Site Re-Relaunch

The best of intentions do not amount to anything without action. The "relaunch" was not a success. Obviously. This is the first post I've made since the site went live on Github.

Part (and only part, I still have some motivation and procrastination issues to deal with) of the problem is that I've never really defined what I wanted this site, and especially the blog part of the site, to be. Despite reading many blogs, and the advice about starting blogs and gaining a readership (and what's the point of this if not to gain readers, I can keep a journal for myself without half as much effort) I was unwillingy to accept the facts. Successful sites, for the most part, have a narrow focus to them, and a regular update schedule. I wanted this site to be everything, without really defining what "everything" is to me.

Focused Site Plan

The Blog

There will be a blog post every Sunday evening (local time to wherever I am) (Also I'm quite aware this is being posted Monday morning, baby steps). The blog is turning into a dedicated travel blog, consisting of trip reports and stories inspired from my travels. Alternatively there may be site update post similar to this.

In general the posts will be short, light hearted reads. I'll try to have some photos and maybe a drawing or two. This focus has dual purpose. Defining what the blog is about. But also forcing me to have experinces in real life. A blog of my musings and thoughts like the site has been so far just isn't that inspiring to write, mostly because I don't think I'm that interesting of a person. Weekly stories about travel, adventure and new activities forces me out of my shell, and my house, to grow and become more interesting. And experience this world, which can be pretty damn fascinating at times.

The Comic

In the back of my mind has been stirring the idea for a story based comic based on the name of the site. So this Wednesday evening, and every Wednesday after that I will be posting a page of my new Comic: RIB, the Reality Improvement Bureau.

The One Shot comics that were the original idea of this site will continue, but (beware danger of never getting done) they won't have a fixed update schedule. (For now.) I didn't choose the name of the site to start a comic with that name. But I like the idea so I'm going to run with it for now.

Again a fixed schedule is the most important part of this. The only way I'll commit, is to have a commitment.

New Feature: Articles

So I'm not willing to give up totally on the idea of this being a general space for everything I'm thinking. But I want it to be more structured. So on the final Friday of each month I'm going to write a more detailed post, more of an article than a blog post. They will be focused on a specific topic and have research and such. The first topic I'm working on is personal, about procrastinaiton, laziness and working hard. That may sound contradictory but hopefully I can coalesce it into something meaningfull by the end of the month.

In some ways they are a vanity project, but I no longer want to put just general musings on this site. I don't like posting in public all the thoughts I have and so I censor myself and post things I'm not happy with or I don't post. But I don't mind being public for specific reasons. The travel blog may get personal but will be usually as a result of humour, something I'm quite willing to be vulnerable for. These posts may also get personal, but hopefully it will be as an educational or enlightening experience.

Goals and The Future

So that's it. To start off with three specfic tasks. The comic, the original intention of the site. The blog, now a travel blog, what the site has kind of evolved into. The Articles, a way to educate myself about topics I'm interested in or are personally important to me. But that's it.

In the long run I'm still interested in adding videos to the site, but not until the other three things are established. And once the new comic is up and being updated regularly I want to look at maybe other ideas. Despite the new focus, I never intendted for this website to be a just single comic. It is still an outlet for most of my creative endeavours, just a little more realistic in scope.

And it's a bit of a cop out to start this with another "Website Happenings" post rather than an actual travel post, which would have been more appropriate and shown actual dedication. But I only came up with this plan on Sunday afternoon and I only remembered a commitment for Sunday Evening at the last minute.