Not (really) gone
Blogs evolve. As their writers lives go through different phases of their lives, the blogs they post and the frequency in which they post those posts change.
When I first started writing this blog I didn't really know what a blog was, who was reading blogs, or why anyone would write one.
As the year went on, I enjoyed the medium. It was instant and public and gave me a forum to say whatever it was I wanted to say. At times it was stories from my yeshiva days, other times it was about my family, and one a few rare occasions, about a shuir I had attended the evening before.
Over the past two weeks, since my last post about the Bon Jovi concert, there have been a number of things that I would have considered blogworthy a few weeks or months ago. Thanksgiving, my inlaws coming to Detroit, speaking at a Chug Aliyah, the Lions firing their coach and the toilet flooding over as water cascaded down the bowl, across the floor and out of the bathroom are just a few topics that have happened to me over the past two weeks that I would have looked forward to writing about.
But when I sit down at my desk and get ready to write those stories, I change my mind. As funny as a flooding toilet at 4:30 in the morning can be, I am not in the mood or interested in sharing that story.
To me, everything is about marketing. Picking a message and staying with that message. The problem with Air Time is it doesn't have a message. There is no agenda and there is no focus here, and so as I start to write some of these posts, I can't help asking myself what the point is of telling some cute story that takes a jab at my mother in law just for the thrill of telling it.
My blogging buddy Krum would call this a blump, and maybe it is just a temporary thing that a lot of blogs go through. Maybe this post will actually spur me on to start writing more often for this blog. But somehow I doubt it.
When I first started writing this blog I didn't really know what a blog was, who was reading blogs, or why anyone would write one.
As the year went on, I enjoyed the medium. It was instant and public and gave me a forum to say whatever it was I wanted to say. At times it was stories from my yeshiva days, other times it was about my family, and one a few rare occasions, about a shuir I had attended the evening before.
Over the past two weeks, since my last post about the Bon Jovi concert, there have been a number of things that I would have considered blogworthy a few weeks or months ago. Thanksgiving, my inlaws coming to Detroit, speaking at a Chug Aliyah, the Lions firing their coach and the toilet flooding over as water cascaded down the bowl, across the floor and out of the bathroom are just a few topics that have happened to me over the past two weeks that I would have looked forward to writing about.
But when I sit down at my desk and get ready to write those stories, I change my mind. As funny as a flooding toilet at 4:30 in the morning can be, I am not in the mood or interested in sharing that story.
To me, everything is about marketing. Picking a message and staying with that message. The problem with Air Time is it doesn't have a message. There is no agenda and there is no focus here, and so as I start to write some of these posts, I can't help asking myself what the point is of telling some cute story that takes a jab at my mother in law just for the thrill of telling it.
My blogging buddy Krum would call this a blump, and maybe it is just a temporary thing that a lot of blogs go through. Maybe this post will actually spur me on to start writing more often for this blog. But somehow I doubt it.
posted by Air Time at 7:58 AM
22 Comments:
Air -
Ever since my days in Ann Arbor, you have had psurts and sparts with your writing. At times it flowed like a raging rivers, some years it was only the Purim shtick, at other times it just popped up when Micha finished a funny date. Write WHEN you feel like it and about WHAT you feel like. We love you for who you are, and whatever we read from you makes us (or at least me) happy. Besides, if less writing means more time learning or with your family, we really have no place to say otherwise.
Making motorcycles
AT, I think blump is JPT's term. Either way, I hear you. My blog is sort of unfocused and i like to keep it that way and I get fed up when I feel my blog develops a particular agenda or purpose. On the other hand, why would anyone care to visit a blg that's just about whatever is on someone's mind? People obviously do, but I'm not sure why. People do seem to prefer blogs about a topic or a narrow range of topics.
Just finish the story and we let you go in peace.
Deal?
If it helps, I can start dating again. Just don't tell my wife.
Wondered where you'd gone to.
I personally would like to hear about the overflowing toilet horrors!
I enjoyed blogs that are a mixed bag--they reflect your multidimensional self, the kaleidoscope of colors that you present to the reading world.
Yours does just that, and I wish you'd keep it up.
Motorcycle man - sad to say, more or less writing doesn't usually impact the amount of time spent with family or learning, as most of this stuff I write at work.
Krum - Thanks for the correction. It was JPTs term.
SW - I am not giving up on the story just yet. Or this blog. I just wanted to explain why it has been so dead here.
Zwicker - That would be awesome.
Pearl - Glad you like the format. I just think as I am sitting down and thinking about writing something who would want to read that and then I move on. Which is much different when I first started blogging and did not think who or why anyone would want to reads it.
im with tp on this.
air is one of the high points of my day. after a whole day of criticizing and pointing out all kinds of hypocrisy and illogic on the many jewish blogs out there, i come to relax with air.
please, tell us about your mother in law and the flooding toilet!
who cares about message and direction?!? it makes anonymous happy! isnt that enough of a motivation?
hell, if air & co. wont post here, i will:
At the Kotel
I was hanging out with my friend Chaim, Richie's life-long best friend, in Israel, as I was learning there and he was on a Sukkot trip. We spent the better part of 3 days together, and we had some great laughs.
