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Sunday 
04 October 2009
Transcendental Floss, R.I.P.
With seriously mixed emotions, I’m sorry to report that, after five years of publication, spaceneedl and I are pulling the plug on Transcendental Floss. spaceneedl will be posting his own farewell soon.
Five years ago, along with millions of people all over the world, I was attracted to the idea of starting a blog, after many years of solitary writing, filling up paper journal after paper journal. The immediacy of the blog format, married with the ease of integrating multimedia content, was a revelation to me, and doing it all publicly awakened my inner extroverted exhibitionist to an extent that even I was surprised by.
When I say I have mixed feelings about this announcement, I mean that in some ways it is very hard to let go of my online home of so many years and the body of work that I completed here. I have many fond memories, not the least of which was having been through a period when Transcendental Floss was getting quite a bit of traffic. And through it all, it’s been an honor and pleasure to work with all of the contributors we’ve had over the years, particularly co-blogger spaceneedl, and web designer/occasional-blogger Jekyl. We came a long way together, from our humble beginnings as just another Blogger blog, our move to our own domain and web host, and through the wonderful transformation that was Jekyl’s last design of the site, an incredible format that allowed for broad creativity in a fun environment.
That said, slowly, over the past few years, my writing became way too narrowly focused on politics, betraying my original aspirations for my writing and for the blog in general. I’d always wanted to write on a wide variety of topics, but other topics fell by the wayside, the cost of my passionate disdain for a particular administration and its political party, eventually replaced by the passion of a resurrected hope, and then quickly dashed by the sobering realities of the other Washington. I’ve tried many times to simply write about other things, but the ghosts here are too distracting.
So, I’ll be making a fresh start soon, with a new blog, getting back to basics, and hopefully reclaiming the simple pleasure of sharing my thoughts as they come in as creative a way as I can manage.
A million thanks to any of our readers, past or present, who come across this farewell. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but I was challenged knowing that you were out there - whether you commented or not - to provide the optimal in cerebral hygiene.
Cheers!
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I know what you mean as my own blog has been dying on the vine as well. Thanks for the memories and even though I didn’t always comment, I’d swing by anytime the feed reader said there was a new post.
Enjoy your blog-free time amigo.
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best of luck Howard and Michael. Let us know where your new homes lie.
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Thanks, Burg! See you on the island.
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Gonzo, space, and everyone - I was always pleased to be recruited by Gonzo, and had a great time posted on TFloss back in the day. I commend you all for your dedication to your views and to this excellent blog. I hope a little online shrine can be set up for TFloss somewhere… All the best!! John.
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Thanks, John! You were an awesome Vancouver, B.C. correspondent!
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I’ll be sad to see TF go, even though my visits have waned in recent times. I was happy, even for a short while, to contribute my voice, too.
Gonzo’s reflections on blogging somewhat echo my own, and my assortment of domains here and there, reflect that. What I’m left with right now is something that has both a quasi work portfolio and some writing how and when the mood strikes me.
Your Pacific Northwest voice will be missed. Alas, though, I’m not sure what blogs are anymore, with the ADD nature of Twitter and the totally uninteresting (to me anyway) Facebook, I may slowly become a web guy who doesn’t do much personal web anymore. Truth is, even my work is moving away from totally focusing on the web.
Good luck with where things take you folks.
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Hi James. Nice to hear from you.
I appreciate your thoughts on the current state of blogs and social media.
I feel that blogs have peaked. I don’t see them going away, but I think millions will bite the dust over the next few years as the fad ends. Somehow, I think, money will continue to corrupt, we’ll see most blogs become corporate-owned, and the millions of blogs that were created by average people looking for a hobby might be lost to things like Facebook.