Take it or Leave it.

It turns out that taking a break from the week-in, week-out grind of over-whelming bloggery responsibilities is good for the soul and rejuvenating for the mind. Who knew? Plenty of people, but that's really not the point. I've been trying to decide for a while now if I was done with the whole blogging thing. I've had a great time over the couple of years of The Hopeless Gamer. Although my audience (you, if you're reading these words right now) is quite meager, I've been given some really cool opportunities since I've become a blogger simply because I kept a semi-active blog. A part from the nice press passes to shows like Gencon and c2e2, I got to play Battles of Westeros way before it was released and was taught the game by the designer himself. Not too shabby all in all.

The blog has been a couple of different things to me in my short time writing for it. It's been an outlet for me to get my creative juices flowing. It's been a way for me to get int writing flash fiction and explore some really dark (and fun) places for my horror ideas. It's given me an opportunity to talk about role-playing games I wouldn't have otherwise had the opportunity to really discuss if I didn't have the blog.

It's also given me a lot of stress as I drive myself crazy over comparing myself to others out there. My peers, and people I strive to emulate out of respect for their own content. I've had lots of failures and lots of great examples of trying too hard to make this blog like someone else's just because it seems like the thing you do when you blog. I think that was ultimately what made me take such a long break from The HG.  I started focusing on what I thought the blog should be rather than what I wanted it to be. These things turned out to be incongruous, and I think my posts have suffered as a result.

So, after all the yammering, if anyone out there is reading to this far, I've decided to get back into the blogging thing. It was touch-and-go for a while there, but I think my batteries are recharged a bit, and I'm excited to see what excites me to write about this year. Now, let's get back to it.