Monday, February 13, 2012

"What happened with that?" (Update Time!)

It was a little over a year ago that I started this blog, and I did so with every intention of keeping up with a series of “regular” features.  WELL, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN, DID IT.  Or at least not the way I envisioned.  So today I thought I’d offer a quick survey of the “regulars” of this blog and where they stand right now…

What the fuck happened to these people?
ACTUAL AARON CARTER NEWS:  Actually, considering the subject at hand, I probably cover this particular topic as often as it needs to be covered.
CHEAP BEER OF THE MONTH CLUB:  Um, why did I think it was a good idea to start a blog feature that required me to spend money?  The problem was that if I bought a crappy beer that month (and I often did), I was stuck drinking it, and even the crappiest of beers still put me back ten bucks or so.  But because I will always have a soft spot for really shitty beer, I envision this one making a comeback, albeit in a less structured (scheduled) fashion.

HATIN’ ON ZUCK:  I try to restrain myself by saving my entries about Facebook as drafts and never publishing them…and somehow I STILL wound up with a blog that was full of Facebook complaints.  My issue here is twofold, starting with the fact that when I was unemployed, a five-minute break meant walking outside or something.  Now that I’m in an office job, my five-minute break has morphed into logging into Facebook. 

Stop updating your damn statuses, runners.
Secondly, once I started running with a bunch of people who are on Facebook ALL THE FREAKING TIME, SERIOUSLY, YOU PEOPLE NEVER GET OFF, I developed a moderately disturbing compulsion to keep up with everything everybody was posting, even though there was absolutely no tangible benefit to (or reason for) this.  So I was on quite a bit and anything that takes up that much of my time is going to be something I write about...  Often...

And see, I thought at least I was doing well in keeping my Facebook activity on the down low, but a couple of months ago, someone said to me, “You’re on there all the time!” and I was mortified and have since tried to never write blog entries about Facebook (although sometimes I still do). 

But OOOOH, I have so much I could say about my theories about friend ranking in Timeline! 

(“Hatin’ on Zuck” could be its own blog.)

LIVING CHEAP:  This one I abandoned on purpose because no one liked any of my suggestions for saving money (which mostly involved just never spending any money…on anything…ever).  And then last week I went to the eye doctor and discovered my tactic of stretching out six months’ worth of contacts over three years had me risking partial blindness in my left eye (er, oops).  Therefore perhaps I am not the best person to be imparting money-saving tips.

RUNNING W/ BECKY:  I’ve had countless requests to publish Breakaway drama on this blog and while I have been extremely tempted (OH, the drafts I have saved on this particular topic!), I haven’t yet for a couple of reasons.

First, changing names would help in terms of protecting people’s identities, but in a group that tight and incestuous, it probably wouldn’t help as much as it should; I can’t envision a way of using this blog to divulge the very details that make this group so fascinating without someone (myself included) getting hurt. 

How athletic I am!
Also, the last six months of 2011 fucking outdid themselves (boy drama, man drama, boy-man drama, catty girl drama) and I let myself get sucked under by it all.  And I didn’t come out the other end with anything good to show for it, either.  In fact, it’s taken a conscientious effort on my part to step back and recognize that for being the healthiest group of people I’ve ever known, some of my running pals were having some decidedly unhealthy side effects on me.  (I think I cried in the Breakaway store at least once for every month in the last half of 2011.  And just WHAT THE HELL.)

At the moment, my personal drama level is down, my interest in other people’s drama is also down, and thusly I’ll (mostly) continue to stick to writing about the actual running part of it all.

(Not that any of this has had any effect whatsoever on my intention to write that salacious book, mind you…)

STORIES ABOUT ELEVATOR PEOPLE:  What in the name of holy hell happened to Abercrombie & Fitch Boy?  He was the sole reason it was worth getting on the elevator in the morning, but after the Justin Bieber paternity scandal, he vanished from my life.  Goddamn him.  And no one interesting has gotten into an elevator with me since…

MYSTERIOUS DRAWER FIND.
TEXTS FROM LAST NIGHT/WRONG NUMBER (I didn't title this one very consistently):  One should never announce to the internet something like, “Hey, I get wrong texts and voicemails ALL THE DAMN TIME and I’m going to start writing about them,” because as soon as one does, even if one HAS been getting wrong texts and voicemails for MONTHS, one will stop getting them altogether and suddenly have nothing to write about. :(

THINGS I’VE FOUND IN DRAWERS:  I have, like, ten things scanned in for this, but none of them make any sense and I kinda think you don’t care.

And there are some other regular features but those are the highlights and let’s not get carried away going through the whole damn list, AMIRITE?

YAY, it’s been over a year and I still care enough to post reasonably often about a myriad of selfish topics.  I DO LOVE THIS BLOGGING THING (even on the ninth [?] try). :D

8 comments:

  1. You are too hard on yourself there. I mean you don't do this to earn anything from it?? or???

    So there doesn't needs to be any consistency or a daily post... if this blog becomes a burden we all lose ;) - you the fun (I hope it still is for most of the time) and we you, your writing.

    Sasha

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  2. :)

    You're VERY RIGHT. I definitely don't make any money doing this and I *wouldn't* do it if I didn't truly, truly enjoy it. I just like writing blogs...and I hope that that comes across. :)

    I get many suggestions/questions/etc from people "in real life" about what I post here. I'd gotten enough of the same responses lately that there were a few things that were weighing on me, and I felt like I needed to explain. Hopefully this cleared some things up for anyone who was wondering (about any of it)! :D And next entry, we will return to my regularly scheduled nonsense... ;)

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  3. Only a year? Seriously? It feels longer. In a good way :) The homey kind of way, like this is a virtual hanging-out-with-friends spot that I'd gotten used to and liking it a lot. That way.

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  4. So glad to hear it, Malin!! :D That's exactly the kind of feel I always want my blogs to have...though sometimes it works better than other times. :) I've just been very, very grateful that we've been able to have some great discussions in the comments here. In this Facebook era, it's hard to get people to leave comments anywhere else! (And I hope it goes without saying that I'm *always* grateful to anyone who reads anything I write. :))

    I'm so happy you feel at home over here; I do, too!!

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  5. I, for one, would love to hear your opinions on the friend rankings in timeline. Mainly I just want to know what other people see when they look at my timeline. Because when I look at it, I am guaranteed to get a couple of the people I don't know at all, but stalk like it is my job.... Just want to know how it translates for other people. Are mutual friends the key driver? I don't know.... Damn you Zuck!!

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  6. @beej: I was wondering that, too. But then again I never understood how the rankings worked.

    Sasha

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  7. I just posted a new entry on this, although now that it's up, I realize I didn't even address the issue of mutual friends! And maybe that's because I haven't given that the full thought it deserves. I do know that the largest interconnected group of friends I have on FB are the runners, and there are staggering numbers of mutual friends in that group, and these are the people whom I most often see on my profile. But these are *also* the people I tend to interact with most online (because they're the most active)...so I don't know. Too many variables!!

    Dammit. Another thing to ponder!

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  8. Intelligence test (TM)Facebook ...lol... I just put myself in the "FAIL" group ;)

    Sasha

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