Updated on September 8, 2016
A Love Letter to John & Sherry
I have been trying for years to get this blog going. I’ve tried to find a theme, I’ve tried to treat it like my old LiveJournal, I’ve tried to do a lot of things that just didn’t work. And that’s all right. Clearly it just wasn’t the right time for it to work.
When I began planning my X-Files Rewatch project, one thing I thought about a lot was WHERE to do it: here on this blog, on a subdomain, should I get a whole new domain, or maybe do it on Tumblr? There were benefits to everything, but I decided to just integrate it with my main blog because I hoped that if the XFRW posts started to draw a consistent audience, then maybe they’d be interested in other things I wanted to blog about. If, y’know, I ever wrote anything else.
Which is where the love to John & Sherry comes in. They run Young House Love, a blog about home DIY renovation and more, and ran it for 7 years until September 2014, when they stopped and stepped away for a whole year. They now will post occasionally, and they’ve started a weekly podcast. This week’s episode (#14) was dedicated to a speech they gave at a recent conference, talking about why they quit the blog for a year, and how others can maybe avoid having to do that themselves. Now, I am not running a blog that posts every day — or even consistently every month! — but some of what they said really hit me as someone who is starting a long-term blogging project. Especially as someone who gets easily discouraged when I don’t get the hits or comments I’d like.
They talked about deciding your purpose for doing it, and keeping that in mind when things get difficult. About how your goals of hits or comments or whatever can be good and even important, but that you should be feeding your purpose most of all. That you should be selfish, not worry quite so much about what your readers want, not if those things make you unhappy. They reminded us to be more than the blog, and allow ourselves to exist beyond the words on the page.
It’s an important reminder to me. My purpose with this project is to revisit a show I loved. Period. If I get to talk to people about it, then that’s great! But ultimately, this is something I want to do for me, to give myself something to post consistently. It’s a way to write consistently, too, without the pressure I feel of having to Be A Writer. It’s about helping find fun again. (Perhaps it’s no coincidence that I probably had my most fun as a writer in XF fanfic.)
J&S reminded us to experiment and stretch ourselves creatively, and to let that guide our path. This project is different than anything I’ve ever done, and even writing up the posts I’ve already done has been a self-inspiration to want to write other posts, too. Like this one! Maybe this will help me write a post about the Riveters that Joe at Blueshirts Banter has been pressing me to write.
So, I thank you, John and Sherry. I’m not a DIYer, I don’t even decorate my apartment. But I’ve been reading your blog since Clara was a little bean and you lived in your first house. I’m glad you’re found your purpose again, and I’m grateful for your willingness to share your successes and mistakes and help your readers (and now listeners!) to make their blogging lives as smooth and satisfying as possible.
Updated on September 5, 2016
STARTING SOON: A Nostalgia-Soaked X-Files Rewatch
A recent hashtag on Twitter asked users to share their Top 7 TV Shows. The day before it had been movies, and I had no way of figuring that out, but with TV it was pretty easy, especially with the top slot. It’s The X-Files, without any question. More than just being a great show, it’s a show that really set a course in my life. Obviously, every decision you make sets you on the path that brought you to this exact moment. But sometimes, things are big enough that you can point to one particular thing and know with certainty that without that thing, you wouldn’t be where you are today.
For me, this TV show sent me off in a few different directions. Maybe I would have found them eventually no matter what, but it wouldn’t have been the same. Being a fan of XF got me on the internet, into fandom spaces. It got me meeting people who didn’t just go to my school, people all over the world, and it introduced me to fanfic, a way of writing that would spark a passion that haunts me to today.
I’ve rewatched this show before, but I’ve wanted to do it in a way that records my thoughts for a while. I have postponed the idea quite a few times, but I’ve finally gotten things started, and starting Saturday, September 10, I’m going to start posting!
My aim in this series of posts (which is not going to be short, though not every episode will get its own post) is to look back at this show through my 2016 eyes. It’s about the nostalgia, remembering who I was I was watching the show, what the show makes me feel. It’s about looking at things that may have to be updated if we were writing this show now instead of in the mid-90s. And it’s about having some fun and looking at some silliness.
I’m not going to rate the episodes, I’m not worrying about what episodes were “best” — though I won’t hesitate to point out my favorites (or…the least favorites). No analysis, at least nothing deep and serious. This really is just about enjoying the good ol’ days. I’d also really love to hear your thoughts and memories if you have any to share, so please feel free to leave any comments you have! And, hey, if you’re passionate about an episode and you’d like to write something up yourself, hit me up and let me know! We can try to make something work!
It’s gonna be a fun time, gang!
First episode, “Pilot”, will post on, naturally, September 10. I have no strict schedule at this time, but you can always check for when the next episodes are posting on the main page for the project!
Updated on July 12, 2016
What the Hell is a Weedle?
And why do I have 3 of them?
Maybe a bunch of you — you 3 people I hope are reading this post? — are totally happy to tell me all about Weedles. But that’s okay. I don’t really need to know. The important part is: I have downloaded Pokémon Go and for the first time in my life, I am playing a Pokémon game.
Now, this is not different for me not just because I’ve never played one of these games before, but because normally when these kind of flash fads come out in pop culture, I’m on the non-fun-having side. It’s not because I think I’m better than anyone, truly, I just never tend to be interested in so many things that spike in popularity. It was a huge relief when Star Wars came out and it sucked me in so hard because it had been a long time since I was so into a big movie. I don’t do the superhero movies really (except Superman, who most people don’t like/care about and he got shoved into a Batman movie and I don’t like Batman and — okay, this is a different rant), and I’m admittedly a snob about movies aimed at kids, and I’m not a gamer…
So yeah, I tend to not be involved when people are going goofy. So I made the specific decision to be a part of the fun, instead of sitting back and feeling left out. It’s a big deal for me.
Of course, it can’t ever be easy. Where I live, it’s not densely populated, and I’m not in a housing development that has walkable streets. I don’t work in the middle of a town, either, though there are a few that have spawned in our parking lot, and the building next door has a Pokestop that I can hit up before I head home. I can drive through a significant town on the way home, but I’m driving, which makes it hard to do anything.
But then again, it does make it exciting when one does spawn where I can get it, and it forces me to put the game down and get back to the normal ways of avoiding having a life. And I have an extra layer of excitement in looking forward my weekend in New York City next month! Friends! Baseball! Olympic sobbing! Lobbing pokeballs! Woo!
This post was going to be about more things, but I think this is good. I like it. This is a Good Post. It’s the kind of random stuff I used to blog about on LJ all the time. Then again, I’ve got some big plans coming, and I’m pretty excited about it. But more about that in another post!