One Hundo!

It finally happened: 100 blog posts, and it only took a year and a half to do it. I've been sitting on this entry for awhile now wondering what to even say.

I still don’t fully understand why I began what was once named the JonnyD Weekly late in the spring of 2011. I think my unconscious psyche was looking for an audience to my creative endeavors. I have spend the better part of a decade writing manuscripts; after countless form-letter rejections that were printed in bulk with no level of personalization or thought behind them, I had grown wary of the effort. The idea of producing material online that did not have to be filtered through any form of publisher greatly appealed to me. How pointless does it feel to make something if you aren't allowed to share it?

Well, I have seen the rise of the JonnyD Weekly; I have watched it’s statistics plateau; and I have been watching them dwindle since the beginning of the summer. Maybe it has simply run its course like most blogs do.

Maybe it was hard to lock down an audience with no set genre of material. I heard said that if you try to speak to everyone, then you ultimately are talking to no one. If you don’t have a stand on a matter, then you’re not pulling a crowd to hear what you have to say. That may be a key piece as to why the JonnyD Weekly has grown to its limit; I have left the material light hearted and quaint. Honestly, most of my blogs are based off of whimsical five or ten minute conversations I have had with people, and while that’s perfectly fine, it really is only one step up from an e-mail joke that you read and forward onto your friends.

This is my least viewed post.  Check it out!
"They Can't All Be Creepers"

I worry about taking the podium on topics of substance. Anyone who has watched my Ashes of Man three part web-series on YouTube knows that I do not have a favorable outlook on the human race - except for you, yeah you, the person reading this. You’re cool. I like you! But as for everyone else, my experience is that most people don’t change their outlooks or their ways, and on the rare occasion that they do, the decision happens from within, not from some yuppie forcing their opinion on them. If that wasn’t the case, then I would be a Jehovah Witness by now. And if you’re not writing to effect hearts and minds, or flat out piss people off, then your goal is to write to all the people who already agree with you, which despite my affected narcissism, I see as a bit self-indulgent. 

So, the chances I’ll tell you my thoughts on organized religion, any political matter, how I feel about the death penalty, the legalization of marijuana, abortion, or some other controversial subject are slim. Most are not my fights to begin with. Everyone has their opinion on a matter, and even if you show me how mine is wrong, I will still hate you for it and simply out of spite will hold fast to my original stand. I expect that you would do the same.

Ultimately, the blog was a tool to help me find some focus in life. I don’t know if it’s just the course of things, or having a child, or turning thirty that has lent some fresh perspective on life, but I think I’ve slowly gained a better understanding of what I want to do with myself, at least in the near future. I’ve also come to realize how much this blog is more talking about doing things than it is about actually doing anything. When that becomes all you’re doing, it creates a false sense of progress. I’d much rather be living some adventure and making something than just yammering on about crap, philosophizing, and reminiscing.

See?! Told you.

Besides, as cute kittens and captioned photos will attest to, more people are inclined to use the internet for visual stimulus than for reading.

I think for those reason, the JonnyD Weekly, or JonnyDStrong.com as it is named now, has run its course for me as its own stand alone entity. Lately, it has melded into a facet of Stranger Things Studios to operate as a news feed and director’s log. We’ll see what it becomes from there. More importantly, we’ll see where I go from here.

For now, happy One-Hundo!

And fear not avid fans, there are a lot of exciting things upcoming in the world of Stranger Things Studios.