I Blog, Therefore I Am

I seem to be having a blogging identity crisis. I've been in its throes for a while now, and it doesn't show any sign of resolving itself quickly. I'm prone to bouts of blogging ennui--I think we all are, from time to time--but this is more than that. My life has changed pretty drastically in the eighteen months or so since I started this particular blog incarnation, and so have my interests and priorities. I think my attempts to focus on those new interests and priorities elsewhere have been hampered by my devotion, first and foremost, to LiSM.

But here's the thing: I started LiSM as a journal, as a way to keep in touch and dialogue with a small and particular group of people and keep them informed about my life. That it has grown from that to a still tiny, but larger than anticipated, audience of strangers, some of whom have proven to be pretty critical and judgmental, is kinda neat (except for that last bit), but also more than kinda uncomfortable. I used to have no problem making my life an open blog, so to speak, but, I don't live there any more. Now I'm thinking that a general personal blog maybe isn't so much the right venue for me, and maybe, neither is LiSM anymore.

So here's what I'm going to do. Nothing drastic. I'm thisclose to being entirely caught up on my work backlog, and I anticipate finishing by the end of the week, which leads me into a three-day weekend. So I'm officially declaring a hiatus for that length of time. It might go longer, but for now, I'm just going to plan on those five days.

After that, when I come back to work all caught up and facing a slow workload during the summer, I should have plenty of free time on my hands. I'm not nearly focused enough to spend all of that free time on my novel, so a good portion of it can be spent figuring out exactly what I want my online presence to be, and indeed, if I want an online presence at all at this stage of my life.

Meanwhile, those of you whom I haven't already contacted who have reason to care about all of my personal life blather can contact me about possibly getting access to my friends-only journal. I warn you, though, that previous experience has left me a bit paranoid, so if I don't know you in some context and am not reasonably certain I can trust you not to abuse your access privileges, I probably won't respond. Not that there's much to abuse--it's pretty boring over there.

Whatever decision I come to, I'll keep you posted here, so don't go deleting those feed subscriptions just yet. In the mean time, have a good week, folks. Thanks for reading.