Adjustments

December 21, 2018 by teofilo

As we speak is the winter solstice, which suggests it’s the tenth anniversary of this weblog.

Ten years is a very long time for this kind of factor, and the web panorama has modified so much within the time I’ve been doing this. Once I began, running a blog was nonetheless a comparatively hip new factor, and there have been blogs beginning up in all places on all kinds of matters. Social media as we all know it immediately was in its infancy, and whereas a lot of the main platforms did exist they didn’t have practically the attain or the cultural place that they do now.

Over these ten years, running a blog has waned as a medium, and a number of the discursive vitality that made it so attention-grabbing migrated to numerous social media platforms. It by no means completely went away, because it’s an excellent medium for the kind of long-form, rare content material that doesn’t match simply into social media, and my very own running a blog has more and more moved into that mode as properly. I get few feedback and fewer lively discussions in remark threads nowadays, though that’s partly attributable to the truth that I not often have interaction within the remark threads myself anymore. Running a blog has simply change into a unique beast than it as soon as was.

I additionally haven’t had as a lot time for it lately as I used to. My posting frequency has declined over time, and lately it’s typically been as soon as a month. I’ve made some extent of by no means lacking a calendar month, though it’s been a detailed name just a few occasions. Among the posts I’ve completed to satisfy these deadlines have been fairly insubstantial, although, and I’m not very happy with them. I’ve continued to do occasional longer, more in-depth posts, however I simply don’t have as a lot time in my life for running a blog as I used to.

I’m not quitting, although. I’ve thought-about it, and even thought-about utilizing this anniversary submit to announce it, however I nonetheless have extra to say. Tim Burke had a post just lately concerning the decline of running a blog, and a number of it resonated deeply with me though not all of it’s related to the kind of running a blog I do right here. Significantly resonant was his conclusion:

And but, I stay hopeful about running a blog. I’m not certain why. I’m not certain when. This stays open for enterprise, however.

Likewise, this website stays open for enterprise, however with some modifications. I nonetheless have loads to say concerning the historical Southwest in addition to different matters, however I’ll be proscribing my writing right here to the previous. I’ll discover a new outlet (or a couple of) for writing about different matters, together with some that I’ve written about right here up to now, and if I do I’ll point out it right here. However in view of the actual viewers for this website and its historical past, I feel it’s finest to maintain the main target right here pretty slim going ahead. I haven’t been as in a position to sustain on current analysis on Chaco Canyon as I used to, however there’s been a number of it and I’m certain I’ll return to it in some unspecified time in the future. Once I do, I’ll talk about it right here.

I’m additionally going to dispense with the factitious month-to-month schedule and simply submit each time I’ve one thing to say. The kinds of posts I bear in mind, a few of which I’ve been excited about for years, will probably be lengthy and take some time to put in writing, and I don’t need to both rush them or put them off even longer in an effort to submit with a constant rhythm. Keep tuned.

Lastly, to present this submit a bit little bit of substantive content material along with my blathering on, here’s a nice post, written fifteen years in the past by one other old-school blogger, Kieran Healy, concerning the Irish megalithic website of Newgrange and its solstice alignment. Healy’s conclusion about it’s thought-provoking and seasonally applicable, now greater than ever:

A society—a civilization, if you happen to like—is a tough factor to carry collectively. For those who dwell in an agrarian society, and you’ve got solely stone, wooden, and bone for instruments, and you might be on the western fringe of Europe, few occasions are more durable than the useless of Winter. The times are at their shortest, the solar is way away, and the Malthusian edge is correct in entrance of you. It’s no marvel so many spiritual festivals happen across the solstice. Right here have been a folks, greater than 5 millennia in the past, in a position not solely to tug by means of the Winter efficiently, however in a position additionally to construct one thing like an enormous timepiece to remind themselves that they have been going to make it.

Instances change, however we’ll make it too. Comfortable solstice.

Chetro Ketl, the Talus Unit, and Pueblo Bonito from the Cliff High