For those of you who read this site I’m not dead. Rather I’ve taken a brief vacation from kartooner.com to focus on college finals, work on a top-secret project with Matt and prepare for a vacation coming up in January.
A few months ago when I made the choice to go back to school, after a 3-year hiatus, I realized that it would take a great deal of patience and dedication and indeed it has. I’ve tried to divide my time between family, work, school and maintaining this site and I have to drop one of them, temporarily, in order to focus on furthering myself as an artist, student, father, husband and gamer.
I’ve noticed that a few of the sites that I visit on a daily basis have been experiencing brief hiatuses, mostly due to school and others the result of “blogger burnout”, a common occurence amongst those of us who live and breath in the blogging realm. Let’s face it, blogging has become mainstream and while that’s a good thing in the sense that the media and corporations are doing double takes, it also means that everyone and their donkey is blogging.
Most blogs are merely journals, outlets to vent frustrations or collect observations about life (including that guy who cut you off last week on the corner of 5th and Main) while other blogs focus on a specific subject matter like web development, advertising, corporate life and cartoons. In the past year I’ve amassed over 300 feeds from a variety of sources and between Feeddemon and Bloglines I can pretty much become more knowledgable in anything I wish to learn about.
You’ll find that most people are willing to share their ideas and by sharing I mean collaboration. As humans we love to gossip and build our egos and this is a good thing because if no one felt comfortable or excited about sharing new concepts then the world would be a solemn place. I couldn’t tell you the amounts of times that I’ve felt good (or great even) about receiving feedback on certain articles I’ve written.
It makes me want to continue learning about what I do best, what I’m curious about and what I know I’ll never do (like being a rocket scientist or ice-cream tester) because knowledge is the key to success. Bloggers are people who are willing to share their knowledge of various topics and in doing so they have hopes that they’ll also receive commentary and feedback, which ultimately builds a community.
The community that has developed from this site alone, the “kartooner’ites” as I call my readers, is important to me in more ways than I could explain. I love the feeling of posting an article and mere hours later comments start to collect like flies on honey paper. It builds my ego, yes, but it also makes me proud that I’ve managed to share something with someone and they got something out it. I think it’s important that if you’re reading these sites and enjoying them then you should make it a habit of leaving a comment here and there. Trust me, it’ll make a world of difference to the person who runs the site, does their research and releases their words to the world.
That said, I hope that everyone has a great holiday and makes the most of it. We have so little time here and it’s best that you breath in the details because before you know it the present will become just a memory.
In other site-related news (sorry for the abrupt off topic redirect) the Atom feed for this site is now powered by the excellent Feed Burner service. For those of you reading this site in your preferred feed reader, the feed URL is now located here. With this service enabled I plan on adding a few cool features to the feed in the next few days, so if you could do me a favor and switch over that would be great.
Thanks for reading and now back to your regulary scheduled lives.
I know the feeling man. I’ve been blogging for a bit over a year now and it’s taking backburner too.
It’s nice to have a community to which you contribute but first things first. I respect your decision. Do good on your finals!
Mike: I’m finished with my final for Mass Communications. My professor gave us a few questions to answer, no more than 200 words per answer which ultimately proved to be difficult, moreso than if there were no restriction on word count.
The only other final I have left is for math and that will be pretty easy I’m thinking as I’ve been getting 90-100% on every test.
I remember what blogging burnout feels like - I’ve had like 6 or 7 incarnations of a weblog of sorts since 2000, and if I weren’t that inconsistent I could have easily reached an audience the size of Kottke or whatever blogstar you may think of. But that’s not why I started doing it in the first place.
These days, it’s not much about burnout as well as not having the time I used to have to sit down and write something coherent and worthwhile from the lots of ideas I always have flying on my head. I tend to be very stringent with myself in regards to publishing. That, plus the fact that I have fun but no profit from my personal site, makes updates appear at a snail-slow pace.
But seemingly I’m not alone, so what gives. ;)
Hope you did well! Congratulations on your commitments; most people are only good at one thing. I’m glad you take the time to be a father and a student so seriously.
I remember the first time I came to Kartooner, by way of a comment you had left on RobotJohnny. I thought the content was unique and interesting in a way that reminded me of having a conversation with a friend who tells good stories. I’ve learned a lot from this site, and you have been a great supporter (probably the first supporter) of my site. I remember why I was interested in blogging when I read your posts. It was never about sharing what toothpaste I use (Crest), but about telling little stories from my perspective. I’m not trying to change the world; I’m just looking for a little meaning.
I think the wonder of the blogosphere is the small connections you make with other people through interaction on their site and/or your own. I value each comment because it means that somebody cares enough one way or the other to share their opinion.
Knowing a small amount about your personal life and family affects the way I think about your posts, and where they are coming from. I get the sense that you might wake up at 3am to bail me out of jail if I knew you in the real world. I’m proud to be a reader.
Where do I get the Kartoonerite t-shirt?
Great comment Greg, I couldn’t have said it better. If blogging is in the dictionary, this site should be highlighted along with it, as it defines what best a blog is about. Learning new things, discovering a new personality, and becoming a part of a great community.
Beto: Plus, you got to hang out with the original Blogger crew way back when. Anyhow, you’re right though, it does take time to dedicate oneself to blogging and everyone at any point in time has something to say. It’s just finding the time to formulate your thoughts, which isn’t an easy thing to do and type them out, check for inconsistencies and spelling mistakes, it takes a lot of time and effort.
Max: Thanks man. In your situation I bet you’re proud to be a new home and dog owner, as well as a good husband and comic book artist.
Greg: Thanks man, I really appreciate all that you had to say. Makes me feel good that you’ve gotten something out of this site and even then some. As for revealing various aspects of my personal life, I suppose I never thought of it the way you explained it but yeah, I think it’s good for every blogger or writer even to reveal small glimpses of their personal lives.
In effect and as you explained so well, you begin to understand where the writer is coming from and in that sense you begin to see the whole picture, not just what toothpaste they use (Colgate).
As for the shirt, who knows? I do plan on cracking the whip on Sideville here soon so merchandise will be rolling out soon (how soon? Again, who knows?) I’d rather not get too many hopes up until I’m comfortable with the material.
I’m a moron. I just typed up this message and then hit some key on my keyboard and lost it all, so I’ll make this one short.
I have to agree with Greg on this one. When you can make a story about sub sandwiches sound suspensful, you’ve got my attention. Just kidding. I can say that you’ve been blessed with an ability to tell stories. It’s always interesting to read your stories
Your posts always sound as if you’re speaking with someone instead of to them. It’s a very charismatic trait and probably has a lot to do with the crowd you have here. It’s always a pleasure to see you all’s gravatars.
To echo Greg and Fernando, I’ve definitely enjoyed your posts and learned so much from your site’s layout and design. Thanks for your dedication to the site! It inspires those of us who haven’t been at it for a long time!
Remember these words, as spoken by someone relatively famous:
“If the blog gets old, time to break the mold.”
Or, these words, from someone even more famous:
“If you’ve got too much to do, axe the blog, we will too!”
Or, these words, which have nothing to do with the previous two:
“You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, unless you turn around.”
No problem — I’m here to help.
Thanks for those words of encouragement, Paul. :)