I used to be prolific blogger. I used to blog two or three times a day. I used to love blogging but then about two years ago, I suddenly stopped blogging. There are a number of reasons, I stopped but the main reason was because I began to hate my blog. I began to hate my blog because it was a burden. Blogging was supposed to be a creative outlet. It was supposed to be fun. Here is why I began to hate my blog.
It became a JOB.
About two years ago, I got the job. The job has a very strict social media policy. I love my job and as much as I am not good at admitting it, I am good at my job. So I don’t want to screw up the job.  I don’t even really blame the job for the lack of blogging because I still was blogging after the job.
The other part is the blog itself became a job. I made commitments to companies to either give them coverage on my blog or to review a product. I spend 50-70 hours a week at my job that supports my family. The last thing I want to do is come home or get up early to work on my other job that has become a chore because a) I committed to do something or b) something is broken which leads me to my other point.
Something is always BROKEN.
Blogging is a constant chore. Writing posts became a chore. Opening my wordpress dashboard became a chore. Something is always broken. Everyday it felt like I was either updating a plugin or trying to get something to work that somehow had got screwed up. Currently at this moment my comments are not showing up and my categories and tags are not working properly. Also zemanta stopped working. I have tried uninstalling everything and reinstalling everything but even that has become a chore. I was spending way too much time thinking about or trying to fix my blog.
Then SPAM hit.
I uninstalled everything and reinstalled it. I tweaked and troubleshot. I then got tired, threw my hands up in frustration, and went to bed. I didn’t touch my blog for awhile. Then I became inspired by a meme by friend Toni was doing and decided to start blogging once a day again. Then the spam hit.
I was contacted by my hosting service that my blog and my other blog, Rules for My Daughter, and my wife’s blog; all had put a strain on their servers and they would shut down my sites if I didn’t fix the issues asap. Apparently by blogging for three days straight, I had got the attention of spam bots and they had left 30,000 comments on this blog, 20,000 on Rules and were working their way towards 10,000 on wife’s blog (that by the way has 0 posts on except the Hello World one that wordpress puts up with installation).
WordPress doesn’t have an easy way to delete 60,000 spam comments. I googled some solutions and was able to fix it in a couple of hours. All that did was make me not want to blog again.
It was taken away Family.
All the above reasons were taking time away from my family which is unacceptable. My wife referred to the computer as a wall between me and my family. So I quit. I just left the blog alone. The blog will never rank over my family.
Then I started running.
With the running became research. I stumbled across some great blogs such as Daily Training, Shut Up and Run, and Sweat Once A Day. And that is just naming a few. I became inspired again. Also, trying to talk to a non-runner (i.e my wife as of now but I plan on converting her soon) about nutrition, PR, pace, gear, etc is not fun because they have no real interest in it. Don’t get me wrong my wife is very supportive, she doesn’t have a lot to add to the conversation.
Blogging again but different this time.
I am going to start blogging again but this time it will be different. I am going to blog about my passions. I am not going to be come overwhelmed. I will not commit to too much.
I am going to blog about being a dad. My family come first and I am going to share the great things about them with the Internet. I still will review products that have to do with family life.
I will be blogging about geeky things such as comic books, Star Wars, Doctor Who, movies, television, design, marketing, and art.
I am going to blog about books. I got a Kindle recently and it has opened me to whole another world of books. I read a lot so I am going to share my passion about that.
I am going to blog about Memphis. I live in Memphis and love this town. I think sometimes people don’t know what to do in this city and granted there are great blogs such as Paul Ryburn and I Love Memphis but one more shouting from the rooftops can’t hurt.
Running has become a large part of my life so I am going to blog about my journey. I am training for a marathon in December. Maybe I can inspire another person to get off the couch and start moving. Look for this to be a big part of my blog moving forward.
Wow that is the most I have written in months. I am not saying I will write everyday but I am going to try and blog more here and at Rules for My Daughter. I hope you enjoy what you read. I am off the build Legos and watch Star Wars with my daughter.
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