That One Time When I Was in the News

This blog has been in existence for what now seems like eons, but in reality it's not quite yet a decade old. Still, in internet terms, that's probably equivalent to an eon or two. Anyways, I've recently been taking on the task of converting my grandma's and parents' home videos, which are still on VHS tapes, into digital files and DVDs. As I was rummaging through the first batch of tapes to go through, I found a copy of a local news story (the channel was KTTC out of Rochester, MN) about blogging from 2005 that featured none other than myself (looking much younger than I do now). It's now been uploaded to YouTube to be preserved for all time... or at least until YouTube goes away... so if you're the least bit curious, here it is:

It's odd seeing yourself from years ago. I don't feel like I've changed that much, but when I look in the mirror, there's definitely a bit of age added to my face and body. That's what 6 years of time will do to you, I guess, but that's not important. What is important is thinking back to half a decade ago when blogging was all the rage for anyone and everyone with an internet connection and even the most minor craving to write. There were blogs everywhere by everyone. This was pre-Twitter and before Facebook had become ubiquitous. I'd spend hours of each week just writing about random crap--stuff I saw on the internet, junk I read, the mundane activities of my life, and complaining about the most minor of inconveniences.

Now, however, maybe it has come with age or maybe I just don't have the writing bug as much, but blogging is more of a "if I'm bored and don't have much else to do" activity. I always feel like I have so much to write about, so much to impart upon the denizens of the internet... but when it comes time to type out what I want to write, I'd much rather go read a book or catch up on the boatloads of work and commitments I seem to always have lined up. 

It was nice to get a glimpse back into the past and maybe it'll rekindle a bit of what I've lost in terms of my lust for writing. Or maybe it's just proof that the glory days are truly gone. Only time and the post counter to the right will tell!

Who Was That Guy?

As I republished this blog at this new URL, I reintroduced the entire post history of my blog to the world (when my old host gave up on me, my entire blog disappeared... except from Google's storage servers...). I spent a good chunk of time from June 2002 (almost 9 years ago!) to December of 2008 typing and typing and typing away, making attempts to put my thoughts into a written format that would somehow express who I am.  Looking back, I sometimes wonder who the heck it was that I was.

It's amazing to scan back through old posts from years ago to catch a glimpse of who I was, or at least the me that I wanted portrayed to anyone who somehow stumbled onto my blog. Simply reading things I wrote from years back, I can definitely tell you that people change. I like to think that I've been consistent and not really made any significant shifts in who I am, and I genuinely think that's true, but there are enough little changes that I can see that make me wonder if they don't all add up to a tectonic shift in my underlying identity. 

I can guarantee you I often didn't give a lot of thought to what I was writing back in the heyday of my blog, but part of that was because I just wanted to generate content and provide a record of the events of the day and my associated feelings or thoughts. That lack of filter has led to some very interesting reads as I do actually look back on those recountings since, many times, the memories I currently have will differ a bit and the emotions I have attached to those events are definitely much different than what was hastily typed out shortly after those events.

Assuming I actually continue to keep this blog running again (I did manage to do it for 6+ years last time...), I'm extremely curious to look back on it in 5, 10, 20, or more years' time to see, again, how I have matured (or devolved... we'll see).  The internet, despite its ability to keep alive every embarrassing thing you've ever done, is also a phenomenal source for engaging in nostalgia. I can only imagine what it will be like for people who have spent their entire life interacting online and storing pieces of themselves throughout the internet. I didn't experience the internet until my teenage years and didn't really dive into it fully until I was in college. Now, I wonder how I would ever live without it.

A Return?

In the last couple of months I've seen a few people I'm friends with on Facebook either starting or restarting blogs and it got me to thinking about my blog which, as you can see from the previous post, hasn't been touched since 2008. I'm not exactly sure why I gave up on blogging, but part of it was just plain laziness.

Shortly after my last post, my hosting plan expired and I didn't remember what my logon information was with my host and their customer service was unreachable so I essentially lost access to my site when it was hosted at rickgebhardt.net. I still own that domain, but also don't remember my logon information with the registrar so haven't done anything with it.

I thought about switching hosts and moving to a new platform, but then Blogger stopped supporting publishing via FTP, which was the method I utilized, so it was another item I'd have to figure out how to work around. It just wasn't looking good for me to continue blogging... and when you combine the hurdles I would have to overcome with a lack of motivation and tons going on in my personal life (new job, got engaged, moved, bought an investment property, got more involved at Decoy...) my blog was essentially dead.

