(UPDATE: OK, obviously I didn't quit, and I apologize to Neil for not consulting with him on this. Let's just say we are continually re-evaluating the best way to serve our audience. That's some good use of the lingo.)
I've decided to discontinue Out of Left Field. At some point in the next couple weeks, it will simply feel like time and I'm going to end it.
At first, I thought what I was doing had value. Since I was no longer writing sports for a daily newspaper after coming to Ottawa, I needed an outlet. In April, I went all in on blogging, something I had done since 2003 -- long before it entered the mainstream.
That was about seven months ago. Today, that decision looks pretty stupid to me. If you think otherwise, let me know (neatesager@yahoo.ca or 613-225-5954).
The time I'm spending writing and editing this blog looks like time wasted. Maybe it's time to come clean and admit I am not a sportwriter; I'm just someone with an Internet connection who's farting around for 3-4 hours a day in the delusion that this is going to lead to success somewhere down the road. So far it hasn't, and I don't know if it ever will.
All it's done is been a way to hide from the twin realities. One is that spending so much time on this blog is a way for me to avoid life -- to think of where I'd be if I spent the 3-4 hours dedicated daily to Out of Left Field to physical exercise or actually developing human relationships. The second reality is that outside of a few friends and fellow bloggers, I feel like very few people could give a rat's ass what I have to say.
So please understand that it's probably for the best that I quit this blog. One fell swoop, bang, done, over. It's hard to see, here at 5:30 a.m. on another sleepless night, how this is helping my personal or professional development. If anything, it's set me back in both those areas.
Outside of a couple people I knew before coming to Ottawa, I haven't made a single friend outside work in the eight months I've been here because I'm spending so much time on the blog, often staying up until all hours of the night. It lets me ignore my receding hairline, my expanding waistline, my barely furnished 1-bedroom apartment... I could go on.
I've tried to roust up mainstream media interest in hope of finding a larger platform, but haven't found a taker, and it's clear why: I suck.
So as a matter of simple math, neglecting exercise and human relationships to spend 3-4 hours per day on a blog that gets maybe 200 page views in a given day seems silly. And childish. It hasn't led to anything, other than the odd link from sites such as Deadspin and JABS, and the occasional private praise via e-mail. I appreciate that, rest assured.
So sometime in the next week to 10 days, it'll be goodbye and good luck. I'm sorry I have to do this. I'm sorry I wasted your time.
The blogosphere won't have Nathan Robert Sager to ignore anymore, and it will probably go on like this blog never existed.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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3 comments:
Neate,
I am hoping this is the beginning of a research project to guage the level of fan apathy in Canadian sports. I am guessing you have hooked up with 9 other bloggers to do comparative research in other parts of the world to see what people's reaction would be to bloggers threatening to stop their blogging and the protests that would occur.
I am assuming the hypothesis is that in the US they will raise $50,000 to keep the blogger interested, in France they would be indifferent if not downright rude, in Britain they would flog the blog and order him to get back and keep writing about Man U, Becks and why England will dominate in soccer again, in Ireland they will simply buy the man a Guiness and everything will be good again, in Singapore the blogger would be caned, in Saudi Arabia they would simply make him part of the Royal family and finance him as long as he promotes both the Saudi national soccer team (which made the World Cup) and Wahhabism, in Australia they would try to knock the head off of the Tall Poppy for trying to be better than others and in Canada we hope that you get at least a few emails from the huge number of people who read your stuff and love it but fail to realize that they need to give some love back to keep the stories coming!
Of course, there would be another whole research project on how newspapers fail to identify and promote creative talent but that is for another time.
Needless to say the entire Queen's Football Club loves your work and appreciate all of your writings. I guess this means that we will have to create another line item in our budget to fund you directly. I do not know a lot about journalism but a situation where the subject finances the writing has to be a conflict of interest. I will have to ask the Bush administration how they did it ....
I am gonna miss the CIS Picks, even if you never seemed to get them right.. haha
-Bryan
Nate: Spend less time writing. Only one story a day, or even just a few a week. I try to read your blog, but you update it so often, it is tough to keep up! My 2 cents!
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