Oh look. Another blog about stuff. Wonderful.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Brain stew (also you can call this one The End of an Era?)

It's sort of funny (in a kick-myself-in-the-face sort of way) to think back at the beginning of the year and remember how I was going to try to blog every day. That went well- for about two weeks. But I still kept up with it- a little bit. Then it became about a once-per-week deal. Then it went...well, it went away. Gone. Le Poof. All of a sudden, I had nothing to say. No wise thoughts or wisecracks. I thought about ending the blog. Blowing it up. Starting over from scratch.

In the past couple weeks, I have been revitalized. You wouldn't know it from the lack of posts from yours truly (although lets be honest- yesterdays offering was all sorts of scintillating), but slowly my madness faded and was replaced with...(drama build, crescendo, italics/bold combo....aaaaaanndd...) Educated Focus.

See, I realized a couple things. First of all, I was trying for maximum output with minimum input. Lots of thoughts and ideas were going out- but not a whole lot was going in. I mean, I was reading things- trying to follow the news, checking out the Heroclix forums, reading Dr. Seuss books- but nothing was really happening to get my thinker thinking. It occurred to me that I was much like a bottle of Mountain Dew. On January 1st, 2011, I was a 20 oz. of blistering potential. But I kept being sipped and chugged and drank until eventually all that was left was some warm soda and backwash. And nobody likes that. Not even the parched desert. I knew then that I needed to become less like a bottle of Dew and more like a fountain drink- skimp the ice (or useless crap in this analogy), pour in the Dew (sometimes mixing it with fruit punch- this is the influx of new smarts) and be an endless supply of amazing knowledgeisms. Of course, you have to get up to get the refill (AKA take time to do reading/research) so there is some lag time between full glasses of liquid awesome- but when you get it back to the table, it takes your whole meal to another level.

Secondly, I decided that I needed to focus my focus. I love writing about many different things- but without a singularish purpose, it became increasingly difficult figure out what I wanted to write about. Sure, sometimes I would get nailed with a burst of inspiration (a caffeine high, if we're continuing the Mt. Dew analogy...on second thought, we should let it die) and posts would practically write themselves. Other times though- nothing. I would have five or six posts started about five or six different topics, but no real drive or gumption to finish them. The draft of two weeks ago about Super Bowl MVPs would lie unfinished because I was busy thinking about Street Fighter. My expose on Megamind remained dormant because Delaney got Tangled for her birthday. Basically I realized that I could not sustain a potpourri blog with an ADD attention span, young children, and largely varied interests. In a nutshell, I was at a crossroads (+2 life points for combining 2 cliche's into one sentence).

So what did I decide to do? By now you're hoping that I actually did decide something so that you don't have to read another one of these not-really-a-blog-blogs. Well rest assured friends, I have made my decision. And since I couldn't get ESPN on board to televise my own Decision, you get to read about it here first!

What I have decided to do is to turn this blog (youshouldknowjasonparks.blogspot.com, you know, the one you're reading) into one primarily focused on my quest to study and learn about humanity. You surely remember my ill-fated series, Textbook Tuesday, right? Well, I'm planning on turning this blog into an on-going version of that. I want to use this as a means of processing all of the things I learn and hopefully share some insight/knowledge/ideas with everyone. I'm not going to turn this into textbooktuesday.blogspot.com though, so don't worry about having to remember a new favorite URL. This blog title has always been a symbol to me about the intrinsic value in each one of us based on our uniqueness. Yes you should know Jason Parks- because I'm the only me. I have my own insights and life experiences and beliefs that can hopefully help you understand humanity a little bit better. But that same concept applies to everyone else as well. That'd be a lot of names to throw into the title though. So I, Jason Parks, selflessly have become an avatar for the whole of the human race. That is probably a disconcerting thought. You may want to turn away from your screen if you have a weak constitution.

But I can't just completely abandon my varied interests and inane silliness- after all, that's a big part of the Jason Parks experience, and I would be amiss if I deprived the world of my ticking clock. So what I have decided to do is create a second blog which I am particularly excited about and anxious to unveil to you. I don't want to give too much away- just know that it hopes to involve a little bit of quantum physics, Renaissance Italy, and Synth-crystals.

Yes, you heard me correctly. I, the guy who has one blog that he can't keep up with, am going to add a second blog. But fear not- I am making no claims about post frequency. Not anymore. I plan only to post when I am inspired/smart enough to give you the very best. It may mean you get a bunch in a row- it may mean that I go awhile without posting. But in the end, I feel pretty good about the direction I want to take this blog, and I hope that each endeavor will find you with exactly what you might need at any given moment. And if not- let me know (in as nice and suck-uppish of a way as possible).

Youshouldknowjasonparks.blogspot.com is dead. Long live youshouldknowjasonparks.blogspot.com!

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