A Farewell to Reflections, with a nod to a new...

I've come to the conclusion that my original concept of Reflections has been a bit ill-conceived.

My intent was to "keep in touch" with family and friends through this blog, hoping that discussion and comments would ensue after I posted something.

What I have found though is more of a one-sided conversation.

In retrospect, I think the public nature of blogging scares a certain population away from posting. I wish I had seen that sooner. Thinking it through though now, it's not really all that inviting to have someone share events personal to them, and then expect family and friends to all respond in the public domain as if you were having a friend-to-friend conversation.

So...

...in the aftermath of these past 2 years of blogging, I have not been very good at keeping in touch with the people I care about the most. I left my "keeping in touch" with family and friends in a bit of a "latch-key situation" with the Reflections from Wyoming blog playing the role of inept parent.

Now for those of you who read the blog and posted, I offer up a sincere thanks for letting me know you were out there reading. Some didn't post, and would simply email me that they read one of my blogs. That meant a lot as well. Thank you!

Which brings me to my next conclusion...

Even in this day of blogging and social networking, the best communication tool for me remains sending and receiving emails, phone calls, and face to face meetings from people I deeply care about. Ideas, websites, podcasts, music and the like can all be shared through these mediums, same as I would do in any Facebook page or blog. I just have less hassle and less public displays of display.

Not that I don't like these new avenues...I think they are fine for what they are. I just have decided that for me, at this point in my life, with my goal of keeping in touch with family and friends, that to really have a decent discussion about something, sending an email out and waiting for a response is better than broadcasting it to the world in a blog or on MySpace.

Before you go running for the exits though, let me explain that I am not deleting this site. It will remain Reflections from Wyoming and all the archived blogpostings will stay right where they are. This post will simply be my last post on this particular avenue of cyberspace.

Which brings me to my final point...

As many of you know, I work in the environmental field. I've started up a new blog called The Soil Scientist to speak to some issues that I find interesting in the particular career field I find myself. It's a work in progress at the following link for those interested in checking it out:

http://thesoilscientist.blogspot.com

Many thanks to everyone for checking out my Reflections blog.

I look forward to talking to you all more through emails, phone calls, and hopefully face-to-face meetings.

Don't be surprised if you get a personal one of these from me in the near future.

Cheers!

Drew