Whenever I start a blog (and I have authored many over the years), there's always a certain amount of pressure to maintain it and add content regularly. Unfortunately, for a while now, it has felt like too much effort to put fingers to keyboard and produce something substantial. I don't really care for smaller entries like "I got a raise! Hooray!" (incidentally, that entry would be classified as fiction).
Very rarely do I feel compelled to share anything about my personal life. Not because I don't trust readers, I do. It's more a question of me wondering "Does anyone really want to know this?" If so, I could go on at length about my recent horrific car accident and the lingering whiplash that keeps me from even sneezing successfully because the pain in my chest is too much. But that's depressing and to go into details would probably bring back the flashbacks, which I can do without. Personal life can be pretty interesting, in fact, with enough Harvey Pekar-esque minutiae and comedy, it can be really fun. But I just don't have that in me.
Politics is exhausting. I still read my collection of favored websites each day and get some info, but trying to maintain a political-themed blog is a real hassle. The internet and 24-hour cable news networks create for a climate of constant "revelations" and "alerts." As a political blog, you feel like you have to give your two cents on each one...and who really has time for that...unless it's your sole profession. In that case, I would do it happily, because that's a hell of a racket. But honestly, there's so much political commentary on the web that just about any thought I have has probably already been expressed somewhere else.
Master of the Wind is difficult to blog about when it's in production. I don't like to reveal story details, and posting updates just to showcase new sprites/maps/etc just makes me feel like a tool. The MotW website generates enough activity on its own by now. Once the game's done, though, things might change.
So what's that leave? Well, one subject that always really gets me in the mood to write is movies. Unlike most film buffs with a blog, I actually have a degree in Cinema Studies and am highly qualified to talk about it. The sad thing is, professional film criticism informed by any kind of actual scholarship rather than just someone's kneejerk opinions is a dying art. Because I get so little use of that degree (thank God I studied journalism also), that's probably why I feel so compelled to write on this subject.
I always dissect and hypothesize during Oscar season, which I know some people find baffling. The Academy routinely makes boneheaded decisions and often just goes with whatever movies have the strongest publicity campaign, but I can't help trying to guess the results each time. After all, I don't give a shit about football or baseball or any other sport, this is really all I have when it comes to following pointless competition.
So I'm guessing this will be primarily an Oscars blog, inactive for most of the year but busy when the movies start going head to head for that gold statue. Though if other inspiration strikes, it may find its way here...I've had a Halloween themed idea for a while now, guess I should hurry if I want to be in time. Try and remember me when Oscar season starts!
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