The Once and Future Blogger – My Return to Blogging

This is my return to blogging.

Hello, hi! It’s me. I’m Los.

I know, I know. The name, the site, it all rings a distant, faded bell in your head. I feel like this should be one of those commercials where the celebrity introduces themselves like, “hey, I’m so and so. You may know me from hit movies like whatever-whatever, or the TV show blardy-blar.” At this point, if you are familiar with my brand of crazy here back when I was updating on the regular, then seeing me here now would probably be equivalent to watching black & white reruns of old shows. Heck, I’m sure my stating “I’m returning to blogging!” is enough to earn me a spot on a 2a.m. syndicated TV schedule.

Well, Lucy, baby! Here’s to hoping I could be your Ricky Ricardo. (if you don’t catch that reference don’t tell me, I wouldn’t be able to handle it) Because I’m slowly but surely getting my sea legs back under me. I know I’ve said it countless times before. Like, an embarrassing amount of times. But this time it’s different. Because this time, it’s true! This is my return to blogging.

Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years.

I’ve been rebuilt. Melted down and remolded and reforged. I’m Frankenstein’s monster, put together by all sorts of pieces from various places and even timelines. I know, I’ve led you down this path before. And so many other times I’ve stated that I’m back or something of the sort. But a powerful, successful, albeit terrible man once said…

So that’s basically the same thing right?

Watch…

Yeah, that’s like totally the same. Nailed it.

Not all who wander are lost.

I feel different. Like… I don’t know. Like I’ve been wandering. Wandering for a long time. Sometimes even feeling lost, though not mentally. Don’t get me wrong. Mentally, I’m not perfect at all. My goodness, there are some demons there, for sure, but nothing horrible. Overall, in the grand picture, I’m good. We all have problems and issues that we could work on but I like to think I’m ok.

Alright, before this starts taking up my 30 minutes on the couch, I was referring to being lost here, online. My return to blogging has been teased for years now, let’s be honest. But I always seem to find something else to do, only to then lose track of that soon after. So yeah, lost, as in, on this digital plane that we seem to be ever navigating throughout our minutes, hours, days, years. Never really knowing my place, not quite fitting into anywhere, yet still, existing without care.

Whether we like to see it this way or not, we all have a different consciousness online. Here on this World Wide Web, we all have different personalities and often totally different lives from the real world. Sometimes, it’s pretty sinister. I’m looking at you, fake influencers. Yeeeeah, we all know you’re not going to eat that food after you take pictures of it! (You can totally cry on my shoulder if you’re sad, just don’t let me catch you throwing away that sandwich.) But most of the time, it’s really just that everyone is a consumer. Not for products, mind you. But for content. Let me see if I could paint the picture for you…

You wake up, grab your phone, check your email, see a notification for a new YouTube video from a creator you like so you go check it out. This creator is referring to an Instagram post so you head over there to check that out. You open it up, and you see the post, but then you start scrolling your feed there, enjoying what your friends have posted from the night before. They went to a new restaurant in town. You looked up the menu and see it’s stuff you could easily make at home. You really want to save some money for a new laptop, so you get inspired for a night to dine in. Off to Pinterest you go for inspiration on the meal you want to make! You find a sweet blog called The Man, The Chef, The Dad with a great recipe and he goes into detail about how it’s the best thing he’s made and you love the pictures and how it sounds because he is an awesome blogger so you go with it (hey, this is my theoretical situation, what other blog is it going to be?!). And look, you have all the ingredients already and now, you don’t need to worry about that dreaded question, “what’s for dinner?”

By-products of Obsession

See what I mean? Most of us online are consumers. From eyes open to bed time, you’re taking in content of some form from somewhere. Some, more than others, that’s for sure. There are those who get pretty addicted to the screen. Then there’s doomscrolling which seems to have overtaken baseball as America’s pastime these days. But I digress. For the most part, we’re all guilty of being gluttons for consuming content online.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to shame you. I’m guilty of it myself and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s the way life is these days. There’s universes worth of things to take in and we barely scratch the surface when we look at our screens.

All That is Gold Does Not Glitter

We are beasts of habit. Wandering the land for comfort. For shelter from what lies about. And when we find it, it’s hard to wander away. For some it’s watching anime and partaking in the community. Or maybe it’s food videos of people cooking recipes that remind the wanderer of better times. Of their childhood, or old relatives that have since wandered beyond reach. Or maybe it’s something as simple as ASMR content of someone simply making a cup of coffee. The wanderer knows what fuels their journey ahead. A hard day of work, of life – of simply surviving – needs sustenance in comfort. We all face hardships we must endure whether it be difficult tasks appointed or the ever-constant pursuit of gold. See, being a wanderer online is not a bad thing at all. We know that there is happiness and light to be found amongst the darkness. 

