so i heard this rumor that i once had a blog. you know, one that i wrote stuff in fairly regularly. and not just about how i'm too busy to write.
so i've been too busy to write. i'd like to promise that it's over now and it won't happen again, but i really can't. in fact, it inevitably will happen again. i just don't know when. i am hoping however, that this particular hiatus is winding down. but i won't know for sure until later. these things happen. i don't even feel bad about it
i do feel a little bad about what a pathetic guest poster i have been over at the liberal avenger this past month. LA is in thailand this month and in late june he asked me to be a guest poster at his site. i did warn him that i didn't know how often i would actually post, and he didn't seem to have a problem with that. he has plenty of other guest posters. but i've been even more pathetic than i ever expected. over the past few weeks all i've done is cut and paste two lame posts from this site to the LA site. it's the end of july, most of the month is over, and that's all i've done.
the problem is not that i don't feel responsibility towards guest posting at LA's site. on the contrary, my feeling of responsibility is precisely the problem. basically, my standards for posting on someone else's site are a lot higher than my standards for posting here. here i will basically hit the post button for any brain fart that makes it onto the page. apparently my audience doesn't mind (otherwise they wouldn't be my audience) and it helps me get stuff off my chest. it's different when i have the keys to someone else's site--a place they have put time and effort into really making it into something as LA has. i really don't want to post anything on LA's site unless i really think it's good. and i guess my lack of posts over there indicate that i just haven't thought that my july postings have been all that strong.
i ran into a similar problem back when i was a guest poster at atrios. i actually did post a bunch of times over there back then. but i really had to force myself to do it, and i wasn't all that happy with most of my posts. in the end, it wasn't as fun as it should have been. i spent too much time worrying about whether what i wrote lived up to the demands of the audience who were visiting, not because they wanted to read me, but out of a habit they acquired from reading someone else. that's probably why i've been even worse about posting on LA's site this month. i'm afraid to do a bad job and i'm not willing to force myself because i know i will feel guilty about my crappy posts later.
the more i think about it, the less i believe in the concept of guest posters. the blogs i read tend to be sites where the personality of the blogger comes through. it's the individual behind the blog that keeps me coming back. when i go to a site and see a guest poster, it's disappointing. i even feel that way when the guest poster has his or her own site that i read regularly. i didn't click on this particular site to read them. if i wanted to read them, i would have clicked on their own site.
sorry that example wasn't clearer. i'm trying not to name names here. but i hope you get the idea.
anyway, back to LA. i hope i didn't let him down too much. i've met him in real life and actually consider him to be a friend. at least his other guest posters have done a great job keeping the flame burning. but still want LA back. besides, even his trolls have taken the month off. the site feels different. none of us are any substitute for the real thing.
it just occurred to me that i could cross post this over there. but i'm afraid it will be taken the wrong way. i really don't mean to imply that i don't think the other guest posters are doing a good job. they are. besides, they are effectively covering for me as i sluff off in my guest posting obligations.
