A good day to you.

On Saturday, October 16, 2010, the insurgent blog Out of Sight, Like a Pumpkin, written by yours truly, reported the shocking death of Barbara Billingsly, at the age of 97, and then promptly went silent. Had I paid the price for foolishly poking powerful forces I couldn't even begin to comprehend? No, I just got bored. A look at the site reveals that the blog had been all but dead for some time; one must assume that, as Barbara Billingsly's death was the only thing I felt the need to post in 2010, my entire year had revolved around Leave it to Beaver. At least in 2009 I tackled issues on a wide variety of topics, from the death of Bea Arthur to the death of Glenn Beck's sanity. But it's not too hard to see what happened; at one point, my blog served two primary purposes: One, that of a personal journal, where I could write for my own benefit (the fact that it was publicly available was not generally the point of these postings, though the fact that some got a fair amount of traffic - and to be clear, by "fair amount" I mean, at most, dozens of people - was just an exciting little accident); and Two, that of a place for me to post interesting stuff I'd come across, to share with a few friends who read the blog, sure, but mainly just so I could find it again. Indeed, even when I stopped posting, I still would return to the blog myself fairly regularly looking for some video or story I was pretty sure I'd posted. So it isn't surprising that it was 2009/2010 that I lost interest, as a little juggernaut called Facebook had me in its grasp by then, and it now served the same purpose. If I found something interesting, I'd share it with my friends; as long as I remember roughly when I posted it, it's not that hard to find, and a good portion of my time on Facebook involves not learning more about my friends and their activities, but looking at funny things I posted myself months earlier.

But what about the first purpose, blogging as journaling? What has filled that need? Nothing, actually. As you might have guessed by the fact that I have started this, a new blog (tentatively titled Mike's Take-Two at Blogging - feel free to suggest a better title in the comments, though I imagine that might be easier when I know what this blog will actually be), I miss this. Yes, I'm giving the blogging thing another chance. Will I still post interesting things I come across online here? Yes, probably, I'll share the sort of things I'd like to comment on here, while Facebook will get the one-line, hey, look at this LOLcat-kind of stuff. But my focus here isn't so much on sharing as it is on writing and learning myself. Sharing my experiences, my opinions, and my reflections on the issues I and others face. Do I want readers? Yes and no.  I'm writing for myself, primarily, but I'm doing so publicly, on a blog that has ads and is indexed in Google et. al., so I'd like readers. But I'm primarily writing for myself, and if a particular post ranks high enough in Google's eyes to attract some readers, so much the better. And if I am able, from my journaling here, to come up with a concept for a spin-off blog that actually might attract regular readers, so much the better.

What will I write about here? Well, as before, I'll write about my experiences, what I do for fun, the pop culture I consume, things I encounter at work, things I watch or listen to or read. What will be different? Well, me, for one. I now work full-time (another factor, no doubt, in the death of my old blog) in a public library. I don't feel like becoming a librarian blogger (surely there's enough), and while I certainly have stories to tell, I tend to find that dwelling on some of the horribly-behaved patrons isn't necessarily healthy. So while there may be some after-work venting here, I'll probably let most of those stories slide. It just means there will be a greater focus on books than my previous blog, most likely.

Another change in me would be my obsession of late with Disneyland. I've long been rather vehemently anti-Disney (my most recent blog post to mention Disney, from 2005, labels Disney as a bunch of douchebags). My feelings about Disney were probably always a bit more complex than I cared to acknowledge. I generally acknowledged that Disney, or at least classic Disney, had good production values, and as a huge fan of Randy Newman, I had to also acknowledge that Disney didn't skimp when it came to music for their films (I had the opportunity to spend a day on the soundstage when Monsters, Inc. was being scored, and saw that no expense was spared).  I imagine a discussion of my evolving feelings in regard to Disney would made a good blog post, so I won't go on too much here, I'll just say that I only had two opinions of Disneyland: It's expensive and crowded. And neither is exactly untrue. But given my now-monthly visits to the park, I've obviously concluded there's more to the story than that. Disneyland is expensive (and far more so with their recent price increase), but I feel it's an excellent value. You get what you paid for. And the crowds are an issue, but they are manageable, with a little planning. In fact, my visits on Saturdays, which I once avoided like the plague, have been some of my favorite trips, the parks bursting with energy and excitement, full of people but, with the right mindset, a great place to be.

So I'll have some things to say about Disneyland here, too. Of course, there's also no shortage of Disney blogs. I'd like to start a stand-alone Disneyland blog if I found the right angle, something to make myself really stand out, but for now, it will just be one of many topics covered here.  Trip reports, photos and videos, my opinions on Disney news and controversies. I'll surely have my opinion on Carsland and Buena Vista Street, when they open next month. But I'm going to avoid just posting news that I read on MiceAge or MousePlanet without context. If you care about Disneyland, you're already reading their columns, you don't need me to tell you about it. But as reading Disneyland gossip is a big part of my daily internet behavior, expect Disneyland to come up here a time or two.

Anyway, that's more than enough of me telling you about what I'm going to blog about and do with this blog. The proof is in the pudding. I am going to set a goal of 5 posts of substance a week. I'd rather miss the goal than just put up a bunch of fluff, so don't be surprised if I fall short, but I'll do my best. Out of Sight, Like a Pumpkin will still exist, though beyond a link to this blog, I don't plan on updating it. Long-time readers will notice I changed it's template, when I was considering just reviving it, but the content itself is unchanged, and I imagine the 2-3 readers a week will probably keep coming from Google searches ad infinitum. But this blog, dear reader, will be where the excitement is! Follow me to the future!