Site news – Style change and a semi-hiatus.

Stressing over Working on my notes this morning for this week’s post, I had something of an epiphany…

This season is, and this a widely held view, not very exciting.  There’s a number of shows I’m having a hard time saying anything cogent about…  And a couple that I’m actively annoyed at.  The result is that my natural “(very) grumpy old man” style is become harder and harder to suppress.  (Trust me, this style isn’t entertaining reading.)

On top of this, I’m a little annoyed at myself and direction the blog has taken.  Right now, I’m swamped with hobby commitments.  (My own fault, I know!)  One of the results is I haven’t gotten any feature content out since May.  I know that the weekly reviews are the heart of the blog, but the feature content is the fun stuff.  Not that the weekly reviews and discussion aren’t fun, but they’re a different kind of fun.  (If that makes any sense).

Hell, I haven’t even gotten to my Spring 2018 season review…

And I’m feeling a certain sense of impending burnout, especially with the heavy workload of the County Fair (I volunteer in the photo dept) coming up in August.  Nor have I really taken any kind of a break since the Lounge opened for business a year and a half ago.

Blogging shouldn’t feel like work, and somehow I’ve gotten myself into a headspace where it does.  This is not a good place to be.

All this adds up a need to find a better balance.  If I want to marathon all twelve seasons of Criminal Minds, or work on one of my other hobbies…  I need to rid myself of the sense and guilt that I’m “stealing” from my anime blogging time.  If I want to work on feature content or fun content, I need to rid myself of the feeling that I’m letting myself down by not working on a huge weekly post.

All this adds up to a need for some changes, some temporary, some more permanent.

Therefore immediately, I am going on semi-hiatus.

What does this mean in practice?

• Over the next month or so I’m likely going to end up skipping weeks (as much due to the Fair as anything else).

• If all I have on a given show is a one-liner, a one liner is all it gets.

• If I have no comment, I’ll say so or simply omit that show from the post.

(The last two are things I’ve actually always meant to do… But I always end up forcing myself to say something, adding to my stress.)

• If a screenshot is needed, I’ll use one.  No more screenshots simply for the sake of screenshots.

(Crunchy’s web browser player is slow and very clunky, making the screenshot process very tedious.  Or, that just might be Chrome.  Suggestions are welcome.)

• I’m going to set aside a few guilt-free hours a week to work on feature content. If that means it takes a month to finish a piece, so be it.  It shouldn’t bother me that I can’t get an unscheduled piece out “on time”.

I’m not going anywhere…  I’m still enjoying blogging and being part of this community.  I just a bit of a break and  breather to find a better balance point.