Back in blue

It's been nearly a month and a half since a post here, which isn't exactly a retirement, but it's damn close in the blogworld. I haven't been posting here, but I have been posting at a secret underground bunker that is rumored to be not unlike the hidey hole in which they found Saddam and four crates of rotten cabbage, so hopefully my endearingly self-depracating skills haven't dulled. Oops, make that "skillz." I see that perhaps they have.

As you can see, the layout's a bit different. Not that much, mind you, just a few pixels wider and a few colors blander. I can't decide how much I like it, which probably means I don't like it all that much. It's okay, though, I have a plan. A la Dooce, my goal is to have a different flag up every month. But I'm going to change the rest of the layout, too. Or at least the colors. Nothing too fancy. Nothing to get attached to; that makes it harder to change. Some gimmicks, perhaps. Themes, maybe? Holiday-related? Dear God, let's hope not. But I've been known to let my sentimental side get the best of me.

I don't want to say too much about why I left so abruptly (and with such an alarming sign-off), but I will say this: Blogging about your personal life creates extraordinary opportunities for people you don't know all that well to project their own fears and fantasies and issues onto your online persona, and that's all good and well when things stay within the realm of the symbolic and the literary and you're just a character in their mind, but there are people who bring instability to the table and when they actually exist in your life and can make things complicated for you by acting on their delusions, blogging — or any type of self-expression — becomes excessive, if not downright dangerous. So for me to continue to write about myself when it was ostensibly placing me in danger or — at the very least — discomfort, was silly. So I stopped. (Well, I moved.) I pondered never coming back here, and I'm still not sure I should. Luckily, things seem to have settled to the point where I don't have to be uncomfortable or afraid. And that's why I'm here; because this is where I started blogging nearly three years ago and this is where I'd like to continue blogging unless circumstances make it absolutely impossible.

Stubborn? Hell yes.

But would you have it any other way?