Is This The End?

I haven’t posted much more than recycled links lately because I’ve been singularly uninspired to blog. I’m thinking about just winding this thing down.

Amongst my circle of close friends (Phil, Brittany, and Craig) we’ve talked a fair bit over the past few weeks about the state of blogs. Britt thinks they’re lacking compared to traditional media outlets, and though I put up a mighty defense at the time, I’m coming to prefer a well-research article in the Economist or Financial Times over unfounded personal opinion and ramblings. Craig and Phil have taken to just reading a few very specialized blogs: music production, MoCo design, irreverent beverage reviews, that sort of thing. I’m still sifting through ~150 blogs per day, but I’m nixing more and more out of my feed reader. Blogs are, increasingly, over in my little intellectual space.

When I took my last job I expected to blog about what we did more, particularly since we were doing something in the social software space where buzz and blog publicity are mere sentences away, but busyness and other circumstances kept me from it. This new job will not allow for much of any outside discussion of my work, however, and that’s just fine with me.

I don’t want to recycle the links that other people do a great job of scouting out. If I felt like there were areas that weren’t being adequately covered I’d stick around and cover them, but there are plenty of blogs and media outlets for information security, technology and politics, gadgets, Mac stuff, and all the rest I’ve been known to write about here. I prefer to find and share neat links via sites like Del.icio.us and Pants Factory; the latter, particularly, reminds me of my old hyouden.net and the pleasant reprieve from solitary blogging that a small, well-groomed community site can offer.

I also don’t really have the desire to write long commentaries, either on world events and politics or otherwise. There are a few things I know fairly in-depth, and those I don’t hesitate to speak on. I’m beginning to agree with Brittany that there is a great deal of hubris in much of the blog world. Journals like Live Journal and Xanga may be festering pools of teen angst but at least their communities encourage personal, from-the-heart postings. There is something that feels illegitimate about the specialist poseurism of many bloggers; a handful are useful intellectual resources that otherwise wouldn’t have a voice, but many probably should not have a voice.

But before descending much further into a zero-sum criticism of blogging it’s worth realizing the beauty of media: if you don’t like it, don’t consume it. And for that matter, don’t write it. So I’m thinking about doing (or perhaps more aptly, not doing) just that.

I know the contents of this blog are a useful resource for a surprising number of people. I will, of course, leave the archives intact. And if enough people really want me to keep writing here I’m happy to accommodate them. As a interim between blogging regularly and totally disappearing off the radar I’ve had the idea of publishing (both on this page and in RSS) a sort of terse “al3x status report” that states the bare bones need-to-know about where I am, what I’m into, what I’m up to, and where I’m gonna be. No archives, no guarantee of regular posting, just a little sum-sumthin’ for those of you who like to keep up with me via this site and/or your feed reader.

Let me know what you want. And, prospectively, goodbye for now.