I have entered the new year under a black cloud, partly due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and partly due to following the U.S. political news a little too obsessively this past week. Since I have little control over the former and zero control over the latter, I have decided that it’s time for me to take a break from the news media and social media once again. It’s making me depressed.
I also have quite a few tasks associated with my return to work at the University of Manitoba Libraries, which will probably require that I take a break from blogging. So I am going to give myself a holiday from the blog for a little while, to focus on my full-time paying job and a few other things that need doing around the apartment. It’s time.
I’ll be back just as soon as I find the time and that elusive creative spark!
UPDATE 11:41 p.m. An anonymous commenter left the following comment on this blogpost:
You should just give up your blog altogether, it’s pretty crappy and a waste of time for the readers. you keep saying your “taking a break” this month, no, this month, no, this month ……………. no-one will care if you just go away.
I beg to differ, but obviously somebody is sufficiently irritated to respond in this way. Last year I learned a hard but very valuable lesson: that the negative comments you receive are just as important as the positive ones. If nobody cares, then why bother commenting at all? Hmmmm. There’s a saying: throw a stone into a pack of dogs, and the one that yelps loudest is the one you hit.
I hate to break it to you, princess, but I am not going anywhere.
I suspect a little bit of a social experiment on your part, because I find it hard to believe anyone would really post such a mean comment – if they don’t like your blog, why would they even be here? Anyway, I love your blog and visit almost daily, please keep it up!
Hello Dax! Nope, no social experiment; this was an actual, verbatim comment I received late last night. I was quite surprised, but by now I know that I can expect just about anything in my blog comments.
And thank you for your comment!
Dax, you must be new to the internet. Trolls love to spread hate and will return time and time again to try to incite negative emotions.
Ha ha! No, I’m not new, but prefer to refuse to believe gratuitous meanness is normal or ordinary. I believe in reason and kindness, and anything else is an anomaly, that can be safely ignored most of the time, unless it directly stands in my way, in which case I might need to punch it in the face, figuratively or even literally .
Again, this blog is awesome, useful and entertaining, and I hope the Author gives more weight to the voices of its supporters rather than trolls (who might not even be real people, they might be bots, you never now).
Your blog is in my favorites and one of my “go to” sites for SL. Screw the haters, everyone has them. Keep chugging along!
Some people can only feel good about themselves by attacking others. They’re deeply unhappy and want to make everyone else unhappy too.
I for one enjoy your blog – if I didn’t I wouldn’t be here. 🙂
Thank you, Frank! Glad to have you with us 🙂