About a month ago I alluded to the fact that I might have
some news to report soon. It took longer
than I expected, but I can finally talk about it.
I may not be able to post my recommendations for movies
quite as often as I have been. It’s for
a good reason, not a bad one.
I started this site a couple of months into a
sabbatical. I had originally intended my
time off to be one year, with a cash buffer of a second year to find work. I estimated very conservatively, so I ended
up being able to take three years off while I lived on my savings. The entire three years I have been doing this
site it has been either my number one or number two priority.
Well, that now has to change. I am finally going to be a productive member
of society again. I started a new job Friday. I will be a Project Manager in the IT
department of L.L. Bean. (No, I can’t
get you a discount on their products.)
In addition to once again having a full work week, I also have a two
hour round trip commute on top of it.
This job will be taking up the large majority of my time.
Now I know that many, if not most, of the bloggers reading
this are already holding down full time jobs of their own while still posting
reviews. I’m not looking for sympathy;
I’m simply explaining why I may not be able to post quite as often as I have
been.
Long time Followers may remember that I posted a review
almost every single day for the first two years. In this last year I had cut that back,
posting only 3-4 times a week. I also
stopped posting comments on many of your sites almost altogether. That was due to the fact that I had another
big project: I have been working on a 15 year Supplement to a 900 page
genealogy book I published in 1999.
Researching all the families again, gathering information, getting it
into the manuscript, looking into self-publishing, etc. have been taking a
sizable chunk of my time. I need to
complete this by mid-year 2014 in time for the 90th anniversary of
the first meeting of a family association.
This has been my top priority in more recent months. With starting a new job, this now becomes my
number two priority and I will be spending much of my evenings and weekends on
this, probably in peaks and valleys as I either get more info or have to sit
and wait for someone to send me more.
What this means for Tips from Chip is that it unfortunately
has to be only my third priority. I
would like to be able to say that I ought to still be able to keep up only
three posts a week, but the simple truth is I don’t know how much time either
the job or the book will take. I
especially might have to invest even more hours in the job at first to try to
come up to speed there as quickly as possible.
I will say that my intention is to try to keep to the same posting
schedule, but if you don’t see anything for a week it’s probably because I got
pulled away for either the job or the book.
Once I get the book published I should be able to return to devoting
more time to this site.
In the immediate future I still have one more Best Picture
nominee to recommend (Gravity). There
are two others (Philomena and Nebraska )
that I have not seen and now do not know when I might. Normally I do a post ranking the Best Picture
nominees and include some analysis of them as a whole. I’m unsure if I will still do that having
seen only 7 of 9. (Trekkies/Trekkers –
feel free to insert your own Star Trek: Voyager joke.)
In either case, I will then do what I have always done
leading up to the Oscars which is continue with recommendations for films that
received nominations in other categories, post an Oscar quiz, my predictions,
and then the results and analysis.
Following that will be my Top 10 of 2013. That gets me into March. After that I don’t know what category of
movies I will do, but I might pick ones with fewer entries simply because of
how spread out they may be. If I did one
with 15 movies in it people will have forgotten what the category is by the
time I finish it.
So, I might not be around my site as much, which
unfortunately means I might not be around your sites as much either (even
though I hadn’t been commenting, I had still been reading when I could.) I will still reply to any and all comments I
get here, so please don’t stop with those. I enjoy the feedback and thoughts that you
share.
Just as long as you keep posting every once in a while. I'll still read you. I understand you have other responsibilities but at least you're still going to write.
ReplyDeleteThanks. That is my intention.
DeleteCongrats on the job, and I'm happy that at least you'll still be showing up now and again.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteNo worries, man. We know you are there. It is better to enjoy it than feeling it is an obligation. Cool with the new job. Strained for time, outside pressures and multiple priorities, we can now cry: "one of us, one of us" (sure you get the reference).
ReplyDeleteFrom one freak to another, thanks.
DeleteCongratulations on that job! I hope you love it. We will miss you. So glad to hear you will be with us, though less often.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteThat's great news. Congrats on your new job!
ReplyDeleteGood luck at Beans Chip! We have some friends there. -Paul g.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your new job! With all that commuting, and your genealogy project, understandable you will be blogging less. Will still visit your site.
ReplyDelete@Lindsey D, Paul, and Chris - Thanks for the kind words.
ReplyDelete@Paul - yes there are several familiar faces there, and not just from my old company, but also an earlier job and even college.
Congrats Chip. If you're going to slow down it's for a good reason.
ReplyDeleteChip, congrats on the job! I'm sure it will be tougher to find time to watch so many movies, but I have a feeling you'll still catch a decent amount.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I don't know about the movies. It's one week into the month and I've seen a total of three of them.
Delete