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Rethink: Rethought

I’m back. Sorry about that.

Earlier this year I decided to put this blog on hold while I had a good think about what I was doing with it. I was in one of those despondent moods. I wasn’t particularly caring about what I was writing about, I wasn’t writing what I had originally set out to publish, I didn’t like the way it looked, I didn’t like the fact that it had become a dull chore of music reviews and talk about beer and I didn’t like the fact that it only ever seemed to attract Americans looking for a Christmas record.

The talk of beer was getting noticed but I just didn’t know enough or care enough to sustain it, and it wasn’t all that entertaining either. The reviews held my attention for a short time, but it gradually dawned on me that no one was really interested in my critical appraisal… after all, who am I? My life had changed dramatically too. The arrival of a new born changed my perspective on things and made me realise that I just didn’t have the time or inclination to write this type of trivial unread nonsense anymore.

But I didn’t want to give the blog up. I’ve had a blog since 2006 and I’ve had a website since 1997… I’m a child of the internet revolution! I like the fact that the internet provides random people like me an audible global voice, but instead my blog was turning out to be a mundane chronical of triviality. It was supposed to be an outlet – a way of liberating the creative expression I’ve wanted to share all of my life but had never managed to for whatever reason. My favourite subject at school was English and I recall seriously thinking about a future career in journalism but running away from it because I was scared of the apparent fight to get a job in a tough and competitive market. I would never have achieved anything anyway, because I didn’t think I knew what type of journalist I wanted to be.

But thinking about it now I realise I’ve always known what I’ve wanted to do. I’ve blogged previously about my frustrated desire to be a writer - to author novels that people want to read, produce screen plays that people want to watch…

To entertain.

And that’s the driving force really. I’ve only ever wanted to use this blog to entertain. A random rant about poor customer service in the hope that someone somewhere will sit up and listen, a random dissection of the joys of buying pyjamas – because it helps me make a choice and people can laugh (hopefully) at the absurdity of my research (and possibly benefit), a random trawl through childhood in the hope that a nostalgic posting will provoke joyous empathy… I was trying to get where I wanted to be, but there was too much of the dull and boring in between. And with some 156 million public blogs out on the internet I didn’t even have a loyal following and was failing miserably.

I did speak to some other bloggers for advice, but the consensus was either to narrow down my subject matter or open other specific blogs on individual subjects. Either be pigeon-holed or create a messy monster… I had no desire to do either.

I don’t read very much these days (I don’t have the time or the inclination) but the writing I do read tends to be short and entertaining. I enjoy reading the weekend supplements in The Times, and always enjoy pieces by columnists such as Caitlin Moran, Andrew Collins, Giles Coren, Jim Shelley, Charlie Brooker and Jeremy Clarkson. I’m also currently enjoying dipping into an anthology of the late Alan Coren’s hilarious columns and realise that this is the stuff that has always attracted me. Short, funny, opinionated pieces which are easily digested and always entertaining.

So that’s what I want to do with the blog. Write short, humorous (occasionally opinionated) entertaining pieces.

Time to try again (with the exception of this piece. Obviously)

So here I am with what Caitlin Moran recognised back in 2005 as the “classic genre-standard”, “Restarting This Blog Again” posting. I’ve been here before. So have others. This time I’ve archived all of my old blog entries and only kept up the ones which closely match this main intent. Future entries will, I hope, be worthy of the time I invest in them and will be worth reading. I’ve also given the look of the blog an overhaul in the hope of giving it a bit of an individual identity through a splash of colour and some big lettering.

I hope you enjoy what follows…

Random thoughts from a random bloke.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:468 Bus, Croydon

By Carl http://www.blogger.com/profile/16465712336769231259, on May 24th, 2011 | Tags: , , , | Category: Uncategorized PM

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