We're walking down the stairs to the Kotel, and right at the corner, where it turns left, we spot our old buddy Richie, frummed out to the max, hanging with some young Neveh blood. Richie sees me, yells, "Hey, Shortcake!" (his nickname for me since I was about 6) and starts talking to me, completely ignoring Chaim. A liitle while later he leans close to me, eyebrows raised, and says, "Who's the guy?"
Um, Rich, your best friend Chaim. Idiot.
posted by Veev at 3:50 PM
veev related:
Cream cheese
When veev and I were in HS, I used to board. It was a bit far to travel from Lakewood. Everyday veev would come in with yummy lunches that her mom packed for her and I had nothing. I would take hers everyday. After a while, veev got smart and started bringing cream cheese sandwiches. How rude? I hate cream cheese.
posted by ReformedPartygirl
a veev posting, elsewhere.
any port in a storm...
That Old Thing?
A little bit of lighter entertainment...
When RPG was 14, her folks paid for 3 nights of boarding per week. So Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday were covered. But what about Tuesday? Surely she couldn't go back to Lakewood every Tuesday night. So plan-B was to sleep out at someone's house on Tuesdays. Nine times out of ten, that "someone" was fortunate enough to be me.
My little baby brother loved RPG so much. I believe he still thinks she's his biological sister (minus the good behavior). RPG's dad used to buy her some pretty clothes, remember the hot pink leather skirt? Anyway, she had a black cotton skirt with a strip of pink on the bottom that she always wore on Tuesdays, just in time for fish and spaghetti at the Stars.
One week, my 7-year-old brother wanted to know how come RPG always wore "that old thing" every Tuesday.
do you think this tops the sink pee-ing story?
A Summer Richie Story
I was in Camp Moshava the summer I turned 13. I had no friends who went with me, and everyone else had been together for so long, that I really didn't fit in. So you can imagine why I was very excited to receive a letter from my friend Chaim, who I had a killer crush on. Until I opened it.
The letter stated that, although I may still be "undeveloped", I did have potential, and that he one day might consider dating me.
Interestingly, it was my other friend, Richie, who told him what to write....
Let the memories flow!!!!!
posted by Veev at
There are plenty of blogs out there with agendas. You don't need to be one of them. Just have fun and share what you want to share.
I was getting worried about you Air. Like Anonymous said, I come here for "a breath of fresh AirTime". (I give you permission to use that, but make sure you give me the credit and not Krum again)
Speaking of toilets, I spent the whole Thanksgiving day cleaning a flooded basement, trying to figure out the source, cleaning out a sewage-clogged sewer air vent, cutting a hole in the basement wall to get to the sewer trap the contractor sheetrocked over....so I can relate.
oh, and RPG, where have YOU been?
AirTime: Get a Mission Statement for your blog - it will help you focus :-)
Actually...now I'm starting to focus...on talking about Israel and why people should move. When people see a compelling posting I usually get feedback, and then I go in for the kill...when are they moving here.
I dont think that was RPG. I think that was her friend Richie reposting some of her old posts.
Jameel, while the ideal situation is for all Jews to be living in Israel, Aliyah is not for everyone. Being forceful with your "kill" may not make you a great Mashpiya.
the ideal situation is not for all jews to live in israel.
as an arab, how easy is that? not only do all the jews gather in one place, they are all coming to my doorstep!
could it be any easier for me to just treat all of israel as one big bus?
Veev: Aliya has to be for everyone (Jewish)...the mitzva of hafrashat challah d'oraita (according to many shitot) is only when ALL of the Jewish people live in Israel. Granted during the time of Ezra and Nechemya, and Bayit Sheini not all the Jews lived i Israel (and there was no mitzva d'oraita of hafrashat challa), the goal is still for everyone to come here.
One could also say that keeping shabbat is not for everyone...but its still the goal...no?
oy, jam.
get off this israel thing. the religious zionists decided to make a big deal about it, but come on.
since forever the greatest rabbis were never into it in any large sense. maybe they went to israel to die.
and please, dont trot out that ramban. its really tired.
in the 700+ years since him no one really was into aliya, and even he didnt go till he had to leave spain.
and then all the religious zionist types have to come up with all kinds of contortions to explain why none of the other mitzva counters -- most notably rambam -- dont bother to include israel in the cheshbon.
give it a rest.
there are so many other important issues to focus on; how about it?
anonymous: and for a micro-second, I thought you were serious!
;-)
Very nice site! »
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