The Prodigal Blogger, Or Something Like That
Posted by Lynnster on October 2, 2007
I think our friend on the West Coast, Magniloquence, put it best recently when she said this:
It’s mostly just… I fell off the internet. I do that.
…which is exactly what happened to me, starting in June after the mega-dustup at Nashville is Talking – which just kinda wore me out, really, my brain was too tired for a while after that to function – but I kept on trying until sometime in July, and even posted once in August. But for the most part, I couldn’t find time and energy to blog, and dropped completely out of the regional Twitter scene, and like Mag said – I just fell off the Internet, for a while. Or at least parts of it.
But I have been reading when I could, and slowly making my way back to the land of the blogliving. I’ve been reading all this time really, when I can and where I can… but the last few weeks things have started falling back into place where I can maybe find at least a little more time to get back to being an active voice in the community, not only regionally but with WordPress stuffs as well, and all that other crap I always inevitably find myself right in the middle of eventually.
One thing I KNOW I’ve got to do if I’m going to start trying to sort of keep up again is trim down the number of blogs in my feed reader, because it just got out of hand. So much good reading out there but just not enough time. I’m going to whack it down to the locals and a scant few others elsewhere I never want to miss, and the rest I’ll just have to live without. The number in my reader had grown to epic proportions, and one just can’t keep up with as many as I was trying to on a daily, or even weekly, basis.
There are some blogs I’ve tried to read almost daily – since I canceled cable some time ago, dinnertime for me is usually blogreading, heh – and I’ve definitely tried to keep up on what was born this summer to try to hold the regional community together, the fabbo Music City Bloggers, since that way I could kind of keep an eye on everyone as a whole at once and got to where I depended on that for my local and regional blog fix. My hat’s off to my friends and colleagues there – you guys truly picked up the torch and ran with it and it’s fantastic.
I still tried to read NIT when I could, but (as we all know) there for a while it seemed to be about everything BUT what Nashville and regional blogs were talking about, so it became a less frequent stop. Though when I dropped by the other day, I was kind of pleased to see that – at least on the surface – it seems to be more like what it always was, and what it should be if it’s going to continue to be called Nashville is Talking.
In the interim of being mostly away, I missed a lot of milestones and a lot of moments I wish I hadn’t… but I was there, it was just that I was reading or behind most of the time, but of course that’s not like actively being there and participating in discussion or leaving notes. For instance, I have had to catch up on my fellow WP fan Jon’s joy at being a first-time new dad in fits and spurts (she’s adorable, Jon and Katie!).
I missed my dear pal Hutchmo’s birthday and didn’t get a moment to wish him and the lovely missus a happy 30th wedding anniversary (Happy Both, my friend!).
There was the recent news of Lintilla’s upcoming surgery (keeping you guys in thoughts and prayers, Slarti).
Ivy’s grandmother passed away, which made me sad (I am so sorry and please forgive me someday for not having read about it until much much later, Ivy).
Brittney is moving to San Francisco and taking the reins of REAL big city blogging out yonder (congratulations and I’m so thrilled for you and you will be fabulously successful, I know!).
The Vol Abroad spotted what I agree (of course!) is a horrendous case of bad parenting.
The aforementioned Magniloquence! In freakin’ Robertson County, ON CASA DE COYOTE LAND… I saw pictures! I am so bummed beyond belief that I missed out on this opportunity to meet her, but I swear I missed any sign at all of it ’til after it was over (’til today, in fact).
I about fell over after my unplanned sabbatical started to find that suddenly, after alllll these months, out of the blue, Rex L. Camino had started posting on his blog again, which makes me giggle.
Not to mention the fact that Smiley has rather questionable underwear fashion sense (I’m sure there’s more evidence of that on The Dry Spot, though), and Short and Fat admits he is evil. Heh.
Then there were of course so many more – and way too many for me to mention EVERYONE – but all the many others I tried to catch up on when I could. I seem to recall some incidents with The Holy Tara and much more over at my Sista’s place, and thrilled that Sista has gone back to school. Many – way too many – interesting occurrences and days of worthwhile reading over at the House of Newscoma in my Northwest Tennessee general homeland area. Other I try so hard not to miss, such as Chez Bez (who now EVERYONE has met BUT me, sigh). Recovering Baptist. Lindsey at Theo/Geo. Sarcastro’s congenial grumbling over at Watching the Defectives. Mrs. Jag, owner of cool dogs. I like reading about Cranky’s amphibian obsession over at SMB.
Our newer friends who arrived shortly before my “vacation” (who also now everyone has met BUT me) such as Klinde and Grace. Grace’s blog really has become my substitute for a Friday night movie when I really have time to sit down and eat a REAL meal for a change sometimes – I catch up on her blog instead of watching a movie or TV or something.
And more from beyond the regional blogosphere that I still try to catch up on when I can, such as Churlita in the Midwest and Margaret down even more South than me. The always charming and hilarious Neil Kramer and his lovely Sophia.
I wish I had time and space to mention everyone by name but there’s just not enough and there are so many more of you than the ones I’ve mentioned. But I have tried to keep up with everyone, or catch up when I can, really I have.
