The more observant/bothered among you will have noticed that I haven't posted much here over the past few months. One of the reasons - I try to convince myself - for this is a lack-of-time issue due to an increased 'real-life' workload, plus wanting to give more of the time I have to my family, and a need for a general refocus of energy in other directions.
Okay, so some of this redirection was brought about by the anger I channelled following my discovery that a local social media regurgitator had used my research and my work here on his site without attribution, which in truth motivated me to give more time and attention to the more important things in my life and less to the 'frivolity' of Blogging and Tweeting, with the result that these other areas of my life have improved immensely in the last few months - not that they were bad to start with of course.
So I guess every anger-laden cloud has a silver lining!?
Of course all of the above could just be an excuse for not writing here as I still write elsewhere, and with the help of a couple of good editors I have articles in a couple of nonbeer/food/travel related national magazines.
But that's different, that's work.
My writing here has always been more enjoyable and certainly less taxing, it was more of a pressure release, an escape. Just anonymous ramblings of interest to only a few, especially since I turned the direction of the blog towards the historical side of brewing. This was never going to be a big draw and hardly a hugely interesting topic for the majority of the public, let alone the beerphiliac minority.
But that wasn't the point, as it was purely for me anyway, or perhaps anyone doing some beer, food or brewery related research who might find it helpful.
As I mentioned on Twitter a while back to someone who was complaining about the lack of readers to his online writing, we need to be aware that we are trying to communicate to a tiny circle of people, within another circle, within a not-so-big-to-start-with circle so we will never change the world or gain huge traction. Even though my own tiny circle intersects with a few other small, niche history/food/brewing groups, it would require a Venn Diagram maker to break out the tiny compass and pare their pencil to a super fine point to create anything meaningful or legible.
Our writings will never change the world and we will never be those butterfly's wings ... but that's not why we do this, we do it - mostly - for us.
That's why it annoys me when all Bloggers are lumped in with the parasitic influencers that now infest our social media, those extraverts who are in it solely for gain and profit, who harangue hotels for freebies or blackmail restaurants into giving them a favourable review.
But they are the small minority - and we are not them.
We are the majority, we are the introverts who stick our heads above the parapet on occasion with our Tweets or Blog posts, hoping we won't be picked off by those scoffers who know more than us or sabre-rattled-at by those who trawl timelines for something to be offended by, as this seems to be their sole, sad purpose on social media.
But, I'm not sure that all of this interests me or bothers me quite as much any longer...
So what next? Who knows or cares ... but for sure I have changed and I am evolving away from what I originally was here, and perhaps even from what I have become in the last while. I'm due more of a change, even if just for change sake.
In truth I could probably give more time to writing here if I really wanted to and perhaps the catalyst for creating more time is that change.
So ... a new name? A new avatar? A new direction? A hiatus? A cessation?
Perhaps, but I'm not sure and I'm open to suggestions...
Just don't motivate me with anger - even if it is an energy for me - I don't think I could handle much more work or family!
Take care,
Liam
