After over 4 years of blogging at Bad Money & Bad Example, it looks like I'll be doing things very differently after January 1st.

Now, I'm not pulling some kind of Rachel Lucas, claiming that I'll be checking out of the blogosphere, but recent changes in my life situation require that I set some priorities and make some choices. Not necessarily easy ones, but ones that I feel will be best for me in the long run.

Couple things driving this, and stemming mainly from a very relaxing vacation where I took some time to think thinks over in a setting where I wasn't beset by pressures & deadlines.

First, my day job - which I really do enjoy - is asking for about 60 hours a week on the clock, plus 7-8 hours of non-quality windshield time. There's just not much left over.

So what to do with it...

In my years of blogging, I've tried a lot of different projects - King of the Blogs blog reviews, running the Alliance of Free Blogs, Graffiti Currency, Love Notes, Precision Guided Humor, Filthy Lies, smutty innunendo, raising blogkids, hosting comment parties, and assorted knick-knackery. I've learned and grown from all of it. It's had an inestimable effect on the person I've become, and I don't regret any of it.

Perhaps the biggest event/process was becoming a paid contributor to IMAO, after starting off as a lowly fan-boi with no sense of humor and a lot of admiration for the comedy stylings of Frank J.

When I started blogging, I had no idea that I could actually write humor pieces. I think there was always a bit of fantasy that I could parlay my blog into some sort of paid daily column, but it was kind of iffy, at best. However, these days, I find myself more or less doing just that. I write 5 days a week at IMAO, usually original satirical political pieces, and I find myself thoroughly enjoying the constant reader feedback. Its very emotionally satisfying. More so, even, than my day job.

Looking toward the future, I don't want to be doing my day job in 10 years, but I wouldn't mind writing for IMAO, or some other paid, published vehicle. Unfortunately, any efforts that I put into regularly posting at Bad Example will inevitably interfere with that.

So it looks as though something has to give, and it will be my posting here.

There will be no more daily features at Bad Example.

Posting here will not cease, but it will become an afterthought, receiving only those entries which niggle at my brain too much to be silent about, but which don't fit the mold at IMAO.

In short, Bad Example will become, essentially, a blog about nothing, lacking theme, substance, and goal.

Not shut down so much as not maintained.

I will be focussing what little time & energy I have to spare at IMAO, where I expect to continue posting five days a week.

I have to say that dedicating my life to writing political satire (or at least cruel, derisive, anti-leftist polemics), isn't necessarily my primary career choice. Frankly, politics and current events can be a bore. However, I find that I do enjoy the raw challenge of taking a news story and twisting it in my head until it yields up a humorous angle. It's not always easy, but the mental gymnastics required DO pay off with a certain amount of psychic satisfaction that is both rare and precious. It would be nice to dedicate my writing talents to building up and supporting causes which are good, but there's also value in mocking, belittling, and knocking away the smug, self-satisfied importance of ideas which, I believe, would do this nation great damage if they were to be given general credence. For example, it'd be nice to propose a practical, free-market based health care system, but it's also good to mock a government-run system by pointing out that it would have the customer-service anti-mentality of the US Post Office combined with the soulless inefficiency of the DMV. There's all kinds of fun to be had in stomping the cockroaches of leftist dogma.

Still, I can't help thinking of what I'll lose with this decision. There will be little to no time for surfing my blogroll (not that there HAS been for the last few months), and there will be the inevitable drifting apart from the friends I've made in the on-line world over the last few years. I won't be able to keep up with everyone's blogs, and I fear that we'll wind up as strangers or mere passing acquaintances. The potential for loss tears at me, despite the fact that I recognize it as an inevitable price.

Yet I know that I'll still be able to keep in touch, here and there, and I take strong comfort in the knowledge that my blogkids have all turned out well, and become strong, talented bloggers in their own rights. I must trust them to raise and guide their own blogchildren and bloggrandchildren to the best of their ability. The apron strings have long frayed away and I can look out with pride to see the bloggers they've become.

On the bright side, I know I will still be able to enjoy the physical company of those bloggers in my local sphere. The Illinois-Wisconsin border will continue to be a gathering place for good times, great minds and wonderful company. I hope that it will become more so with each passing year.