My point!

Now that I’ve explained that, I can get to what is the leading cause for my return to blogging. And it’s that I’m tired of being a consumer. I mean, I’ll always be one, there’s no fighting it. I love it on an educational level. Learning new things, figuring out how things work, I could get lost down that rabbit hole. Other rabbit holes, not so much, but that’s another post. The issue with me is that, despite having free time here and there, my consuming feels riddled with guilt.

I’ll get more into it below (and I’m sure in future posts), but after so long, I feel like it’s time for another shift. For the past few years, heck, the past many years it seems, I’ve been nothing but a consumer. I’ve been doing nothing but taking in. Watching and reading. Playing. Bingeing reels and videos. And that hole when you dive into it, well, it’s endless. Think you figured everything out? Think you know everything about something? Well guess what, there are 3827940 more things lined up right behind where you left off. Think you can do just one more run of Balatro? Yeah, fat chance. 

It’s Time

And like I said, it’s all great, it truly is. The fact that there is so much out there to help people with various topics is amazing. But at my core, I’m a creator. A creative. A tinkerer. If I need to have something done, 9 times out of 10, I’m going to figure out how to do it myself. All I’ve done throughout the 13 years of this blog’s existence is a testament to the fact that I was not always just a consumer. But lately, it’s all I’ve been doing. That’s why I feel like it’s time to change. See what I mean?? 13 freaking years on this site. I always said a return to blogging was going to happen because I knew it needed to. 

I have this blog, and my podcast, The Talking Place. Those are my main outlets for making content. And I have neglected them beyond recognition. I came here to fix up the blog before writing this post and my goodness, the things I had to update or get rid of just to make it feel alive again. Once I get this thing going and working like a machine the way it used to, my podcast is going to be next. 

I’ve Just Been…

I’m tired of just always taking in. And I discovered this thanks to the current state of the world. It really made me take a step back and realize a few things… For years, all I’ve been doing is floating about online. I’d be here, I’d be there. Just doing whatever, seeing whoever, talking about anything and everything I was into. And even then,I don’t have much to show for it, footprint wise. And that’s because I feel like I haven’t been creating. I have social media which I’ve been subconsciously drifting away from for years now, so I figured what better than a return to blogging to fill the need of feeling productive?

But to my defense, I feel like I’ve been doing pretty ok with being present for my kids, so the trade off is not that hard of a pill to swallow. This also resonates into my gaming hobby, which many in my circles will tell you I’ve also been pretty consistent in neglecting. I haven’t been taking time away from my kids (despite what my teenager might say, but again, another post) to post to social media or play games which I thoroughly enjoy. I’m always taking pictures and videos of our time together, but I don’t want to take the time to post anything to social media like I used to. I’ve just been… Living. And what’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing.

Such a weird concept, right?!

And before you say, “oh, you could just post to socials or do your thing when the kids go to bed!” or, “Seriously, you can’t really have your entire day taken up by your kids.”  To the posting when they’re in bed:  yeah, ok, sure. Lady, I’m lucky to stay awake long enough to find something to put 0n the tv for background noise. I get so mad at myself too, when I know I’m dozing off. Like “NO! I have work to do! I’m not falling a–*SNORE*” And to the kids taking up my day: Well, obviously, yes? I mean, I’m a stay-at-home parent. If your young kid is there and your day is not taken up by them, then what in TF are you even doing?? (this does not include teenagers, as I’ve recently learned)

Adapting

Living has been great, btw. It’s been rough, not going to lie. But it’s been great in that we’re still here, and mostly healthy, and alive together. Times are hard, and despite my hope, they don’t seem like they’re going to get any easier. And continuing to be honest, rough times is what drove me to the decision to jump back into blogging. I’ve never ever, ever seen my blog as a business.

Never ran ads, never tried to pimp myself out there to the masses. But times done changed. Life, as per freaking usual, is not letting up and seems to increase in difficulty every chance it gets. So let this be my formal apology for turning on ads here. I hate the way they look but I’m going to try to keep them respectful with placement. I’ll get more into this in another post, don’t worry. Haha, what is that? Like 5 new posts to look forward to? This return to blogging might be easier than anticipated. 

Evolving

Speaking of new posts, I think my next one will focus on what’s new here. What I did to update everything and how I feel like I’ve evolved with things. I’m excited! I know, I’ve said this so many times before. But it really does feel different.

I feel like I am able to splinter off into numerous other posts with what I’m writing so it’s getting hard to stay on topic. I think this is a good jumping off point. The little kick off the ledge to jump back into the waters of writing and a return to blogging. So let’s break the champagne bottle and kick those engines off! 

Que dios te bendiga

Los