Steve Thoughts: Escaping from the Imminence of Being Forgotten

Sometimes funny things happen at funny times. I'm sure that everyone reading this has heard such an adage more times than he or she would care to remember. But it's true. And for me today was one of those days.

Let me back track for a second to state the obvious. 'Steve Thoughts' has lost a lot of it's former glory. What was once a regular (and hopefully interesting) account of my adjustment to daily life in a foreign country has been sputtering like the Baltimore Ravens' third-quarter or New York Jets' first-half offenses, as of late. Maybe it's that the exotic has become normal and this foreign country no longer carries such a heavy 'foreign' tag for me that it once did. Maybe I'm busier than I once was (true, though I can't honestly say that I don't waste away plenty of good time clicking around on other parts of the Internet). Maybe it's lack of interest (possible). Or maybe it's just a lack of self-discipline on my part (the most likely scenario). Whatever the cause, this blog has become a shadow of what it once was.

That said, let's fast forward to today. Well aware of my own not-so-recent failings, and after being called out on my broken promises by at least one good friend with the middle name of 'Hoyt', I finally decided to officially put 'Steve Thoughts' on hiatus. No more empty promises. No more personal obligations. And possibly even no more posts. The blog had seemed to run it's course in my life, and there was no use ever again claiming to leave a post that promises more soon lifeless for weeks on end. Plus, does anyone even read my senseless ramblings, anyway? It was time to do what had been on my mind for a few weeks. Time to step back and focus on other projects, while leaving open the possibility of a reunion tour once my personal 'artistic differences' worked themselves out.

So that was my conclusion as I walked into a Starbucks, where I once frequented to write my posts, this afternoon. But things didn't quite go as planned. I started the usual way by opening my email and sorting through a bunch of meaningless Facebook spam, and then I noticed something else. It was a message from someone I didn't know titled, 'From a Guy in America: About Your Blog.'

As I read over the brief message, I was a bit confused. Here I was in Starbucks, ready to end my reign as king of the Blogger world, but instead, I was faced with some stranger's very generous words about my musings. Without focusing too much on the praise itself, I'll say that this simple message reenergized my writing spirit and gave me the will to blog again. Let me clarify by saying that in the two and a half years since 'Steve Thoughts' was started, I have never received a single word of praise from anyone other than my dad and a few stray friends. This was more than a surprise, and the timing was perfect. Instantly, my motives changed. 'Steve Thoughts' would not die today.

To be totally fair, I can't honestly say whether the message was particularly geared toward this blog, or if instead was meant for Seoul Sounds (my more recent and better-nourished love child). The message was sent to a rarely-used email address that I set up for my scandalously out-of-date personal website, and the sender only referred to 'your blog,' never by name. But all things considered (and for my own personal motivation), the assumption is this is what he was talking about.

Like Dostoyevsky, pardoned while waiting for the firing squad, 'Steve Thoughts' has been saved from it's own fate by a few simple words. Thank you, Kevin! I don't know how frequently future posts will come, but I'll give it my best shot (pun intended), as long as you don't expect anything on par with The Idiot. Either way, I do enjoy blogging. And just as the last line of the email urged, 'Keep the interesting stuff up (and the beard),' that's exactly what I plan to do...

P.S. Malaysia was amazing! For me, on par only with Mongolia. You should go there.

P.P.S. Go Steelers!