6.11.2003

Wow, I Guess I Wasn’t Paying Attention

I just realized that Prometheus Unleashed hit its half-year anniversary a week ago (and I know, anniversary necessarily implies an annual occurrence, but I have yet to find a palatable alternative descriptor). I don’t know if that’s truly cause for celebration, but it at least warrants a little considered reflection.

I don’t know what I was hoping for when I started this thing, but it’s certainly changed since its inception. I suppose originally I figured it’d be a good venue for keeping family and friends up on events in my life. I’d certainly tried before with previous websites, but they never got beyond their initial launches, and maybe an update or two (not that my main site is doing much better). Figuring I’d need something more substantive than that to keep anybody interested in reading it, I thought I’d focus on video, technology, and gadgets in general. One of my main problems is that I’m not fanatically interested in anything in particular; I’ve got pretty strong interest in a variety of areas, but no one thing stands out. And, naturally, the best sites out there are those that delve into very specific, narrow topics. But in any case, this was probably the best I could manage.

And so it was launched on December 3, 2002. The first few entries were fairly scattershot, little more than glorified diary entries. And then one week later, I violated what had been a personal taboo: I started talking politics. At the time, I figured it was an isolated incident, something I had to get off my chest before I’d be able to move on. But one week following, I did it again. At the time, I still rationalized that these were just tangents from the main thrust of the weblog, but in retrospect, it’s easy to see I was kidding myself. On January 10th I officially renounced my prohibition, and by the end of March I’d officially added “left-wing propaganda” to my listing of subjects. I’d added reader commenting in January, and the site also underwent a couple of cosmetic revisions, one in mid-March and the other, more substantial, a couple of weeks later (and given the amount of work that involved, I’m not likely to try again anytime soon).

Oh, and I guess things have changed in the “real world” as well. The whole family had birthdays, we refinanced the house (okay, Pam refinanced the house), my team won this year’s Scavenger Hunt, and I got a brand-new baby nephew. Professionally, I shot and edited two new case study videos, launched a whole slew of technological initiatives, and went from a solo operation with a one-month rotating intern to manager of a two-person outfit with a six-month rotating intern. Collectively, we lost a space shuttle, witnessed the systematic dismantling of the U.S. Constitution, and were duped into a war by an idiot puppet who somehow stumbled into the White House.

I suppose in the end, I’ve driven away as many readers as I’ve attracted. I know for sure that my family’s no longer tuning in — my views tend to be far afield from much of the Coughlan clan — and my demeanor has been a little vitriolic for a lot of my friends. I suppose if I spent the whole time on political rants, I’d attract a few like-minded members of the general population, but like I said, I’m not that into anything in particular. Still, I think I’ve maintained what has been the primary purpose of this weblog since the beginning: I’m writing. It may not be good writing, or even the least bit interesting, but it’s something. And that’s more than I was doing before.

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