Ending the Blog Lull

If you are one of the very very few people who ever actually looks at this blog, then it can’t have escaped your notice that things have been pretty quiet around here lately. There are three primary reasons for this; technological, lack of time, and competing alternatives.

For years, I have maintained my blog using MovableType, a first-rate blogging application that I was glad to purchase and keep installed on my own server. But over time, something went hinky, and attempts to post content became increasingly likely to fail with an ‘Internal Server Error’ rather than to successfully post. Web servers are a bit like cars to me. I can fix minor and routine problems (change a tire, etc…), but more serious breakdowns are beyond me. Upgrading my MT software didn’t fix the issue, and I was stuck with a very unreliable blog.

As for time, it’s been a very busy year. I’d like to find time to blog, but often real life intrudes with a higher priority. Two events have consumed much of my time over the last few months, the Presidential campaign, and training for and running a marathon. These events have concluded happily, and now I may be able to reclaim some of the time devoted to them in order to again write more for my blog.

And lastly, new web technologies such as Facebook and Twitter have provided new means to quickly and easily share info about myself and what’s going on in my life. Given the technical problems with my own blog, and the wider reach provided by these alternatives, it became very easy to just use them while my blog lay fallow.

So there’s the explanation. But changes have been made. I have moved to new web hosting, and migrated my blog to use TypePad, the hosted blog software by the maker’s of MovableType, so reliability should not be an issue. With major events passed, I will be making a commitment to make the time to write more. And I’ll work to integrate my blog with my use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites as best that I can.

And who knows… maybe, just maybe, someone besides myself will actually read the result. We’ll see.