New Year New Clinkening?

Hello there, empty space. It's been quite a while since I last updated, and I suppose some of the people who would be there if there wasn't anyone there would probably be asking whether there is actually a point of returning to the site after a four month hiatus, particularly since the blog didn't really have a focus to begin with. That is an interesting question, though one I don't think I'll actually end up answering tonight.

Instead I will start with a question quite literally noone is asking! What happened to the updates? Why were you away so long? The answer to that is simply being too busy to work on the site, most of the abandonment came when I went back to start my MA, and was dealing with the workload, commitments and issues that stem from that and with various side projects on top of that (My Band, stuff with the Ark Preston I'll discuss below, newspaper stuff when that ran), time became the enemy. Really I suppose the entire point of a blog is to comment on your world and what matters to you but I've always struggled with blogging about issues centralised to me personally. I struggle a bit more to wrangle humour out of that kind of stuff and I guess at the time I saw that as a problem rather than a challenge. I also wanted to prepare for NaNoWriMo, which went about as well as a demented chicken trying to swim breaststroke (Cue groan), and with that I felt my creative juices were expended and decided to cut my losses and write the rest of the year off to find my muse as it were, and see if I can use the Clinkening, the tabula rasa that it is, to help me find my muse and have some kind of semi-permanent place for my thoughts as they float down the stream of consciousness.

I guess I did kind of answer my question after all.

So what does this mean for the site? Well, I'm aiming (this is my new years resolution so don't hold out too much hope) to have at least one update posted a week, but most likely it'll be between two and four, most of them little mini updates or signposts to stuff I do on other sites (Yes I contribute to other places! Clearly they didn't read the warning signs), but some being more substantial. The substantial things will include comments on current events that matter to me of course, reviews of various media (I have been meaning to do more strange Rock/Metal reviews for RocSoc, and the thought constantly strikes me to continue a certain segment from another blog...). I also have a few more features in mind for the site that will probably rotate on a semi-frequent basis. I've not finalised the other potential ones, but the first will be 'Full Disclosure', a challenge of sorts for me based on the judgemental, blindly critical sorts on the internet who I seem to argue with on music on a frequent basis, believing somehow that Led Zep are representative of music in the 70s and Justin Bieber of music of the 2010s. I seek to find one question in that “Is such and such really that bad?”, and hopefully, given the strain of essay deadlines that will be the other update this week. I might also do some more top ten lists based on strange criteria, since the one I did on baffling pop singles seemed to go over quite well. The final stuff really will be artsy stuff, writing mostly, maybe a little art, things I'm ordinarily not brave enough to showcase on 'the net', as well as things and comments and overspill relating to my work on other sites. Oh and Cat in A Hammock will surely continue, if only because I'm sure I'll need to chill out and look at cute cat pictures.

Well, that sums up pretty much everything I wanted to say. I made the mistake of not signposting my other work but most of my stuff can be read on The Ark Preston (www.thearkpreston.com) where I do song reviews and a regular feature about the trials and tribulations of my band Project Unicorn (at the moment annoyingly called 'Rock Story'; I'll get that changed), and if I end up providing content for any other websites I will keep you all updated.

Until then, stay safe, and always hug it out

HuggyDave (@huggydave on Twitter)