A Tentative Return, Maybe

Over two years ago I just stopped posting on this blog. I'm not positive exactly why.  My last post was a long-winded, poke at the nation's debt crisis (in fact the last two were). I think maybe I suffered a sort of fatigue after I wrote it, because even though it may not look like it, I read, re-read, rewrite and generally suffer over every post until I'm sick of it. Not satisfied with it, just sick. I think I looked at that post and realized the fun had drained out of doing this, then I couldn't go back.

This was to be another way of connecting with my children, so why the heck take up a serious current topic and just blather on about it? I had become a curmudgeon, and not in any fun sense of the word.  Writing thoughts rolling around in my head is a legitimate reason for a blog, as if there needs to be one, but for the most part, my blog should be light, and at least occasionally funny. Think I got waaaay too invested in that last one. And also, preachy...

Long ago I decided to stop "lecturing" and giving out unsolicited advice, trying to divest myself of the "men are from Mars" need to fix things. I think my kids had just been politely listening to me dispense this "wisdom," because even if it was useful, they didn't ask for it. I revisited all this after that last post, which I felt was overdone and stuffy.

So why am I back? Recently I realized I hadn't stopped blogging, exactly. What I did was transfer my need to hunt-and-peck over to reviewing films on Netflix. A few days ago I found myself going all Roger Ebert on a sucky movie I had watched, decided to look at my first review on the site and realized the date was almost the same as my last blog! Further, I had written reviews at about the same pace as I had blog entries.

I had never considered writing one until the reviews I read on one movie just pissed me off. I won't go into it, suffice to say lard-headed ignorance was spewed all over it and I felt compelled to say something. Over time I have written 20 reviews, for both excellent and horrible movies. Realizing taste is personal, I got better at specifying what was worthy and why, without espousing any false or unearned expertise. I am quite proud that one of my reviews is in the top three of a movie, receiving 34 out of 34 "helpfuls."

But now I want to do things like slam "shaky cam" and "found footage" movies. Maybe I think it'll help to close the doors on those "techniques" and "genres" that I despise. However, while writing such things pleases me, it adds nothing to the discourse of good vs. bad movie. Such things belong in a proper blog, if I really need to go on about them. So maybe I'll give this thing a chance again, and if I start ranting about something, I will do my best to make it funny or informative.  We'll see.