To blog, or not to blog?

So, I kind of lied. I said I was going to put effort into this blog. I said I was going to commit to a whole new suite of articles. I said there was going to be some good content. I started writing articles, editing pictures, and even making contacts at potential subjects to interview.

Then, I got lazy. The blog became an afterthought in my ever-busy life. After my weight just barely topped 150 pounds in January, I started a new diet and a more detailed exercise regime. I am proud to say I hit 129 just a few weeks ago and haven't had serious acid reflux in months. I joined an improv comedy troupe and appeared in a stage production for the first time in six years. I started applying for jobs and started a new position last week.

When I finally had the time and thought devoted to blogging again, I tried to sign on to edit my blog, and I couldn't. There was some sort of glitch, and I couldn't figure it out. I alternated between giving up and trying to figure it out, and after months, I finally figured out that my inability to edit my blog stemmed from a combination of Blogger's new user interface and the outdated version of IE my computer was using.

So, that brings me to now. I have a new computer and the new version of IE (though I'll probably switch to Mozilla or Chrome soon). I'm in a new house with a new job and new people around me. I am now ready to blog.

Well, not really. First, I'm going to analyze the many failures of Blog the Swamp and try to see how I can avoid those in my new one. These include:

• Irregular updating. Yeah, it was pretty sketchy. This time, I hope to at least update once every few days, even with short, paragraph-long anecdotes or a picture or two. That way, you will know I'm still alive and interested in the website.
• Lack of focus. I'm not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. I wrote movie reviews, political commentary, and narratives of random events. I am pondering focusing my new website, but I don't know where to go from there.
• Lack of pictures. I take lots of pictures that nobody ever sees. That should change.

Lastly, I've resolved to making real progress on at least one of my half-dozen unfinished novels. That's going to take up quite a bit of time, especially since, depending on the plot I choose to finish, it could be like starting from scratch.

So, that's where I am. Please be patient with me while I figure out where I'm going, and as usual, thanks for reading.

THIS BLOG WILL BE SAVED!

Okay, I promised I wouldn't let this die. And I've promised that like five times already. Well, now I'm here to promise again that this blog will return very shortly. This time, I actually have a few series of articles that I'm currently working on and will be publishing interchangeably over the next few weeks. Here's a brief preview:

Canned Activism: If you haven't heard of "Kony 2012," you probably will soon enough. It's a marketing campaign aimed at increasing awareness of the Lord's Resistance Army, a militant group in Uganda known for forcing children to join its ranks. What I find very interesting about this campaign is that I've known about the LRA for several years now. I know people (some of you are probably reading this) who have been trying to build awareness of child soldiers, including those taken by the LRA, since the mid 2000s, with little to no success. Why now? And will the increased attention to the LRA and child soldiers last? In "Canned Activism," I will explore the sudden rise of this awareness campaign while at the same time looking at similar "awareness" movements that rise rapidly and seemingly disappear - think Occupy Wall Street, Darfur, Haiti earthquake relief, the Jena Six. Is our attention span really that short?

Dances with Reflux: This series will focus on my increasingly difficult battle with acid reflux and indigestion. I am nearing the one-year anniversary of the sudden onset of symptoms that has pretty much quashed my culinary exploits, severaly curtailed my enjoyment of physical activity, and greatly aggravated my mental health. In "Dances with Reflux," I will talk about challenges with changing my diet and returning to my previously active lifestyle

Now, That's What I Don't Call Music! Since I have moved to Virginia Beach, my knowledge of music has dramatically increased. However, I often find myself slightly bothered by the egregiously poor grammar, cacophonous instrumentals, and overall horrendous quality of much of today's "popular" music. This series will focus on my dabbling into the world of today's music, from Skrillex to Nicki Minaj, and why I don't like it.

In addition to these series, you should expect all sorts of random content that my blog used to be filled with. I've got thousands of wildlife pictures from work nobody has ever seen but myself, as well as hundreds of untouched snapshots from travels to such interesting places as Berlin, Annapolis, and West Virginia. Maybe I'll even throw in few recipes, poems, and other things, too.

Thanks for reading, here's to a productive 2012!