Monday, March 15, 2010

So Long To "A Word in Edgewise"

Time to close the pages on this chapter. It's been a fun ride for sure, but as most of you know, I've decided to pack things up and move to a new location/site.

In my last post I mentioned wanting to have a site where I would feel comfortable inviting anyone I know to come by and read, even a pastor from church. GSAP!!! That raised a few questions from some of you. (Thank you for the comments and emails)

I just wanted to clear the air about the "anyone" reading part and a couple of other things that were mentioned.

Like some of you may have contemplated doing, I thought of putting together a place where no one I know in "real life" would know about. There I could say anything I wanted to without fear of having to answer to it later. In essence I could be anonymous,  a chameleon. That does have an appealing aspect to it for sure, but the more I thought about it, the more this thing called being a Christian kept nudging at me. Let me splain...

One of the things that has turned me off to so called Christians on more than one occasion has been a little thing called hypocrisy. Claiming or preaching one set of standards while living by another. Or... portraying to be a certain type of person while in the presence of one group of individuals, while being totally different around others.

As I looked over my previous posts I came to the realization that I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing a few of them with just everybody in my webs of relationships. By and large I don't think I'd worry about 99% of them, but it was that one percent that was bugging me. Case in point: A couple of posts back... I saw a cactus that made me think, "Now there's a limp prick." Was it funny? Yeah I think so, but would I have said that in front of one of the pastors at church? Not likely.

So went the rub. Why would I say something here on my blog that I wouldn't say to a guy from church?

OK, so does this mean I'll never say anything offensive again. I'm quite sure the answer to that is no (Welcome to being human), but maybe it means I can at least try a bit harder to watch myself in this venue

Also, it does not mean I'm turning into some hollier than thou type. There are far too many of those individuals who have their head firmly planted in the sand running around. 

~~~

One other thing that came up in an email was: Perhaps I was worried about what someone I know might read in the comment section. Trust me, censoring what any of you have to say is not my intention. As I have maintained all along and will continue to do with the new site, the only comments I will remove are spam or hate filled ones. The later I fortunately have never encountered from anyone.

(I have done away with anonymous comments though. I was getting spammed on a semi-regular basis and it was driving me batty.) 

~~~

I mentioned that the things I've said/written about in the past are all a part of who I am. It was asked of me, "If these things are all a part of you, then why change?"

I don't really plan on changing the type of posts I write or even the style in which I write them, just some word choices and overall content. In other words, I'll still be the same nut job I've always been. (You'll understand when you see the title of the new blog.) The change is simply (hopefully) an outward way of expressing the same person I am.

~~~

OK, over analyzed enough? Yeah, I thought so. Bottom line...I'm just having a do over.

So without further ado, The new blog is going to be called "Running With Scissors" and can be found here. Or, if you prefer to copy and paste it in your menu bar, http://runningw-scissors.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for spending time with me here over the past couple of years, and I hope to see you at the new digs. Your friendship has and will continue to be of great value and inspiration to me and your comments are what keeps me wanting to keep posting.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Time For a Change

Hey there.

In the past few weeks I've contemplated whether or not to keep this blog going or to just shut it down. No big "life changing" event has taken place.I just feel like shifting gears from where I've gone with this site so far.  The biggest question that I've kept asking myself is this, "Would I feel comfortable giving this URL to everyone I know?" And trust me, it didn't take much effort on my part to quickly answer with a "Not bloody likely!" Sure, my wife, mom, and one brother read it. A few other extended family members read it from time to time and a couple of "real life" friends stop by on occasion, but that's far from everyone I know.

How about any of the pastors from the church I attend? Would I feel comfortable with them reading here? Hmmmm... I know none of them would put themselves on a pedestal and claim to be above another person, but I certainly don't think I'd feel comfortable with them reading all the things I've come up with over the past couple of years.

Am I ashamed of some of the things I've said? Heck no. Far from it in fact. All of the posts here have been a part of who I am. Sometimes serious, often times wacky,  and all points in between. I just think I'm ready to tone it down a notch.

Some of you may be saying, "Tone what down? You're pretty tame."

In many respects you're probably right, in other circles not so much possibly.

Guess it's all a matter of perspective.

I read far more vocal and visual posts from several of you I know. That doesn't bother me at all. I've enjoyed my interactions thus far. Again, I'm just ready to change my own way of communicating, not any of you.

I'm working on a new site that I can start up soon. It'll be a clean slate so to speak.

Don't know if this makes any sense or not, but thought I'd share a bit of what's been on my mind of late.

I'll be sure to post again with the details of the new digs when it's ready.

In the mean time, for any of you with a computer (yeah that's all of us) here's a spin on the Abbot and Costello classic "Who's on First" that is downright hilarious. Click here to read it. Your funny bone will be glad you did!