Thursday, September 1, 2011

Breaktime

Welp...yeah. Listen, I'm beat. And frankly, I have privately felt pretty down about this blog for several weeks now. This is not me fishing for compliments, either -- I am, for the most part, genuinely disappointed in the work I've been doing here for at least the last couple of months. I've felt burnt out and tired and stressed about it, the last of which strikes me as a particularly ridiculous state of affairs. There's no reason for that. I have enough to worry about without a goddamn blog adding to the pile. But I'm not happy with the work, and I have to assume I'm not the only one. If the urge to refute this is strong in you, please don't -- I'm not looking for reassurance. I know how it's been lately.

So here's what I'll do. I shall take a break, you see. And more than likely, it won't even be much of a break. I can't take a month off -- oh, wouldn't that be delightful! -- because I have Criterion discs coming that I will need to write up, so that's a few posts right there, and I have Tony Dayoub's blogathon, mentioned in yesterday's post, in which I still fully plan to take part. Beyond that, who knows? Maybe between now and October, something will just strike me, and I'll want to write it. That "want" is important, though, as it implies some sort of creative drive, rather than the banging out of a few panicky paragraphs so nobody thinks I got murdered or anything.

Then, of course, there's October. That shit's still on like Missile Command or...Adventure? Neither of those really rhyme, do they? Well, I got news for you: neither does Donkey Kong, but everyone acts like it does. Anyway, remember Adventure? When you were this little square that had to push a sword in front of you and killed ducks, or dragons, and collected keys? And the big secret room that you spent hours finding offered up nothing more than copyright and design information? Man, was that ever worth the effort.

But yeah, so October's still happening. And as you may know, that's an every day thing, so building up a nice head of steam is a good idea. Better to enter that month raring to get back to it, rather than thinking "Fuck me and fuck my stupid blog, goddamn you all to hell." Which, I assure you, is exactly what I think roughly three times a day right now. Plus, October requires a great deal of preparation as far as the reading goes, and it would be awfully nice to get ahead of the game. So many reasons to take a break, so few not to.

So it's breaktime here at The Kind of Face You Hate headquarters. As I said, I will be posting periodically this month, but not too, too often. Come October, boy, that'll be a whole different story. Thank you, and good day.

7 comments:

Dennis Cozzalio said...

Don't forget, there's that little project we talked about earlier, if you're still up for it. I'm not ready yet, but oh, I will be. I will be. Till then, take the rest and enjoy it. It's not worth the stress. (And look who's talking, by the way.)

bill r. said...

Yes! No, I'm still up for that. I've been meaning to check in with you, because I thought you'd grown out of the idea. Let me know when you're ready, but remember, my October is booked solid.

Word verification: krappode

Taidan said...

Enjoy your break. Looking forward to October.

Greg F. said...

Thanks for including me in the project, assholes!

Sorry. But seriously, this isn't one of those "No Greg Clubs" is it, 'cause I will be so pissed if it is.

Anyway, Bill, people don't visit separate blogs as much anymore now that social networking has taken over and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means I don't have to feel bad about updating Cinema Styles only once a week, or every two weeks, because it's not a substitute for a chat room anymore.

The Siren is the only one I still know of who regularly gets 100 and 200 plus comments on almost all of her posts.

The point I'm making is, don't worry about putting anything up! Anything! It doesn't matter. If you don't post for two months, when you do, you'll link it on Facebook and people will stop by and read it. That way, you don't have to worry about the quality of your posts because you only write when you're inspired. Seriously, I use to worry about this shit all the time and then I just stopped. If you're not happy with the quality of your posts, it means you're putting stuff up because you feel obligated rather than inspired.

STOP! Inspiration will come. Take a break.

Word verification: ryankellysucks

otherbill said...

Remember when you needed the bridge in ADVENTURE but the bat took the damn thing and then every time you entered a new screen the bat was just leaving from the opposite corner with the goddam bridge and you could never get it back. That sucked.

bill r. said...

Taidan - Thank you for your wish of enjoyment and your promise to always be here for me no matter what (that's how I read it anyway).

Greg - No, it's not specifically excluding you. It's just going to be about how much we each dislike you, for different, yet compatable, reasons.

As for the rest...yes, you're right, of course. But I'm still at the stage where I don't like the idea of letting the blog lie fallow for too long. I don't really know why. Well, I sort of do, but nobody wants to hear me sound sorry for myself.

Writing when you're inspired is obviously the key, though, which is why I'm glad to hear that Dennis is still on board for our little project, because I still feel amped for it. To write about how much we hate you, I mean.

otherbill - Yes I do! What kind of diseased mind was behind that??

Roderick Heath said...

There can be only one!

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