843 Days (or, How NOT to Relaunch A Blog)

More than 2 years. 120-plus weeks. 843 DAYS.  Has it really been that long since I last posted anything to this site?  I honestly can’t believe that much time has elapsed. Where has the time gone, you might ask? Since I last posted:

• Barack Obama, predicted Presidential also-ran, became a Nobel Peace Prize winner,
• Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals at the Olympics and became the new Jared,
• Britney Spears released a terrible album and was on suicide watch,
• Britney Spears released a great album and became the new Miley Cyrus,
• The country faced the worst recession in a century,
• People actually started using Twitter,
• The Writers’ Guild Strike of 2007-2008 nearly ruined an entire season of TV, and
• iPhone hype has become iPad hype.

Those are just some of the things that have happened during my hiatus. But fear not, I’ve been keeping busy myself during this time too. In fact, over the past 2 years, I:

• didn’t do anything too crazy with my hair (except a mohawk for a few days!)
• organized a debate conference,
• gave up optical media,
• fell in love with Alaska,
• watched every episode of Friends,
• learned how to shoot a gun,
• became an Unclutterer,
• met amazing people at LeaderShape,
• bought and sold too much stuff on Craigslist (five figures!),
• created a business,
• started shaving with a straight razor, and
• started a terrible food blog that didn’t work.

The Itch

If the world has been moving along just fine these past few years, why return? I’ll tell you why…the itch.  It’s the itch you get when you hear something interesting on the news and turn to the person next to you to share your opinion.  It’s the itch you get when you’re asked to explain how to do something.  It’s the itch you get when you want to share something with the world.

Well, I’ve been feeling the itch for some time.  In fact, I felt it more than 2 years ago, when I first announced I’d be returning to my blog.  Unfortunately, for a litany of reasons, that didn’t pan out (it was, quite frankly, the worst relaunch of a blog in the history of the world).  But even then, I knew what had to happen for someone who’d felt the itch to get back into blogging:

“But wait…How Do You Get Back Into Really Writing Again?
That’s very simple…you just start writing. You have to find your own personal motivator, and JUST DO IT. It’s not an easy pill to swallow, but trust me, it comes out easier on the other side.”
-How to Call Yourself a Blogger and Never Write Anything

I can safely say that I’m now taking my own advice.  My inspiration has been the great writing of some of my favorite blogs, like Rational Ignorants, Baekdal, Seth Godin, Unclutterer, PaulStmatiou.com, and others.  More than anything, I’ve wanted to be able to have a forum with more than 140 characters to respond and elaborate upon the ideas presented.  For too long, I put off updating this site because I wasn’t happy with the design of it; until I could finish it, I wasn’t ready to start writing again.

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged. I had pieces that were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.”
– Erica Jong

But as we all know, nothing is ever truly finished.  Blogs, more than anything, are the embodiment of this principle.  A blog should be a living, thriving being, a reflection of its imperfect author.  In this vein, I’m going to focus on the writing from here on out and let the other pieces fall into place.

Going Forward

I’d be remiss to believe that anyone still reads this blog right now except for myself and my mother (and even her maternal curiosity has its limits!).  I can’t promise that I’ll post regularly (heck, based on past history, you can’t even be sure I’ll ever post again), but I am aiming to start slowly and build from there.

Last time around, I wanted to talk about “personal productivity and development.”  So much for being a productive blogger, eh?  This time, I’m going to just start writing and let the direction of the blog evolve over time.

I hope you’ll stick around and be a part of the conversation.  It’s a brave new (media) world out there, and I’m just itching to get back into the fray of it!

Do you think I’m crazy to return or coming back just at the right time? Let me know what you think by commenting below or tweeting me on Twitter (@rkudeshi)!