A Whole Year Later

Remember when I created this Blog over a year ago?

Man, I do.

No, when I first created the blog about a year back, I was PSYCHED. Having a way to practice my HTML that I was learning AND be able to create more content? Pfft, sounded like a dream come true. And that's kind of what it was, a fleeting dream.

If I can be a bit nostalgic for a second, I want to talk to you about where my online username came from. PhantasmaPlumes. Not going to lie, I probably spent like a day and a half debating what would sound good. Big on rhetoric, I wanted the name to have a double meaning:

The first was a new identity I could easily toss aside if I needed to. A Phantasmagoria is like a dream, it exists and doesn't at the same time; it was perfect for the new account I made.

The second comes from another meaning Phantasmagoria has: an ever-changing scene. I was toying with the idea of creating... well, anything! All I knew was that I had a story that I wanted to share with the world, and I wanted to try and make people happier if I could.

In a way, the blog was kind of reminiscent of that mentality: I was ready to toss so many things to the wall just to see what stuck and what didn't, but what I ended up doing was burning myself out just as I was getting started rather than provide myself the groundwork to experiment. To be honest with you, similar to a lot of content creators when they first start out, they focus on the numbers, and it just destroys any hope they have.

I definitely wasn't immune to that - I was trying my best to create content on all cylinders. I had YouTube videos going up Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, Twitch Streams going Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and lastly, a weekly podcast episode going live on Sundays. Even without the blog, I was firing on all cylinders and eventually, I had to make a decision on to which I needed to focus on to grow as a content creator, and that... was like a house of cards falling over.

Watching them all kind of collapse as I fell harder against myself SUCKED.

The past year was a major growing point for me as a person; I survived some crazy work projects, got certified in Salesforce and HTML/CSS, cleared who knows how many miles as I earned The Conqueror Challenge medals, plus y'know, got to spend another fantastic year with my Fiancee.

OH YEAH, YOU WOULDN'T KNOW THAT PART.

Like, dude... I could go onto a whole thing about how the Fox Wife and I got engaged. It was one of our first "real" vacations together, not being driven by anything else like a family member doing something stupid, and man, it was so nice. I think it sparked something in the both of us: an ever-growing desire to see the world together. And for the most part, we've been making that happen where we can; our weekends together have brought us out to different states to see underwhelming balloons, a convention filled with fellow nerds, and I couldn't tell you how many bookstores we've visited together.

And it's been a blast.

Sure, there's a lot of things I could sit back and say "I wish I did this or that differently," with as much regret as my voice could hold, but man, I've enjoyed picking myself back up every time. Life is never an easy journey - that line about it being a marathon is definitely true. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It's what's giving me the inspiration to come back to this and keep going; despite my planning on starting something brand new on a different site. And my attempt to do so on Tumblr, but we don't need to talk about that one!

All that to say, it's good to be back. I'm hoping within the coming weeks I can draw up some good reviews for a number of the books I've enjoyed in the past few months, share a few experiences, and enjoy laughing with everyone once again. So, until next time...

I'll see you in the stars...