I Don't Want to Spoil the Party

I know that I've been moving toward this for some time. I've blogged about it, but I guess I had to finally come to this point to actually do it. As I've gotten older I've begun to crave less complication in my life. I'm searching for a less cluttered existence, I'm throwing out junk I no longer need, and I feel the instinct to pare down and simplify.

Frank told me this would happen.

I remember one afternoon in 1989 when he phoned and asked me to come to his house. He was only three years older than I am now. When I walked up his driveway, I found him sitting on a crate inside his open garage, looking through a stack of vinyl LPs, all Classical, of course. In fact, he had thousands of albums; the walls of the garage were lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves to hold them all.

"Take whichever ones you want," he said, and that day I went home with about 20; after that, he would give me three or four more whenever I left his house.

When I asked him why he was getting rid of them, he said, "One day you'll feel the need to simplify. Then you'll understand why."

That day has been coming for a long time.

I am currently working toward closing every site and blog I own, except for this and the accompanying skwaller.com, which will be revamped. Most people don't know that I maintain 11 blogs and sites. That's a lot of work, but more, it's a lot of clutter that has begun to steal energy from the things that really matter to my life. Like working on my film project, finishing Book Three and writing more books/movies in the future. Most of my sites I began for other people and I would never close them down. What I can do is add those people as authors so that they can maintain them for themselves, if they want to. Otherwise, they'll stay on the web as info blogs only. Other blogs, which have to do with my various creative endeavors, will be condensed and given a single page on my website. The book blogs will go.

And what about the social networks? Well, I've already closed my account with Twitter and have quit using Google+. All that's left is Facebook (I consider Pinterest to be no more than a magazine, anyway, so I'll keep it for that 15 minutes once or twice a week that I visit it). I'm keeping Facebook because I really do enjoy talking with friends over my morning coffee, but I think one visit each day before I get up is reasonable.

Basically, I'm just getting bored with the Internet. I'm tired of the marketing, of being followed by Google and Facebook, by being hunted down by a number of crazy stalkers and trolls, and of being constantly on-call. I'm tired of all the hours I spend sitting with my laptop, not actually creating something. This technology, which was meant to work for us has enslaved us. I'm getting off the grid. I'm limiting who has access to me, and how. If you have my cell phone number or my email address, that's good enough. Otherwise, I'm not available. And if you do happen to be one of the pains-in-my-ass who think you have some kind of power over me, I'm making you disappear by leaving your party. I no longer care about your beef with me, how much money you think I owe you, or if you're just stupid and insane enough not to get the difference between a biography and a dedication in the front pages of a work of fiction. You ceased mattering to me a long time ago. In fact, I haven't read one of your comments in a couple of years. I get a notice when I receive one, and then it goes to spam. I don't even open it. Find someone who cares. Better yet, get a life of your own. Life's too short to follow me around. That's just pathetic.

In about 20 years you will be in a bed, dying.

Do you really want to look back and realize how much precious time and energy you wasted on me? Talk about regrets. That's not what life is for.

As for me, I'm pulling the plug on you. My friends--both online and off--know who they are; I have no room anymore for the rest.