Time To Say Goodbye.... Hopefully Not For Forever

I guess there is no easy way to start this post off, so I guess I just have to jump right into the thick of things.  For a while now, I've had a war raging within my head on whether or not to continue this blog after almost 3 and a half years.  I don't love it anymore.  A lot of the time, I'm not enjoying it at all.  It's been feeling like an unpaid job for a while now, but I've been fighting against that feeling.  I kept telling myself that my lack of enthusiasm or enjoyment, were temporary.  That the love would come back to me all at once.  Sadly, that hasn't been the case.  I'm not feeling that love, I've actually been avoiding other people's blogs because of that.  It's hard to read blogs, knowing I have posts to write, posts I almost dread doing.

Then the last 2 weeks happened, which helped cement my decision to do this.  Some of you may know that I got the flu last week so I spent a lot of time in bed, watching Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and just vegging out.  It's been over three years since I've done that.  I didn't realize what other interests I had been ignoring because I had books I needed to read, or felt as if I needed to write reviews for every book I read.  I miss just watching TV, not reading a book.  I miss reading a book for the simple pleasure of reading, not thinking about what I'm going to say about it once I'm done reading.  I miss reading not being a job.

To add to the confusion, I've also just been dealt a blow at work, so I need to get out and start figuring out what I'm going to do.  There are some things going on at home that need more attention and may affect me greatly in the months to come, not in a good way.  I feel as if I need to get my life back, and cutting the blog out for now, is a step in that direction.

Now I'm not willing to say that this is over, that I'm done for good.  The plan right now is to take the rest of this month and all of February off.  Within the first few days of March I'm going to reevaluate the way I'm feeling and what I'm willing to do with the blog, if anything.  If I'm still in a holding pattern, I'll do the same thing for the next two months.  I'm hoping that won't be the case though.  Hopefully, by the end of Feb. I will know for sure, whether or not I want to keep Wordsmithonia going, or hang up the closed for business sign for good.

I appreciate and love the community I have found over the last three years, and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.  I have met some wonderful bloggers, many of whom I count as friends now, and I hope to continue those relationships, regardless of the final outcome.  I would love for anyone that I'm not already friend with on Facebook, to send me a friend request.  If you can't find me, email me and I will send you the direct link to my page.

I thank all of you for the support and love you have shown me over the years.  I will never be able to express how much your comments and feedback have meant to me.  I will say you won't be getting rid of me all together though.  I think this decision will allow me to blog read and comment, without feeling guilty about my own blog, so I will be visiting a lot more often.

Hopefully this won't be goodbye for forever, either way I will be back here at the beginning of March to let you know what's going on.  For now, take care of yourselves and I will see you around the blogosphere.

Love you all,

Ryan

Mailbox Mondary for 1/7/13

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme created by Marcia at Mailbox Monday 

I won a paperback of A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey from Bev at My Reader's Block.

A-Z Mystery Author Challenge

The wonderful Michelle of red headed book child, is doing her A-Z Mystery Author Challenge once again.  I never get through them all, but I have fun trying.  So I'll let her explaint he details.

I am going to continue this again this year because I love seeing what my friends and readers are reading in one of my favorite genres.

I only read a handful of mysteries last year but really enjoyed the ones I did. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn blew my mind! Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding was also really fun!

This challenge pretty much runs itself. I thank my three very loyal readers and posters (you know you who are!) for doing such an amazing job last year with this challenge. 

I'm not going to state any goals for myself but really look forward to seeing what folks read this year.

Rules:
A-Z represents the LAST name of the author in the mystery, thriller, suspense, cozy, noir, etc. genre.
Read as many or as little as you want.
Post your links here for your Challenge post and your reviews!
Challenge Runs January 1, 2013 - December 31, 2013
Have fun!

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

Favorite Fictional Character --- Roy Hinkley

When I did last year's wrap up post, I was thinking that maybe it's time to hang up the feature, that I was running our of characters to highlight.  After some long period of soul searching... okay, I really only thought about it for 15 minutes or so while I was in the shower the other day, I realized that I really doubt I will ever run out of characters to talk about.  Between all the books, TV shows, and movies that I love and entertained me over the last 36 years of existence, that leaves me with so many options, I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to showcase all the characters that mean something to me.  So here we are, another year and month starting, and I've decided to talk about characters from TV shows I grew up with, but were first aired before I was even born.  It seems like this current generation of TV watchers, are missing out on some great shows, shows that in times gone by, would have been in syndication for years.  So for today's featured guest, we need to go back to 1964-1967, when the castaways of Gilligan's Island first captured the nation's attention.

Though I was born nine years after the show first aired, I'm not sure there was any point of my childhood that Gilligan's Island wasn't being played on some channel at some point in the week.  It was on before and after school.  I could watch it on the weekends, or at night when it was time to go to bed.  I would get lost in the same episodes over and over again, never getting bored with them.  I enjoyed Gilligan's antics, the Skipper's loving gruffness, Ginger's sexuality, Mary Ann's flirty innocence, the Howell's endearing arrogance, but most of all, I loved the Professor's brains and levelheadedness.  

The Professor, who is actually Roy Hinkley, was a high school science teacher who held multiple degrees in the sciences.  He was in Hawaii to work on a book, Fun With Ferns, and had joined the pleasure cruise to gather notes for inclusion in the book.  When the castaways were stranded on the island, it was really the Professor who had the knowledge to keep them from starving and allowed them to live in relative comfort.  I'm not sure if his skills came from being an expert scoutmaster, from the numerous books he had on the boat at the time of the wreck, or the vast amount of knowledge that was stored in his head, no matter what, the others owed their lives to him.

Professor Hinkley never rubbed his superiority in their faces though.  He was the one that kept them on course, never getting angry, even when Gilligan screwed up, which was often.  He never put himself first, and was always thinking of the group.  If anyone needed help, or was missing a comfort from home, the Professor would do whatever it took to make their lives better.  Now he would usually do it by combining bamboo and coconuts in a new way, but he would make sure the job was done. 

I've heard his detractors whine about the fact that the Professor was able to make a radio out of coconuts, but couldn't fix the boat or build a raft for them to escape off the island, but I say to them, bite it.  First of all, they did try to build a raft, but when the used it, they discovered the island was surrounded by a ring of sharks that prevented them from using it to escape.  Secondly, the island was a thousand miles from civilization.  Nobody was willing to take the risk that the various attempts the Professor made to fix the boat, would actually work.  It's much easier to trust his skills to make their lives comfortable, than for a repaired, broken vessel that may not survive another storm.  A storm that was very likely to occur during the thousand mile trip.  So for all those who thumb their noses at the Professor, I thumb my nose right back.