2014
… and we’re back. For now.
I didn’t intend to take January off, I just did. I went back to the USA for much of it. Survived the Polar Vortex. Saw family and friends. Bought books. Read books. Stuffed my luggage full of books and came back to South Korea.
Point of this post is I have no idea what to do with this blog. At the moment I’m a bit bored/tired of the Internet. Even the people I agree with annoy me. It’s become a tug of war between Scolds on one hand and Blow-Hards on the other. I know that’s a mischaracterization. There’s plenty of good stuff out there written by intelligent and insightful folks.
I could go the Slow Blog route. That would be great if I dealt in depth with a single topic. But I don’t. Write about games? Meh. I’d rather play them. Writing? Fuck no. That’s like Level 1 for being a Peanut-Headed Blowhard. Books? You can follow me on Goodreads. All my book posts are copied from there. Ex-pat life in South Korea? Kill me, no.
My problem with the Slow Blog route is that I do think there’s value to regularly posting. Yeah, yeah. Fuck building your platform – it’s simply a good habit getting the junk in your head out of your head. Unfortunately the default setting for social media is narcissism (from slight to over-whelming), and that’s no fun. Well, maybe if you were a wonderful and fascinating person (or could pretend to be so), but, no. And that leaves me no clue what to do.
Except what I’ve been doing. Only maybe a little better.
Yesterweird 
Wow Justin, I know completely how you feel. I’ve never minded that social media had promotion as one of their main raisons d’etre, but it’s not what I want blogging to be primarily about, for myself or the people I follow/read. And issues blogs or themed blogs are limited. What I’ve liked about LJ (and then the blogs I’ve continued to follow, like yours, as people move away from LJ) has been the conversational, catch-all quality. But I find myself at a loss on my own blog, too. What things do I want to talk about? And what things do people want to read about? And am I keeping the blog for “the world”? That’s kind of self-aggrandizing. But then, am I keeping it just to talk to friends? But isn’t that kind of closed-off and limited?
I dunno.
I’ll go friend you on Goodreads. I know I’m not much of a commenter, but I don’t want to lose you.
I’m not likely to go anywhere. But, yeah, there’s a bit of head-scratching going on. “What’s it all about?” etc. I like your term catch-all and for now that’s what 10BH will be, with a mix of a scrapbook / sketchbook thrown in.
I’ve enjoyed reading about South Korea. I must admit, your original adventure was more unusual than currently living in a city. But it’s so different from the US that any aspect of S Korea is worth reading about. The students? If you feel like it. But your trips to temples, the unusual roads and alleyways and byways, that’s what turns me on about your perspective. I do read when you post about what you’ve read, but not with the same interest. What works about your blog, intermittent or not, is that it’s your voice and it’s a unique one.
Oz
Oz! It’s great to hear from you. Thanks for the input.