So for now, it's less posting here, more at IMAO, and as for the future, we'll just have to see where it takes us. Wherever it leads, I can only hope that it will be as much fun as as the past.

Posted by: Harvey at 05:12 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
Post contains 977 words, total size 5 kb.

1 Damn. We'll miss you seeing you here of course. You have been an inspiration to many. But life never stays cut-and-dried and unchanging. May you enjoy all that you do.

Posted by: Mrs. Who at January 01, 2008 05:52 PM (K3tCd)

2 Happy New Year to you Blog Daddy! *sniff, sniff* Now I'll have to put IMAO no my feed reader so I can visit you... LOL.

Posted by: Teresa at January 01, 2008 07:14 PM (rVIv9)

3 I know I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again. You do what you feel is best for you. All I'm going to do is throw back at you a piece of advice you gave me just over 3 years ago. Once blogging becomes an obligation instead of a release, it may be time to re-evaluate what your doing. At the time I thought that was excellent advice, and I'm glad to see you are following you own advice.

Posted by: Contagion at January 02, 2008 01:41 PM (Q5WxB)

4 Harvey, We're gonna miss you around here. I'm keeping you linked, just in case someone pisses you off and you just HAVE to write about it. Take care.

Posted by: Jerry at January 02, 2008 05:27 PM (e48LL)

5 You weakass little quitter. "Ooooh! I'm so busy. I can't blog anymore." Who would ever use such an excuse... Good luck to you.

Posted by: That 1 Guy at January 02, 2008 06:24 PM (TvGdf)

6 Oh, yeah... the next time I come home, don't even think of running away to Jamaica. Think you're so sly...

Posted by: That 1 Guy at January 02, 2008 06:26 PM (TvGdf)

7 Good luck to you, Harvey...and converting this to an occasional ranting/personal blog probably won't be as painful as everyone thinks. After all, with you at IMAO regularly, you're not gone. And I've found the people who stick around when "substance" fades away are the only people you really cared about anyway. So the good friendships will continue.

Posted by: Jenelle at January 02, 2008 11:32 PM (1J5JC)

8 Yeah, well keep in touch. After all I'm gettin' so damned old that come the revolution I'll need someone younger to point out the ones I'm supposed to be shootin' at.

Posted by: Peter at January 03, 2008 12:11 AM (ljX6L)

9 .... good luck in whatever direction you decide to go, Harvey...... and Happy New Year to you and the missus.....

Posted by: Eric at January 03, 2008 07:43 AM (g02Hg)

10 I am going to miss you Harvey and I guess this means I am actually going to have to visit the IMAO blog from time to time now. In short, Bad Example will become, essentially, a blog about nothing, lacking theme, substance, and goal. And here I thought that was the goal of Bad Example all along. *Hug*

Posted by: Quality Weenie at January 03, 2008 08:12 AM (R6yie)

11 Take it easy on yourself. And I will see you over at IMAO!! : ) Glad you had a great time in Jamaica, BTW...

Posted by: Richmond at January 04, 2008 08:31 AM (2ml0G)

12 "Thanks for the memories." And I will be popping in from time to time just to check. But as you say, sometimes youse just gotta do what youse gotta do. Take care Harvey and if you ever make it down the Florida way, make sure you look us up (especially if we ever get the boat back in the water, LOL).

Posted by: Tink at January 04, 2008 01:20 PM (ZW8U5)

13 "Thanks for the memories." And as you always say "Youse just gotta do what youse gotta do." Or was that you? Anyway, you know what I mean A big thank you for all the help in getting me started and in general being the grandfather I never knew (boy that is weird, being that I'm at least a decade older, LOL). Even stranger is that One Happy Dog is listed as your bloggrandaughter and bloggreatgranddaughter. Now that is weird.... If you are ever down the Florida way, make sure to look us up. We may even have the boat back in the water by then. Take care.

Posted by: Tink at January 04, 2008 01:25 PM (ZW8U5)

14 I thought you'd never shut the fuck up... "Shpxurnq!!1!"

Posted by: Madfish Willie at January 04, 2008 10:38 PM (Bfx2M)

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