Two Years Later – Some Things Change, and Some Things Don’t

Today (July 21st) marks the official Two Year Anniversary of my contribution to the great store of knowledge online. I suppose it’d be a bigger deal if I was a regular on CNN’s “On the Blogs” crap-fest or was part of some great big media conglomerate (or wannabe conglomerate), but so what?
When I first started this, I really never thought I’d be keeping up with it for very long. I had just moved to Los Angeles with a vague sense of dissatisfaction with my then-current state of affairs, and wanted to live near the beach.
But after a couple of months I was getting bored, and I was getting more work as a writer. Which was fine, since that was what I programmed to do for my entire life, except for one thing: I hadn’t worked as a professional writer in a while, and it was taking me too long to get my pieces done on time.
A friend suggested a “blog” as a way to get back up to my old speed and here we are, two years later. Back in 2003 a “blog” was a bit of a novelty – today the word “blog” is so overused, and the nature of “blogging”, once a grassroots, informal network of folks offering their opinions for the hell of it, is now becoming a messier, less classy version of the media behemoths it claims to be against. The famous Maddox opines more thoughtfully than I do about some of the inanities of some bloggers – you can read that here.
A year ago I was still having fun with this site, as you can read here, but a year later a lot’s changed. I’m finding myself less and less interested in debunking mythology and the BS we’re getting jammed in to our living rooms every day by the mass media and the political system – the BS is too much, too fast, and frankly, I’m not as interested in it any more.
Plus, the nature of my work has changed. Whereas, I used to work as primarily a political consultant offering training and direct mail consulting, and spent a lot of time out and about, now I work primarily as a copywriter to other firms, and I’m also working in collaboration with award winning film director William Gazecki on a feature documentary about the Screen Actor’s Guild, which has been a lot of fun to contribute to.
Had it not been for my brief stint helping out with a friend’s SAG signatory production, Four Weeks Four Hours, last year in the hot desert (which you can read about here!) I might not have been able to work on this project. Just goes to show no effort put forth is wasted. And the movie came out OK too!
But I digress. I like in general the direction things are taking, as I enjoy the kind of work I do a lot more than having to deal with multiple, lazy, stupid politicians like I usually do. The only downside is that after a day of studying, reading, writing, and researching, I find myself less interested in sitting down for another couple of hours researching, reading and typing up a decent, non-craptacular blog entry.
So at this point I’m starting to re-think the whole concept of the site. I like publishing something online, if for no other reason than to make sure I stay on the first page of a Google search of my name. I do plan on offering some tools online for those who’d like to get involved in politics – a delayed announcement is coming next week. Really.
However, to make this something worth my time to invest in, and something worth anyone’s time to read (vs. the zillions of crappy blogs, big and low budget, that are out there now), it’s clear that one has to assess the changes in “blogging” and online publishing that have occurred so far, and try and look ahead and adapt and overcome as needed. If there is one thing I’m learning a lot about right now, it’s the importance of being able to evolve, vs. staying stuck doing one thing for one’s entire life, careerwise, or otherwise.
So if you’ve been reading, thanks, and if this is your first time, peruse the User’s Guide and the archives, and I’m sure you’ll find something you like. And if you’ve landed here from a Google via The Doofinator’s office, all I can say is, you really should have listened to me two years ago. I would have worked for a lot less, and you’d not be in such a mess.
Oh, but that’s another column.
PS: Feel free to make contributions via the PayPal Button on the left, or send cases of Schlitz Beer, or DVDs, comics, or other merchandise. Email me and I’ll tell you where to send the loot!
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com