I'm Back...

So it’s been a little while since I’ve been on here, as evidenced by that “1 month ago” next to the Zinkthink  title on Stacia’s (or others’) blogroll.  It’s been a pretty lousy new year, to be honest, with a big crisis during the first month, and then some blogging apathy through most of February.  Torn between writing about what had happened and not, I ended up just not writing anything at all.  But then motivation came from a surprising place, though thinking about it now, it really shouldn’t have surprised me at all.

I know that very few people read this blog, which is fine with me.  If I wanted mass readership or side income, I’d write about something with mass appeal instead of what I ate for dinner last night.  Either way, one of my faithful readers is my older brother, who just spent the last two weeks in India with my sister – the trip of a lifetime, I would imagine.  We haven’t even really caught up yet about that trip (I suspect most of it is better told with pictures, so I’m okay with waiting til I’m home next), but he sent me a text the other day asking about the blog, with an accompanying frowny-emoticon expressing disappointment that I hadn’t written in a while.

That actually meant quite a bit to me.  I mean, he’d just been to places most of us will never see, immersing himself in a new and unique culture.  Compared to all that, my blog seems like one of the most insignificant things I can imagine, and yet he was anticipating reading it.  In some ways, it is a way for us to keep in touch, living some 400 miles apart, so I guess I can see why he’s interested, and I do really appreciate it.  Corny as it may sound, it really felt nice to know that people actually do read this for some reason, and I figured I better kick my ass into gear and write something.

It’s not going to be about the crisis in January, though.  I’ve thought it through, and though it might be good for me, I don’t think the people involved would appreciate it; not to mention how damn hard it would be to write.  In that vein, if you know about things, I appreciate your thoughts, but I think it would be best to keep them out of the comments for this post.  Maybe someday that will change, but everything is too recent right now.

The monthlong absence from blogging does give a good opportunity to think about what I want this space to be, a topic I frequently debate with myself.  Initially, it was an outlet from my very logical and orderly job, with the thought that I might one day want to write a story or even a book.  Then I came upon my love of cooking, and decided to put some time into that, including frequent corresponding blog topics.  The mix seems good to me right now, and more importantly, it’s still fun to write the blog.  When I was trying to write a story, I was almost literally banging my head against the wall, and just felt frustrated.  If I let myself be okay with this blog not being the orderly and polished product I frequently wish it were, it can be enjoyable for me, and maybe even for some of you.

I’m shooting for two posts per week, which is ambitious given that I’ve almost never reached that mark in the nine months I’ve kept the blog, but I’m keeping open-minded about it.  Previous post-goals left me feeling let down if I didn’t write enough times per week, so it’s just a target, which I’m okay with missing periodically.  One will be food or cooking-related, so if you don’t like those posts, you’re really in the wrong place.  The other will be more along the lines of what I started with, thoughts about life and what I’ve been up to lately.

The old movie project is going to continue, though I certainly didn’t see all the planned films in January.  Hopefully I can catch up this month, and get the next five watched before February ends.  I’ve already seen two, and have one on the DVR, so it seems doable.  I’ve also started a new reading project, which I may or may not bring into the mix here.  For a guy who ended up being an engineer, I always loved English class, and felt like there were so many more works of classic literature that I had yet to read, so I’m working on that now, too.  By time I’m done, I should be a bit of a Renaissance man.  J

In essence there probably won’t be much of a change around here.  I’ll still write every now and then, mostly about the weird cornucopia of my interests, from home cooking to car racing, from yoga to old movies.  In one way, this is a relaunch of my blog after so much time away, but I like to consider this quote attributed to Buddha, and just accept and appreciate today’s blog for what it is, without worrying about tomorrow’s entry or what the overriding point of the whole thing is.

“Each morning we are born again.  What we do today is what matters most.”

Well, this is what I did today.  It might not seem like much, and certainly doesn't matter “most,” but at least it does matter to me.  Be sure to check back and see what I do with a new morning.