TG Captioner Uses Clickbait Headlines. What She Announced WILL SHOCK YOU!
Did I pull you in? Did I get you to click inside? Good. Here's my announcement.
I need a break.
I've been captioning for just about nine years straight without much time off at all. Through quite a few surgeries, college classes, serious family issues and other things that probably would have stopped most other people .. I kept on making TG captions. Perhaps it was therapy in a weird way, and I could get out whatever feelings I had at the moment through the digital canvas, by publishing something on the Haven and here on the blog.
While I was not obsessive over "my art and my muse" quite like Caitlyn did, I can't half-ass this blog and the contents I post. It is why I can't do a Tumblr at this point in time. A long term posting of just captions with no context behind it doesn't excite me in any way.
Usually interactive discussions amongst people here on the blog would get me out of a funk, but there hadn't been much here since we entered the New Year. Maybe I had been venting too much politically and that drove people off, or just January doldrums, etc .. but I'm toast in many ways right now, and as I mentioned in a few posts back: Being away from here felt like a relief .. something that I can't recall ever happening before, and not much has changed since I posted about it. So ..
How long will my sabbatical be? A few weeks? Perhaps a month?
I don't plan to be back posting new content regularly until March 1 at the earliest. It may be MUCH later than that. Really not sure yet. Maybe after 2 weeks I'll miss it and be back with a vengeance. Maybe it'll be 2 months and then I'll be reinvigorated. Hell, perhaps I come back in 3 weeks, then find out I made a mistake and I'll wander off for a larger period of time. This is all new to me. Just about every other captioner (other than Dawn) has vanished for weeks or months .. often without giving any explanation. I've been up front since the get go here and not trying to be dramatic.
As always, I want to involve you, the readers, in what sort of content I will provide in the meantime. One option would be that I could "reprint" old blog postings .. the caption and the write-up as a repost. Maybe you've seen it before, or it could be new to you if it was before you started being a regular viewer. Another choice would be to highlight some captions given to me from the Haven, either randomly or chosen by a particular captioner. Definitely let me know in the comments if you'd like either or both. Any other ideas could be on the table as well. Twice a week seems fair enough, and will stop Google from thinking this blog has gone inactive.
Will I still be around?
Yes and no. I am not giving up my administrative duties at the Haven. You can PM me there at anytime and I'll be monitoring the site and content as usual. Perhaps, if motivated, there will be a new caption or two traded there, though I wouldn't be shocked if my output ceased at the Haven until I am ready to start captioning again regularly.
For this blog, I will try to check in once a day. maybe at lunch or supper to view any comments that need a reply, and depending on the plan going forward, spend a few minutes putting up any content post to make sure this blog doesn't fall under the "inactive" category. Time permitting, I would probably visit other blogs, especially those in that column on the left. I want to continue to build the community, and totally withdrawing from it all will not help myself nor those I wish to support.
And those who have my email, shoot me a note now and again. I always love hearing from my friends, regardless of how long it's been since I last chatted.
The more I've written here, the better I feel .. in general and specifically in regards to this decision .. though hitting the "PUBLISH" button was possibly the hardest decision I've had to make here. A few weeks or a couple months should do wonders.
PS. About the caption posted above. I think it is the newest one I've done, right after the Patriots Super Bowl caption for Simone. There was no way I was going to sleep before 3 AM so .. I used my nervous energy to power through a caption. Ian has a name that is small enough to fit in most captions without much space and since he's commented the most on this site, it had to star him. Which one actually IS him? I guess only he knows the answer to that!
I've always thought that if someone chose to disappear that is their decision and no explanation is necessary. No one knows what is going on someone else's head. With that said, if you need a break, take a break. I'm definitely much more of a lurker in this community, but I will miss your posts. Your's is one of a few blogs I've turned to and that will be missed. But, hopefully I get to look forward to your triumphant return. In the meantime, take care of yourself. Sorry this was king and quite possibly you're thinking 'who the heck is this!' I assure you I'm a long time fan.
ReplyDelete*long not king
DeleteThank you. Glad that I'm one of the few you get your TG Caption fix from. I do plan on being back at some point. It's nice to have time off though and not worry about returning captions, plus there ended up being family stuff that is keeping me away from here as well.
DeleteBest of luck and enjoy your time off. Hopefully you refind the feeling that captions once gave you. Take care.
ReplyDeleteWe can certainly hope. I don't think I've made my last caption. I need some time off though and hopefully will come back fresh.
DeleteThanks for the caption. Its true i am very easily lead. Which one is me i well not tell yet.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy your break and re charge your batteries.
As for post it would be great to revisit some of your older post but i think you are self critical of your work so you might find that harder than you think.
Until you are back When ever i see a park bench i well think of you.
Thanks, and I'm glad you are associating me with park benches!
DeleteWell, if I post some old captions again, it would probably be with the original posting so I wouldn't have to do any more work, or perhaps one or two sentences to put it into context.
I hope you can enjoy your time away from here. Behind every keyboard is a person, who sometimes just needs to put their time and energy elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm not regretting this at all right now.
DeleteCapping for nine years on a regular basis is quite impressive. Your muse must be very committed to you, but if you need a break to find inspiration again, so be it. From a selfish point of view, I hope your break is shorter rather than longer, but that is up to you. What we do here is supposed to make us feel better after all.
ReplyDeleteI like the ideas of reposting old posts, but the idea of posting caps give you by other captioners is appealing as well. You have been given great caps over the years after all.
Besides that, I do hope that you keep up the DIY challenge. Besides that they are fun to do, In my case I learned a lot from making them, especially in those cases where I could let my imagination run amok. Even if I didn’t always see it at the time when I entered them, in retrospect I can say that some of MY best work was created as a DIY. Of course I had my misses as well, but that’s also part of the learning process.
Fun cap, If I was one of the new girls I don’t think I would try too hard to get my old body back.
I am so happy to hear that you think some of your best work was done in the DIY Challenges. It is one of the thing that upset me here, that I, and the other people fulfilling the challenges, seem to do a lot of work for half the views a regular post gets.
DeleteI am not going to force things at this point. I've had a great few days concentrating on things other than this blog. I promise to come back when it seems feasible. I feel that at some point I'll miss making captions again and that could possibly inspire me to get going again. I am no where near moment yet.