I’ve been “maintaining” Monday By Noon since 2006. I owe a legitimate ton to this site as it’s taught me an inconceivable amount of things that I otherwise likely never would have discovered. I used it to get better at writing, I used it as a vector of trying to stay on my toes when it comes to Web dev, I used it as a method of giving back to a community that taught me everything. And then life got busy, work got busy, projects got bigger, families got bigger. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world but I feel bad for letting such a big personal thing collect so much dust.
The format turned against me
When I started Monday By Noon I was still in college, attempting to figure out just what the heck was going on, and it proved to be a hugely valuable learning experience. I left comments on, I published things as I was learning about them, I got reamed out a number of times and it was awesome. I named the site in such a way that it spearheaded an attack against my greatest weakness: procrastination. I committed to writing what I determined were legitimate articles every Monday by noon, and I put in more hours than I can count (but I wish I kept track for posterity).
I didn’t skip a week for something like the first two or three years, to the extent of scheduling posts when the timeframe collided with holidays or family events. The first time I missed publishing a “full length” (whatever that means) article by noon on Monday I honestly felt bad. It would be some time before that happened again, but fast forward to 2013 and my record is sparse at best.
It just needs a change
Finding time to write 2500 words every single week just isn’t in the cards for me right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t publish. I just need to break things up in some way, to actually jump on the times when I feel compelled to write about something. I’m going to try to do that.
The format here changes today, it’s back to basics. The name Monday By Noon will always be special to me personally, but it no longer has anything to do with the publishing schedule. Ideally this site will turn into a daily blog, back to it’s roots of being topical in response to what I’m actually working on or thinking about, but with the significant change of it being primarily short form.
I really want to get back to giving back, and I’ve fallen into the old trap of labeling content as ‘being written before’ or proclaimed various other useless excuses as reasons not to write, but this marks my cliché “Sorry for not posting, that’s going to change!” post. I’m dying to redesign the site as a whole but I also recognize that’s likely not going to happen anytime soon, so instead you’ll see a format change on the home page. It looks significantly more bloggy, and I’m okay with that.
There, I said it.