Jun. 10, 2018
As much as I hate to write about writing, especially when I write so infrequently, I feel I need to reboot this blog. I wrote so few posts in recent months I considered giving up altogether.
I’ve been stressed. Sometimes this manifests in being unable to sleep. Sometimes it manifests in all my interests and ideas seeming to be completely pointless. Sometimes one of those precedes the other. Sometimes it works vice versa. Often since getting back from Australia I’ve felt stuck in a vicious circle of insomnia and disinterest. Perhaps it’s just been the longest case of jet lag ever.
Despite all this, I’ve tried to stay busy. Well I say busy, it’s more that Ingrid and I decided to get every Civilisation VI achievement. I bet that makes us sound so dull but we do other things I promise. We’ve started making cocktails. My goodness this post is becoming a hundred different cries for help!
I’ve been trying to write. I decided to back-date the series of posts about our trip to Australia to around the time the events occurred. I thought it would be nice to have a record of the holiday in real time. When planning the posts I could not believe how much we packed into our three and a half weeks. Beforehand it seemed like such a long holiday. However, during and afterwards it was nothing of the sort!
My problem with writing back-dated posts is what to do about ‘live’ posts: the ones you might see on Facebook and Twitter about what’s going on in my life. These ground to a halt even though I could write about ten book reviews right now. If my reading slowed down I would definitely worry for my mental health!
Also, I love to tinker behind the scenes of the blog. This was one reason I switched to Jekyll. I’ve experimented with themes and toyed with writing my own. My hard drive is full of experiments in CSS and attempts to pull it all together in Jekyll. I imagine that the appearance of the site will change again soon despite my resolution to write more and tinker less.
One problem is that I write about so many things. Another problem is that I want to write about even more things. Everything from 2010 till now feels forced and embarrassing when I re-read it, and the stuff I draft in the meantime doesn’t feel much better. But throughout my time blogging I have learned writing regularly is the best tonic for my mental health. With the stress and pressure of buying a house, I need to get into good habits again.
And no, I won’t let that slip by without further comment! Ingrid and I have bought a house. Or rather, at the time of writing, we are buying a house. It is the single most frightening thing to happen in a long time. It’s also incredibly exciting. I’m apprehensive about the future but I think it also opens up so many possibilities, and not just for DIY!
So I will crack on with the posts I have planned. Some won’t show up in the usual channels as they’ll be those backdated Australia posts I mentioned. Most will be book reviews to begin with because the list of posts to write is almost as long as the list of books to read…
I will also think about what this blog is. (Besides the egomaniacal ravings I type out to smooth out my crazy…) I think if I figure it out, maybe I can design a structure for the site that suits me. This might soothe my tinkering urges. In the meantime: bear with me, and thanks for reading.