When I was born for the 7th time
26 January 2006 | this, vague musical references | 2 Comments
I’m feeling almost weird about starting another weblog/journal. Am I forever cursed into switching domains and names of my online writing and lose readers in the process every few months or years? Identity infidelity? Yet Another Weblog Title Syndrome (YAWTS)?
I think part of what happened with Over Queersville was that I built it in a fit of unemployment and subsequently used it as part of my portfolio when I was applying for my current job. I wasn’t putting anything there that I wouldn’t want anyone at work to read, but I started to become more wary of putting anything up there because of it. Every time I made a post of a personal nature, I was cognizant that at least three coworkers would be reading it. As much as the idea of transparency in weblogging gets lauded almost evangelically, I wanted some separation of work-life and everything-else-life. I mean, in previous weblogs, I used to write some pretty out-there stuff; I don’t think I could have posted something like the tale of my haunted bulbocavernosus muscle if I knew someone at work would read it.
These are the beds we make for ourselves. This time around I’ll stick to available WordPress themes and not put any webdev mojo into it. Besides, I’m not really inclined to work on new designs when I have enough work in front of me. New weblog designs came about when I was unemployed or going through a slow period, go figure, and I’m not experiencing either at the moment, nor have I been in some time. (Work is currently sucking my will to live, but that’s another story.) Besides, everyone reads these things in aggregators/readers, anyway.
Still, “It’s a new year, it’s a new day, welcome to today,” to quote Gallagher. (Yeah, the watermelon-smashing guy. You don’t know this but he’s the guy that first unleased my boisterous laughter as a little kid.)
Another part of it dying off is I get picky about names. I expected to have a lot to say about gay culture in SF when I moved here, hence “Over Queersville,” but really I didn’t. If anything, it’s just holding on more to the “good old days” of the 70s, but just barely. Truth be told, it’s arguable that I’m happier with SF’s queer scene than Chicago’s. One thing I asked there was “why’s it gotta be bars all the time? Where are the queer cafes?” Well, they’re here, for starters. The name felt more like a weight as I spent more time living in this city. I guess as you get older, you can’t be as punk and stand-offish as you once were.
I knew if I was going to ever start again, the URL had to be something generic, the name had to be flexible, it couldn’t be something I could get sick of. “jaschu vs. the 7au” sounds ridiculous and temporary, but every good story has conflict. I’m not even sure a title is necessary. Call it what you want. The URL is solid; the given-name portmanteau-turned-handle I’ve adopted for online identity plus a generic domain name I registered years ago for reasons yet to be revealed… I can’t see how I’ll tire of it.
And let’s be honest. I’m the type who likes to run his mouth off. Not having a personal voice on the web? I was getting twitchy, just like I always do. My 31st birthday is in a couple weeks plus some change. It’s as good a time as any to try to start something new.
Everyone makes a statement of intention when they start these things. This time, I got nothing. Generic first-post denouement? Hello, Internet. I blame you for everything.
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You’re one of the bloggers I’ve read continuously for the longest period of time (since 2000?), and definitely the person I read who’s changed URLs most frequently 😉 Are you getting rid of the WordPress.com blog?
I understand about the title… I started off with a eponymously-titled blog on a personal domain before switching to hitormiss. Lately I’ve been feeling that title is a little twee, but I’m loathe to change it.
I’m not getting rid of jaschu’s record, since I want to keep playing with wordpress.com and it’s nice to keep the different kinds of content separated. I think the inanity/presents split I had in v3 of Somnolent.org was before its time, perhaps. If I had RSS feeds for both, it could have been kept up with more easily, but having to visit two different portions of a site to keep up probably put people off.
Hopefully there won’t be any more URL changes! I’m totally aware that you risk losing readership every time you do so.
I don’t think “Hit or Miss” is twee. In some ways, “Running Tally” may have been the best name for a weblog I could have come up with… totally generic and more to do with the format than anything. Too bad it didn’t last a year. :p