Even though I've spent a good amount of time over the past couple days refraining from physical activity as much as possible, it's still been kind of busy. For one thing, it's Holy Week and I work in church music. So, as usual for church staff, the time leading up to Easter (and leading up to Christmas) is a time of heightened activity. However, I also got my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, and I did have some side effects that made me feel lousy for a short time. Oh, and I also twisted my ankle a week ago, so I've been trying to take things a little easier than usual, as far as physical activity goes.
Meanwhile, I've been using this forced physical inactivity as an opportunity for reviving my podcast, which used to be on Podbean, and has recently moved to Anchor.fm. (For more info on the podcast, see the home page of Corybanter.com.) I've recorded a couple episodes of the podcast, set up some advertising, set up the opportunity for my listeners to donate to the project, and created an accompanying Wordpress blog that coordinates with the podcast. I've also been trying to simplify my blogging, something that has been a continuing challenge for several years. I suppose I would be a bit more successful as a blogger (and podcaster) if I simply chose one theme/subject and just covered that. But that's not me; my interests are a bit more diverse, and so I've chosen, for better or worse, to blog and podcast on various things that are interesting to me, whether that be Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, or dictionaries. Or something else... But I realize I can't maintain a different blog for every single thing I find interesting. I feel like I need to have the ability to blog about whatever occurs to me at any particular time, as well as maintaining a few blogs that have a particular focus. So for now I've settled on a bit of a compromise: this blog, Corybanter.com, is what I'm thinking of as my main blog, my personal blog. It's where I can continue to share thoughts on whatever I have on my mind at any given time. I've chosen Weebly as the platform for this blog, as I find it the easiest to use effectively. At the same time, I'm maintaining (or trying to maintain) a few blogs that deal with a particular subject: Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, the Bible. AND I'm blogging over on Medium.com, and attempting to make a few bucks with their Partner Program (thus far, not a particularly profitable exercise). I'm using my original Tumblr blog as just sort of a hub to link to the other blogs, as well as an Archives for some of my earliest attempts at blogging. If that sounds confusing...well, it is. At some point, I may have to streamline even more. I just may have to pick my favorite platform and move all of my blogging to that platform. But I haven't reached that point yet. There's a little part of me that wishes I could make blogging and podcasting my main gig. But so far I haven't quite figured out how to do that. And since I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts online, and I'm having fun sharing my spoken thoughts in podcast form, I'm sort of dipping my toe into what I know is a vast ocean of online content. Will I ever be able to be find even a modicum of success in the endeavor? I don't know. Stay tuned to find out!
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Man, I had been on such a roll for awhile, as far as blogging goes. I was writing about Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, the Bible, my thoughts on the UMC General Conference, the beginning of Lent. And now, here I am...it's almost Palm Sunday, and I haven't blogged for weeks! The problem is, I have so many interests (Shakespeare, the Bible, Sherlock Holmes, literature, music, language, and much more), I find it difficult to stick with any one of those things for more than a week or so. I've done this for a long time: I get really interested in one thing for a short time: I'll research that one thing, I'll dig through my library, looking for everything I have that deals with that one thing. And I'll often blog, so I can share my thoughts about that one thing with the World Wide Web. And then the next thing comes along... This is why I haven't taken up blogging as any kind of money making endeavor. At this point in my life, at least, I lack the discipline to be consistent in my attention to any one subject. And yet, I always seem to come back to it after awhile! Here I am, typing my thoughts while I enjoy a cup (or two) of coffee at Star Bagel in Nashville. I wish I could harness my interests enough to make blogging a sustained hobby, rather than a sporadic whim. (Is "sporadic whim" redundant? I think it may be.) This next week and some change is going to be super busy, so I probably won't hit the "blogosphere" much in the near future, but maybe a little later I can figure out a schedule of some kind, that would enable me to sustain a few of my blogs on different subjects. We shall see. I've been back and forth on ideas to simplify my blogging, and I'm pretty sure I've hit on the best method now. Once again, I'm shutting down my old individually themed blogs: Baker Street Babble, Bible Bookshelf, and Willy Wigglestick. Any future posts on Sherlock Holmes, the Bible, or Shakespeare (or whatever other subjects come to mind) will be shared right here, at the Corybanter Blog.
I'm keeping my blog Dallas: the Poetry of Alice K. Howell separate from everything else, because I want to keep all my Grandma Howell's poetry in one place, without a bunch of other stuff cluttering it up. And for right now, I'm keeping my "mini-blogs" at Medium.com. (I may decide to close those down at a later date). And now, for your enjoyment, here's a picture of my daughters having fun at the recent Greek Festival, here in Nashville, TN! Since I restructured my personal website/blog, I think things are starting to make more sense, as far as how I share my various interests: Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, the Bible, and other stuff. CoryHowell.net has become a home base for my disparate blogs, which seems to make a lot more sense to me than the way I used to do it. Now all I need to do is work on consistency. I tend to go in cycles: I will get interested in one of my favorite topics, and I'll blog about that for a week or two, and then I move on to the next subject I find interesting. Meanwhile, several of my blogs sit dormant, waiting for me to come back around to that subject! I tried having just one blog ("one blog to rule them all") for awhile, but it didn't make sense to me to just throw everything into one location. Besides, I had done so much work over last few years on Bible Bookshelf, Baker Street Babble, Willy Wigglestick and the rest, that it seemed a shame to just give up on the different themes I had explored. Even if I'm the only person reading all this stuff (which may be the case sometimes), I want it to at least make sense in my own head! But, based on the stats that I've checked, there are people checking into my various blogs, so I'm trying to keep things going in a way that makes sense to others, as well. (The above pic is not an actual photo of my desk. I wish I had such a beautiful, organized area in which to do my blogging...)
So, moving right along, here is my current approach: I intend to share my thoughts on random subjects here on the Corybanter blog. I will attempt to check in at least weekly on my other themed blogs. If I have readers who are following any of my blogging, please feel free to share your feedback with me. Every blog I am maintaining has some sort of comment form on it, so I would greatly appreciate any of my readers sharing their thoughts on what they read. That's it for now, so thanks for reading! |
Corybantic(adj.) wild and frenzied; from Greek κορυβαντες (Korybantes) Archives
June 2022
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