I’ve got to say, though – and it probably just wouldn’t be a Lynnster post about blogs in general without it – damnable Blogger continues to be a thorn in my side, especially through all this attempting to catch up. More than once did I want to leave a comment for some reason or another, yet it’d be a Blogger blog… and nowadays I cannot comment on any of them at all, no matter what I’ve tried to do. WordPress is your friend, people… or at least it certainly is mine and probably many of your readers. Stupid @&%#ing Blogger.
Anyway, I’m back and here, but taking baby steps at this. I don’t have time these days, right now anyway, for memes and all that kind of stuff that can contribute to an incredible amount of time suckage, I really just don’t. But I’m motivated – at least for now – to write again, even if it’s a lot more brief than many of you are used to. Some of the best and funniest blog posts I ever read were just one sentence long, and that might be what you get some days, others it might be more. But I’m at least attempting to be “back”.
By the way, I see new headers and templates all over the place and I adore the new Tiny Cat Pants header, but of course I would (Happy Anniversary to Tiny Cat Pants as well!). Not all that surprising to me, probably one of my favorite bits of blog post of the year comes from our Aunt B. I don’t know why, I just like this and it makes me smile:
I like the smooch where the smoochee is being a little ridiculous about something that makes the smoochee both exasperating and irresistable and the smoocher grabs the smoochie’s shoulders, backs him or her up against a wall, and presses him or herself full up against the smoochee, maybe with a hand on the back of the smoochee’s head, and the smoocher kisses the smoochee like that should end the discussion.
Anyway. I have missed you all, and I wish there were time right now to talk at length and catch up with every single one of you one-on-one, but there are so many of you and I don’t have that much free time still. But I’m here, and have been, and have been reading… and now I’m hopefully posting again. Bear with me while I scrape the rust off my fingers.
Neil said
Glad to hear that you are back, and refreshed from your break from virtual reality.
Kathy said
Welcome back. I was starting to worry there for a while. Sometimes an internet break is a good thing. I do it, kind of, but always manage to come back to a massive info overload. (You should see my feed reader.)
newscoma said
I’m glad you are back, my friend. Hopefully your sabbatical was good for you.
Magniloquence said
Ack! I’m so sorry I forgot to tell you!
It was.. not exactly last minute, but definitely rushed. I’d proposed all sorts of bloggery meetups, but every restaurant I picked in Nashville closed (the Mothership, that little indian place Aunt B liked…), and then Aunt B wound up in Georgia, and things got all complicated, so we wound up just staying at Mack’s cabin and venturing out for a tiny little dinner with nm.
Next time, definitely. Or the next time you head this-way-ward, we’ll have you over. How does that sound?
graceless24 said
Heeeeeey! Loookeeee at who’s back! Yay! :-)
And if my blog is your answer to a Friday night… I must seriously apologize and promise to step it up a bit.
Glad to see you back :) :) :)
LeBlanc said
Welcome back. You have been missed. I thought about you just the other day wondering where in the heck is good ol’ Lynnster.
john h said
Stay back, puhleeeeze. On the other hand, if you ever need to get to sleep on any night, my blog is always there for you.
Hope you are well, and I wish you’d head this way. I still owe you about a week of meals and drinks!
hutch
Linda said
Good to see ya!
ceeelcee said
Hip hip.
Hurray.
Hip hip.
Hurray.
Now if we can get Rex L. to start up again a little more regularly, all would be right in the world. His birthday is on Monday. Rattle his cage blogmeisters!
badbadivy said
Yay, I am so glad you are back! Like John said, please stay back! We missed you!
Ginger said
I am so happy to see you!!! Mack & I were just talking about you YESTERDAY…talk about telepathy!
You have been missed.
Glad you’re back!
Music City Bloggers » Blog Archive » Welcome Back, Kotter Lynnster! said
[...] Lynnster’s been gone, but now she’s back: I think our friend on the West Coast, Magniloquence, put it best recently when she said this: It’s mostly just… I fell off the internet. I do that. [...]
jagadiah said
Hello sweetcheeks! Glad you’re back, in any capacity.
Sharon said
Good to see you at it again.
jonathan hickman said
Good to see you back! I was beginning to wonder about you. :-)
And I understand about trimming the blog reading. I took a big pair of hedge trimmers to my feed reader recently. It hurt, but it was necessary.
:-)
Klinde said
So very, very, very glad you are back! You’ve definitely been missed! I know how it is that sometimes life gets in the way….
Finn said
Yay! You’re back! I had just asked Scout the other day where you’d gotten off to!
Rachel said
Lynnster! Whoopee!
malia said
As my almost 3 year old would say, “You’re Here!” You’ve been missed!
And fwiw…sometimes I think I need to fall of the internets for awhile!
chez bez said
My heart is happy to see your return.
Jeffraham Prestonian said
Who? What?
.
Sarcastro said
Welcome home.
churlita said
Hey. Glad to see you’re back. Thanks for the link.
WonderDawg said
I remember doing the TIme Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me and the void would be calling
Let’s do the time warp again…
Let’s do the time warp again!
Yes Sister, I know where you’re coming from! Welcome back…
Lynnster said
You guys are all the awesomest. Much love to you all!
Lindsey said
Welcome back!