Well... until now. For some reason unknown to me, other than the fact I've seen other people I know blogging again, I'm not sure what's giving me the urge to dive back in. But dive I will... at least until I get sick of it again...

A Change in Format

Looking back over the last few months and the posts I've made, it appears that more often than not the content contained here is almost 50% music based and when I do write it appears to be very burst-like. For example, I'll have a stretch of 3 or 4 days where I cram 5 or 6 posts in then I'll have a week or two where I get maybe 5 or 6 posts in, then I'll have another burst, then I'll lay off. Consistency has been rough, especially for non-music related writing.

I started thinking about this on my drive back home from my parents' house yesterday as I was listening to TWiT and wondered if maybe I was getting worn out on the normal blogging format. It's been like, what, nearly 6 years since I started blogging? That's a long time to stick with anything and I'm thinking maybe sitting at my desk typing away some of my thoughts might not be what I'm totally interested in right now.

It might be easy to pin my lack of writing on a lack of material to talk about, but that's simply not the case. I've always got random crap to talk about and anecdotes to relate and junk that I like to jabber about that no one else probably does, but when I get behind my keyboard, I sigh and think to myself, "Ok, I can get something done, just go quick." I then rip through some half-assed post or put up one of my music reviews. Lame.

As I listened to TWiT, however, I wondered if maybe what I need to do is just start talking about stuff instead of typing about it. I've never had a problem talking. Heck, give me a chance and get me going on something I can blabber about and you'll have hours of material. So why not move over to podcasting? Well, previously it was because I didn't have the technical know-how to do it. Ok... that's not really true, but I kept telling myself that was my excuse. That and I didn't really think I could do a solo show, but then I started listening to American Cliche. That's essentially a one-man show and it's great. Sure, there's an interview or a guest here and there, but for the most part, it's all one dude and it's totally interesting.

I don't want to just jump into the podcasting world ripping off other people, though, so I rationalized to myself that I needed to come up with some type of angle first. For a while, I couldn't come up with anything, but then, as I was searching for a good rock/punk/metal podcast to subscribe to... I found nothing of interest. So here was something staring me in the face that I could babble about for hours and wasn't done (so far) in a way or style that interested me.

So now that I have the technical know-how, I have the confidence to do a solo show, and I have a topic that I would love to tackle what could possibly be my excuse? I don't know, I can't think of one, so I may very well have to take the plunge. Maybe it'll last all of a couple of shows or not even get off the ground, but I might as well try, right? I've got a perfect outlet to get it going with my work over at Decoy Music. There are way more eyeballs (and potential ears) over there than if I just started it from here.

Hmm... well, there you have it. I think you're all witness to me signing up to undertake a new adventure and see what happens. Maybe I can get some people to do it with me, who knows, but even if I can't, it sounds fun, right?

Small Hiatus

I haven't really had the desire to write anything lately. Been busy with work and trying to deal with some other things going on in my life and it's left me somewhat drained. That and there are some things I really miss right now and I'm just trying to get by as best I can for the time being, which means that if I did write anything it'd be mopey, lame-o crap anyways so it's probably better for all that I just push away the keyboard for a little bit.

So, I'll be back to write sometime. I'm just taking a little time away.

Me on TV

I've finally gotten around to uploading this news piece that a local Rochester, MN news channel did on blogging and me from about two years ago now. It's interesting looking back on it and watching it again. Enjoy and don't poke fun at me too much...

Random IP Blocking

Yeah, that was fun. The reason I haven't had anything posted in a bit (and the reason the last two posts appeared on this site so long after they were "posted") is that for some reason my host was blocking all connections from Blogger (the blogging software I am still, unfortunately, using). Since my host is pretty much unreachable when it comes to customer support (I guess that's what you get with a really cheap host), I figured I'd have a horrible migration staring me down.

As I was looking into setting up Wordpress and seeing if I could migrate all of my posts over, I went into Blogger to check the error messages it was throwing again and, crazily enough, everything published. My host took down their block of Blogger's IP. I have no clue why there was a 5 day ban on Blogger's IP at my host.

So... I hope everyone had a good fourth of July. I'm back!