When I started writing in 1993, I assumed that at some point I would do it for a living. I did for a short time in 1995, but it was a pretty meager living. In 1999, I wrote a little ASP application that would allow me to write a few columns a week at my leisure. Soon, I found myself a single father, though, and had no time to write.
Last year the world overflowed with both beauty and ugliness. I could not hold my tongue–or my keyboard–any longer. Blogging seemed to be the perfect medium for me, so I jumped in.
As problems mounted, so did my hours at the keyboard. Those hours, though, come from a fixed allotment of time and something else had to give. What gave were those multitudinous little commitments that we implicitly made to the most important people in our lives: wives and kids.
Were there some return, other than various satisfactions, in blogging, I would not be writing this. There are not. As with so many things, blogging is a numbers game. I drive up my readership only by increasing my hours. The writing isn’t as time consuming as the linking.
First things coming first, the three hours a day I’ve devoted to this work will now go into other, private endeavors. If time permits, I may post a single column-length piece each week. I will no longer maintain a running blog.
I must thank the people who have been most generous and enjoyable: Michelle of Right in Texas, Michelle Malkin, Beth of My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Steven Taylor of Poliblog, Captain Ed, James Joyner of OTB, Jim Paine at PirateBallerina, Dean Esmay, Joe Gandelman, CollegePundit, Political Teen, GOP Bloggers and Blogs for Bush, Blogs for Terri, and all the others.
Keep fighting the good fight. I’ll keep an eye out.
UPDATE: I can’t believe I forgot Professor Bainbridge. UPDATE: I forgot WuzzaDem, too. (This why people should avoid naming people to thank.)