How Do You Kill a Blog?

How do you kill a blog?

Do you just ignore it and never post again? Do you hope that eventually the content becomes so dated that it fades into the obscurity of Google, buried somewhere on the one hundredth page of search results? Or do you simply take it down, and in an instant vaporize years of work, of visitor comments that have loyally followed your posts?

I never set out to be a political blogger. This blog was always more of an experiment (and a way to utilize a domain name I purchased while feeling the buzz of wine). And I’ve struggled with the anger politics builds in me as I set out on a personal quest to combat, what I feel, is Republican stupidity. I also had one other goal - to work in my own way, using whatever talents I had as an artist - to help a conversation that would get Obama elected.

And now November 4th is just days away.

If Obama is elected, I feel like moving on to a new chapter in my political activism, using my skills as a communicator to help others express important truths. I’m tried of my own voice, my rants, my petty arguments. And I feel November 5th will be time for change.

But what do you do about what you’ve already created?

A blog can start to become a monster. It’s like the Grizzly bear cub you stuck into the garage when it was no bigger than a small pup, and suddenly, a year later it’s eating everything around. You don’t simply unleash your blog into the wild and hope for it to survive on it’s own, do you?

I’ll likely keep blogging away in angry stupor if McCain somehow wins. And god only knows I’ll have enough material. But if Obama wins, I think going to call this my last post as PixelMarx the political, cartooning, opinionated blog. And if you have any suggestions on how a blogger gracefully, and with respect, euthanizes their blog, I’d greatly appreciate the feedback.

Vote Obama November 4

P.S. The term “kill” might seem a bit harsh, however, it’s a term used often in the old days of advertising, and is still used in design, and advertising. This is the reason a designer or illustrator might have a “kill fee”. No, this isn’t the fee they ask when being a hired gun, but it’s the fee that must be paid if the project is canceled, regardless of it’s completed state.

Pixelmarx Podcast…spare your ears, the tongue is not mighter than the pen in my case

 

 Podcast Trial [5:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Now if you actually listen to this thing after I’ve done a pretty good job of dissuading you, I’m sorry. This is my first attempt at doing a podcast, and while it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, there’s a lot to work out before it reaches any level of quality that I’m proud of. My only consolation is when I think of my first cartoos I posted, and how much they sucked.I am curious how many other bloggers out there have tried podcasting? What did you think? Was it fun? A waste of time and you’d rather type? I’m actually enjoying it although it took me forever to finally figure out how to get my mic to work. Finally I ordered a Tapco MIX100 10 channel mixer, which I’m now realizing was probably overkill, but it’s really nice in that I can control the volume of the input. I also noticed (after it was too late to change) that one of the reasons I can’t listen to NPR is the mouth noises and I ended up with my fair share in this record. My apologies. But hey, what’s life if you don’t try something new. And it’s late. And a person shouldn’t probably try to make their first podcast at 10:00 at night….but hey.

Here’s the audio file. Take a listen. Tell me what you think - if you care to. I’m open to comments. If you don’t care to listen though, here’s a quick rundown of what the podcast contains.

1 - For Portlanders there’s an Obama for America Kickoff this Saturday to get out the vote. Address is 3016 SE Division St.

2 - Paul - I’ll let you think you won :). BTW I enjoyed the dialogue.

3 - I read a bit from Bertrand Russell’s “Why I’m not a Christian” essay

4 - No Paul, I take it back, if you listened to me read that dull essay, then I won.

5 - Then I have some fun with Hillary’s Bosnia sniper fire gaff.

And that’s about it. It’s kind of fun. I’m a huge talk radio fan, especially of The Ed Schultz Show, and based on the quality of his show, I know this production ranks way below at somewhere around … well I’d prefer not to say.

One Month Milestone - After 30 Days of Drawing Straight, Today I Take a Break

Dear Weary Visitor Looking for a Laugh,

The last 30 days have flashed by. A drawing everyday is something I’ve never done before. In fact. I’ve always been a bit lazy with art, working only when inspired. This month appears to be an exception, but now, today I’m taking a break.

Since I started this blog a lot has happened. Barry Bonds broke the home run record.  Ari Fleischer, Karl Rove, and Alberto Gonzales have resigned. Some absurd things have happened, like the minister who was left abandoned at an airport for 3 days. And a major bridge in collapsed in Missouri.

When you catalog each day in a funny picture you realize two things. One, just when there’s nothing new to draw, some politician will say something stupid in a bathroom to an undercover cop. And two, you learn what your readers like and don’t like. I never would have guessed the ‘toon to get most visits would be a whim basketball drawing in defense of ‘Sheed.

Well, I to my readers, I hope these last 30 days have been fun. I’m going to be making a few changes before I kickoff the next 30 days, but I hopefully I’m back on Friday, for the Drawing for a Reader. My goal is to keep this site lively and full of ‘toon art that humors you a little (or makes you cry, scream or all three).

Best web travels and we’ll hopefully share a laugh soon.

Your Artist in Chains,

IrishSpacemonk

Blogger Bomb #1: Sidebar.php File Destroyed

At 10:25 pm, on August 14th, (or something like that), in my random hunt and gather for cool sidebar widgets, I managed to copy/paste widget code over my entire sidebar file. And then save without thinking. The effect wasn’t fully understood until moments later when I realized that Ctrl-Z didn’t work and I didn’t have any backup. In exactly 1 second, two weeks worth of work had disappeared - poof! (And as any WordPress blogger probably knows, your sidebar.php file is where all the stuff happens.)

With my web designer hat on, this would have never happened. I would have had version history, backup…yada yada. But I’ve been a cartoonist these past few weeks, and in my lazy cartoonist way, I’ve been just editing all my CSS and HTML files directly in the WordPress admin tool. Bad mistake.

And so I have my first Blogger Bomb.

A Blogger Bomb is one of those days where I’m unable to create a new political cartoon for whatever reason (in this case rebuilding my sidebar.php file). I hope to have very few of these, but I suppose in my goal to post some drawing every day, I’ll eventually hit the wrong button.

In the meantime, enjoy your journey, and please check back tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll have something more funny to draw. And thanks for stopping by.