With the New Year upon us at last, and 2016 finally in the rear view mirror, I thought it might be time to get back to work. Welcome to the spiffy, new and improved, “Random Vibes”.  At least I hope it’s improved.  It’s certainly new and definitely a lot spiffier (depending on one’s definition of spiffy I suppose but this one even has pictures). In addition to spiffiness, the new site gives me more control over both the look of things and the content I put up.

About that content.  Admittedly it’s been forever and a day since I’ve posted anything new. Way back in 2008, when I first started The Random Vibes, I secretly vowed my blog would not be like so many I read that started strong but eventually fizzled.  And then unfortunately, in no time at all I fizzled. Since then there have been occasional bursts of output (especially in 2015) followed inevitably by more fizzling.

This most recent fizzle was a long one and since the title of this piece is “The Random Vibes Returns”, it seems fair to ask, where has the Random Vibes been? Or to put it another way, what the fuck have I been doing for the last year and why haven’t I been writing?

I’d love to report that I’ve spent the time away working on some other projects such as a new screenplay or perhaps even a novel. And while there is a new script in the works, I can’t say I’ve been hammering away at it enough to warrant such a prolonged absence from the blog. 

As for the novel, (yes there really is a novel, of sorts) I haven’t been pounding away on that either. Technically, calling it a novel is a stretch.  The current draft sits at 55 pages so it’s more of a very long story (one with no end in sight) for now. If I really had been working on it over this past year, I might have a completed draft by now but this has not been the case. I will say that I reread those 55 pages yesterday and was pleased to find myself laughing out loud a few times. While I may never get published, at least I can amuse myself.

So my absence from the blog had nothing to do with being busy writing other things. Clearly there must be some other reason for such a long drought. Note the clever use of the word “reason” rather than “excuse.”  The truth is, I have no excuse.  I think writing is like exercise; it has to be a priority. You either make the time to do it or you don’t (it should be noted that I haven’t exactly been exercising a ton either).

That’s not to say I’ve been sitting around watching Gilligan’s Island reruns either (although if my favorite episode comes on, you know the one where they almost but not quite make it off the island, I’m glued to the television). I’ve actually been plenty busy. It turns out that when one isn’t writing (or exercising), one does have the time for lots of other things. Work for instance. 2016 was a busy year, which for me means a lot of time on planes and a lot of twelve-hour days.  Despite that, I could have squeezed in a few words now and then. But I didn’t.

Besides work, there was a great trip to Oregon, some time at the Cape, and a lot of fretting about the election. Of course, it turns out the fretting was for good reason and I should have been writing about that all year.  I suspect that in the future (I am so still fretting!) there will be a few words coming about the new political nightmare, uh, er, situation. Still I could have found the time to write, but I just, didn’t.

I certainly intended to write and I really did think I would eventually churn something out.  But the days turned into weeks and then months and before you can say, “holy shit are you lazy” I was Christmas shopping and a year had passed.

Which brings me to the most important question, “What now?” Well, todays post, though somewhat underwhelming, is definitely a start. It is hopefully the first step in a new “burst of output”. The hope is that this new burst will not lead to the usual fizzling out.  Instead, the idea is that once a week I’ll string together a few sentences that are coherent enough to entertain, inform, or simply tell a story. And of course, if the writing is not so good, remember there are pictures, and spiffiness.

So with that in mind, I’ll see you next week.