If either one of my readers is still with me at this point, you may have noticed that my posting has been really slow lately, and I haven’t had much to say on several key stories that have hit the news. Unfortunately, life is conspiring to constrict my blogging time rather badly right now. When I blog about local issues, I try to do a bit of research as I prepare the post. I check other area blogs, scroll through all the local media contacts, look back into my own posts and sometimes those of other blogs, looking for key points that need to be linked.

Why do I do that? I mean, I could (and have) posted stories that are little more than spur-of-the-moment rants, but I’m not so egotistical as to think you’re coming here just to see lil’ ol’ me piss and moan about whatever’s annoyed me lately. The blog actually started out to be exactly that — but I had hardly begun putting electrons on the screen before a little something got in the way.

My vanity. If you were to mutter the words “ego reinforcement” about now, I wouldn’t disagree. I don’t think I’m the next Instapundit (or even TBIFOC) when I see more than 100 visitors in a day (insert roll of eyes here), but blogging is an inherently egotistical experience: the writer naturally thinks his or her words have value and are worth sharing. If we still had an old-fashioned 19th century agrarian society, we’d be the loud guy in the corner of the tavern holding forth on anything and everything. Put two of us in the same tavern, and we’d be the village’s entertainment as we argued back and forth every night.

So I wanted my words to have value, and that meant picking and choosing them with at least some care, rather than just dashing off whatever came to mind first. I am given to endlessly editing, changing the entire structure of an argument as I go, and sometimes, as I argue around a point, I find that I’ve ended up on the opposite side from where I’ve started. It’s happened more than once. Then there’s finding out that I’ve wandered off the point for three paragraphs that I need to delete and/or save for the future.

The second thing came a bit later. I began to realize, as my focus shifted from the War on Terror to more local matters, that I have a fairly unique opportunity and ability. As an insider, I have a view of the inner workings of the City of Houston, and can perform two vital functions: first, I can assist citizens with understanding their goverenment and the context in which various decisions are being made. This is something our local media is terribly lax about (though I’ve noticed some improvement lately. . . ) Second, I have a (small) bully pulpit, from which I can push for changes that I think will be beneficial for the city as a whole, not just one little interest group. Satisfying these two goals is the most time-consuming of all the things that go into this blog. I can’t just say “I think city employees should receive a raise!” I have to show why I think we should, the consequences of failing to do so, and sometimes anticipate counter-arguments. This means more research and linkage to make my point.

In brief, to have my words be taken seriously by you, the reader, I have to add value to my posts. And that brings me to my third reason/motivation for quality blogging: material reward. (Waiting for the laughter to die down….) Now I’m not under the impression that I’m going to make a fortune, nor do I believe that there’s a lot of people out there who will make a rush to hit my tip jar or buy me something off my wish list because they have more money than sense–even if I engaged in cyber-begging. But I have some plans in that regard which will be announced soon, and for them to work out, I need readers. “It’s a numbers game” is a truism that means I have to give my readers some value, a reason to show up. And a reason to send a link to their friends, to tell them to show up.

So the second and third reasons mean I have to blog well and informatively, while the first one means I won’t really respect myself if I don’t. Or it all means I’m just neurotic.

By the way, if this isn’t making a whole lot of sense, I plead distraction — I have Richard Garfield, “the High-Tech Texan” on the radio, and I’m listening to Laurence Simon, who dropped by. I’m not doing the webcam or calling in, since it would be a bad idea for my voice or face to be associated with this blog. Heh. So I emailed him a point about spambots and the need for addons, etc. to deal with it. Don’t know if they’ll see it before time’s up for the show.

I’ve posted this a bit early, because the show is on now. I’ve got a bit more to type and will be updating this post further.

Update: Can’t believe how few bloggers called in. If Laurence and JK hadn’t showed up/called, he’d been without a show on blogging.

Back to the posting…

Looking at the post online, I can’t believe I’ve rambled that much. This is why I’m a slow poster; I really have to work to trim my text down. If only this job paid by the column inch…

I actually started this post to explain why I’ve been posting so little, not why I have to do it well. Getting back to that. . . As I said, matters have conspired to constrict my blogging time. A major cramp is work. I simply don’t have the time at work to scan the websites and other local blogs to find things to blog about. Not even bloglines can make up entirely for it. Spare time at work enabled me to find the stories I needed or wanted to talk about, and begin outlining in my head how I wanted the article to go. And occasionally, I could dash off a quick article. Not any more, because a major greenlight we’ve been waiting on just came through and I’m about to be very busy for a few months. Overtime is not out of the question. When I don’t have enough work because everything’s stopped up is one thing, but I don’t think it would be quite right for me to kill useful time reading blogs and news during work hours, and then work OT to make it up. I guess I’m too ethical to work at HPD.

Worse, the homelife isn’t going well either, for reasons I’ve previously discussed. It took months to start the chemo, and it’s going to wrap up soon. More x-rays, and then we’ll look at radiation therapy. I don’t think it’s gone very well, and I have to do a lot of things for support. I don’t begrudge it, but it takes away from blogging time, and means I’m tired and just want to relax.

Which has a lot to do with the fact that animé blogging is now about half of my overall blogging. I don’t have to worry about quality and research. Animé blogging isn’t work, it’s fun. I’m sure that someone is going to tell me “Baka! If it’s not fun, you shouldn’t be doing it!” I refer you back to point two above. Also, as point four, I would like to note that if my plans do work out, I’ll have a bit of additional income which I can use for several things. (The set-up for this is another thing that’s taking me away from blogging right now.) Ideally, I’d love to make enough to hire a maid to clean for her once or twice a week, but it’s highly unlikely that I’d get that much for quite some time (if ever). Otherwise, I can see the time coming where such wouldn’t be “a nice thing,” but will be “a necessary thing” and the animé purchases will just have to stop.

And if I don’t get that much, I’d still like to get enough so that I can afford to hang out in the cool spots with my wireless and laptop to do my blogging, instead of sitting in this cramped, dim room on a beautiful day.