An ink pen writing on lined paper
If only my penmanship were so elegant! Photo by Aaron Burden (unsplash.com).

Declaration of Intent

Well, today is Monday. Mondays are usually hit or miss at work. Today was kind of both, I guess. I slept in longer than I planned, although I don’t do much planning in that regard. Anyway, I still had enough time to get ready and pack a lunch (as well as eat breakfast).

Maybe it’s allergies, but my left eyeball was pretty much bloodshot when I woke up. Even after eye drops and a cold cloth I still looked like a drug addict. Oh well, I suppose the folks at work are used to it by now.

I spent about an hour and a half in the shipping department for the first part of the morning. I haven’t been in shipping since around February, I think. It was around that time our powers-that-be decided to revise the shipping system. The revision was meant to eliminate costly mistakes known as miss-ships, which occur when products get sent to the wrong warehouse. Without boring you too much, the new system sucked hard.

After hearing a lot of grumbling and very few suggestions, I went to work on a solution. It was a solution of necessity, to be honest. The system was driving me nuts. The old system, while better, still had a lot of inherent flaws that only seemed to be magnified by the new one. In any event, I had an idea. It was a biblical idea at that. I told God if it worked, I would give him the glory. Not surprisingly, it did. After a bit of backsliding, I eventually upheld my half.

Anyway, all this to say that I’ve been out of the shipping loop for a few months. So the time I spent this morning was good, because I’ll be going back next week. Next week, I start Spanish 103. Next week, my life returns to chaos. I’m enjoying the brief respite, but I’ve got a lot of work to do on my personal creative projects. Which brings me to the topic at hand: my blog.

The trouble with blogging is at least two-fold.

First, I tend to enjoy crafting tales of my experiences and/or thoughts in such a way that isn’t just stream-of-consciousness updating. This entry is perhaps an exception, but in general I treat each blog as if it were a short essay or entertainment article with an intended audience of everyone. I love it, but there’s a price.

I can’t always say what I want, at least not what’s really on my mind. I can’t share the deeper, more serious thoughts. Yes, I do have them. And yes, some of my past blogs were kind-of-sort-of deep. It’s more an audience problem than an ability problem. How do I balance funny and not-so-funny?

Second, my style of writing takes time. Time to prepare, time to proofread, time to revise… ultimately, a lot of time. Too much time.

There you have it. The trouble with my blog. There’s not much I can do about the time issue, but there’s something I’ve started doing about the setting. I’ve started keeping a detailed journal (not a diary, ladies) of events in my life, both big and small. I do this so I can express what’s on my mind, but also because I tend to forget a lot of stuff. I want to be able to look back and remember the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I’m also using it for future reference when I write volume two of my autobiography (years 25 to 50). And no, volume one does not exist yet.

OK, so what does this mean? Since fall of ’08, I had plans to start a second blog that would begin in January of 2009 and receive updates two or three times a month. It was designed for entertainment purposes only and would not feature personal ramblings about bittersweet romantic endeavors and/or pent up anxiety. It may have featured amusing retellings of childhood stories and highly embellished glimpses into the unusual workings of my brain, but it was intended to keep readers at a healthy distance.

That particular blog is still moving forward, albeit slowly. As for my official, run-of-the-mill personal blog with a hint of entertainment (this one), it only seems right to grant it a merciful death. It’s been five months since the last update and I don’t have much to share that hasn’t been recorded in my journal, the likes of which you won’t see until I’m dead. I have so many other creative outlets I’ve neglected that it only makes sense to axe the one that never quite worked.

On one hand, I wanted to entertain; on the other, to bare my soul (metaphorically speaking). But it’s a fine line between glamorizing mundane happenings and sharing intimate thoughts I wouldn’t dare utter aloud to those creepy weirdos swimming through cyberspace. And then there’s the people I don’t know.

As per the title of this blog, permit me to make a declaration. Thanks for the Memories is officially dead. My intent, however, is to return to blogging this fall with my all-new, half-baked, hyperbolic (pertaining to hyperbole) entertainment extravaganza!

It’s called Pizza for Breakfast. And I’ll let you know more as it develops.

Author’s Note
Pizza for Breakfast was my standalone blog during university. Posts revolved around campus life and food. You can find them under Blog > College Years.