they’ve been drivelling on about stuff like Hannah Montana and High School Musical instead of developing something that both genders like. Their USP, once upon a time was creating their own ideas and technological solutions, not buying someone else’s vision – like Stan Lee’s or indeed, John Lasseter’s at Pixar.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I think you’ve been pretty consistently prolific, actually – just the odd quiet patch, and we’re all entitled to those. I’m not being too hot myself at the moment; a few times I’ve started something and scrapped it for being too personal (though there’s one that just won’t go away, so I may just have to change the names and spit it out, or it will continue to block me. And it’s not even interesting! I hate it when that happens.).
November 12th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
blimey – a list awhole list full of stuff. i bet you’d never guess but all the stuff round mine is cobbled together in the three seconds it takes to loaad a picture or two or at the very most the three minutes it takes to record a record. so well done you.
x
November 12th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
ps
i’m getting quite excited about this bloggie booze up. and quite terrified. see you there.
x
November 12th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
ISBW, I think the problem is that there are more interesting things that I could have been writing about – and I know it! Frustrating. Perhaps though, I am just ‘unblocking’. Yes, blog as therapy…
Ally, I’m not that bad in real life. Really.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:59 am
well they look like the titles of 12 good posts to me!! The Marvel\Disney one keeps me awake at night sometimes as sad as that may sound. As a long long term comic buyer, I do not like what this could mean down the line. We have spent a long time getting comics out of the classroom and taken seriously, with grittier, hard hitting stories and adult themes. Back to the 30,s, 40s and 50s with the rediculous one dimensional ‘hero’ stories?? ugh.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Magpies are alleged to hoard shiny things, and be distracted from food gathering to collect them.
I get distracted by other web sites when I have told myself to sit down and write something…
November 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Simon, I get it now! Sorry, bit thick…!
Piley, Marvel and Disney keep you awake at night? That is on a par with me dreaming about Linsday Buckingham circa. 1977 chasing me down the street (which happened last night, worryingly). No, I know what you mean. This IS a step back for Marvel. I’m not really a comic fan, but I love Disney (old Disney, from back well before I was born). Now Disney are rubbish – and they don’t need to bring Marvel down with them.
November 13th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
well…. keeping me awake was maybe over egging it somewhat!! mildly irked maybe??!
November 14th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Consistently prolific is right, Cocktails, as someone else said up there. If you’re feeling guilty about not writing enough, then I for one should be hanging my head in shame.
As for lists of things to post about I have had spells of carrying around lists scrawled on the back of bus tickets… but generally find that if something is worth writing about then it will stay lodged in my head until I damn well get over my torpor (that means laziness, right? I’m too, er, lazy to look it up) and sit down and write it.
Also of course once (I wonder how common this is) my most succesful posts are sometimes ones where I start writing about one thing but end up somewhere I wasn’t quite expecting to (my most recent post being a case in point)…
November 15th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Mmm, thanks Jonathan, but as I’ve mentioned above it’s quality not quantity. I’m too lazy to write anything interesting! You’re right (in theory at least) that if anything is really worth writing about it doesn’t need to be on a list. Sadly, my mental list is long enough.
And to add to the confusion, I often feel that I should be doing something more constructive than writing posts anyway. Like practicing my French verb conjugations…
November 16th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
It happens to all of us. Don’t feel bad.
Take care. I wish you the best. Have a good start to your week.