So I have been thinking a lot lately about wanting to write more but instead I end up posting a quick link on Facebook and moving on to something else. Every once in a while this sparks a conversation but for the most part it’s just tossing out random ideas and snippets. I sort of feel like I never get to finish a thought before the next one has taken over. This is, at least I think it is, because I am overloaded with social networking and have let it become my primary outlet. Now don’t get me wrong here, I like social networking but I think I need to detox a little bit. I want to write here and write more than I do on social networking. When I see a piece of interesting news I want to ponder it, form an opinion based on evidence, and then possibly post something here. So in order to see if this actually part of the problem, however large or small, I have decided to take the month of July off of from social networking. No Facebook. No twitter. No Google+. Now this little site automatically posts links to FB and has some comment integration so maybe it won’t be a complete disconnect but I won’t be signing in to any of those sites.
I am not sure if this will help. I am not sure if I will be able to go the whole month, being the curious bastard that I am. But I am sure I need to at least give this a shot. I need to get some of the passion back in different aspects of my writing and I am hoping this is the first step towards that. I have had some ideas percolating for a while but never seem to find the time to get them sorted in to something coherent. Maybe the snippets of time I won’t be spending perusing everyone else’s lives will give me that little bit of extra time that I need. Maybe it won’t do anything for my writing and end up being just a test of willpower. Maybe it will be something else entirely. Whatever it is I figure it’ll end up being better than the status quo. I have to shake things up somehow.
I am doing this for the same reasons I have started doing a boys’ night out with a couple of friends. I didn’t have any time for me at all. Since Michelle started enjoying going out and being social I have ended up with no personal time. Now that was a hard one to figure out. How do you come to the conclusion that you need time away from your wife? The simple answer is that it has nothing to do with her. I love going out with her and we really enjoy ourselves. My conclusion was that I needed time for me and while we enjoy going out together, me needing some time for me doesn’t reflect on that at all. Hell it’s not even about it being at a bar but rather about it being time set aside specifically for me. I didn’t realize how much I need that.
I am doing this for the same reason I got a little froggy at the bar the other weekend and tried get two different guys to puff up their chests. I have a lack of challenge in my life right now. No everything is not perfect. No I haven’t made all the changes I want to make. The fact is that it’s all on track and when it gets off course we correct it and keep going. We have a workable plan to get the house fixed up. We have a workable plan to get Michelle her Honda Pilot. We have a workable plan to get my truck fixed. My job, while enjoyable, consists of things I am good at and while that is satisfying in its own right it doesn’t challenge me very much.
All of these things add up to some kind of something missing. I am not entirely sure what it is but it seems to me that I am missing an outlet that I used to not only love but rely on for various things. Writing here challenges me to think things through. Writing about music challenges me to go outside of my comfort zone and experience new things. Writing about comic books challenges me to not forget that there are crazy and wonderful things out there in the world. So this is one more thing that I need that I have neglected. Not all of those things are related to social networking really but it seems to be one things that takes up an inordinate amount of time with not a whole lot of return. I know that after July, regardless of it goes, that I will spend less time on social networking and hopefully more time taking care of the things in my life that I need to take care of.
Well I will sign off for now and herd my heathens to bed. I hope the few of my readers that left have a great evening.
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