Blogging

Blogging about blogging. Has it really come to this? Am I that bereft of any new, interesting ideas?

Apparently.

I started blogging in 2004. Or maybe 2005. I don't remember at this point and it really isn't that important. I wasn't in on the ground floor of the movement (craze?), but came in at what was probably close to the height of its popularity.

I'd kept a personal journal from late 1987 to mid 2002, mostly chronicling my debauched San Francisco adventures, aborted romances, my near-continual financial woes, and multiple moves to and from Arizona over those 15 years. I finally gave up in 2003 with the arrival of my cancer diagnosis. While it might've been interesting for me to use the journal as a vehicle to work through my fears and insecurities regarding my diagnosis and subsequent treatment, the general consensus (myself included) was that I would beat the cancer and the last thing I'd wanted was a written record for all posterity of what I had gone through. I've never been one for a pity party, and that's what I feared it would turn into.

This decision left a gaping hole in my expressive life that was eventually replaced with blogging. Initially I was more than a little fearful of putting my personal life out on the internet, but realized quickly that while it could be used that way, blogging really wasn't intended to be a traditional journal; I could include as much or as little as I felt comfortable revealing to the world.

As GW Bush entered his second term in office, it also afforded me a venue in which to vent my frustration at the direction the country was taking—and to connect with like-minded individuals who felt the same way—not to mention facilitating meeting the man who was to eventually become my husband.

As anyone who's been here from the beginning (and I applaud you) knows, over the years, my blogging has gone from personal rants, political opining and an occasional dash of male hotness to mostly male hotness with everything else being secondary. 8 years of the smooth-running, scandal-free Obama White House afforded me precious little to bitch about, and nekkid menz always seemed to draw more interest anyway.

My only regret through this journey was my failure to back up my blog prior to our relocation to Denver. I did a damn good job of stringing words together on several of those posts and wish they were still around. (I'm in the process of pulling what I can from the Internet Archive "The Wayback Machine" and back-publishing those posts here, but it's time consuming and I'm only able to retrieve text, not pictures.)

Of course, with the arrival of the Orange Russian Wig Stand in the Oval Office, that's changed. I once again find myself getting very worked up about what's happening in the world and have plenty to bitch about, but there are many days I just can't. Thankfully there are others out there—others far more erudite than I—whose work I can pass on to fill the void when my own words fall short. I occasionally rant about Apple, provide unnecessary movie and television reviews, and post funny pictures and way more male hotness than I ever thought I would when all this started.

I've often thought about shuttering the whole thing since I get so little feedback these days, but after all these years, Voenix Rising has become my online identity, my "brand" as it were, and I don't really want to give that up. I know that one day—like its author—the Voenix Rising blog will take its last breath, but until that time I shall continue to use it it as a vehicle to scream into the void and hopefully provide some salacious entertainment and humor along the way.