Did you miss me?

Of course you didn't.

Well, for those of you who even bother to still check the RSS feeds for this li'l ol' blog of mine, I feel that I owe you some kind of an explanation for the dearth of new content to be found ... Now, if you'll remember ALLLLLL the way back to my "glorious" return to the online Celtics community, you'll recall that I had some reservations about how much free time I would actually have to spend on this venture, what with graduate school and various other commitments I have in the "real world."

Nevertheless, I decided to go through with the experiment, and - not to toot my own horn or anything - I feel that I was chugging along pretty good there for awhile. I was posting my detailed recaps in a semi-timely manner, I was getting my name back out there (ballhype.com), the big boys (celticsblog.com) were giving my work some much-appreciated exposure, and - most importantly - the Celtics were kicking ass on the court! It all seemed to be coming together quite nicely ...

And that's when the bottom fell out (for me, not for the team).

I dunno, it's hard to pinpoint the exact moment when posting to this blog stopped being "fun" and started being "work" (and when you already have a 9-to-5 job PLUS graduate-school assignments that need to be submitted, piling more work on top of that really is no fun) ... I guess it all started at the beginning of the new year, when each game recap became more and more "mentally draining" - sorry for being so melodramatic - to complete.

To better explain, let me just give you all a little insight into the process of how I actually compose my recaps for each game (thus opening a window into my madness) ... On a typical gamenight, I would watch the entire contest live - while simultaneously taping the game via DVR - and take quick notes on my laptop when something occurred that I wanted to reference in the recap itself; you know, big scoring runs, Tommy quotes, things like that. Then, once the game was complete, I would go back and rewind to those particular moments so that I could flesh out said notes with more in-depth analysis. Finally, I would retype the entire recap to fix grammatical errors and make it more "post-worthy", add various other sundry details (player nicknames, stats, "Celt of the Game", etc.) then finally upload the entire she-bang to this blog the next day (but usually a little more tardy than that).

Now, when I was doing this kind of recapping back in my college days, time wasn't really an issue ... I typically had loads of free time in between classes to rewatch the game highlights (only had a VCR to work with back then) and then type things up for my website; hell, I remember some days during the week I would have only a single class to attend, which left plenty of opportunities to work on my Celtics page alongside other school-related activities (glug glug glug).

However, a full-time job and graduate work doesn't leave me with such opportunities in this day and age ... I had to make sure I finished these game recaps on the same night as the game itself, so that meant some nights staying up until 2 in the morning doing nothing but watching highlights on TV. Believe me, now that I'm an old man of 31, that's not such an easy task anymore!

Thus, a lack of sleep meant that my work began to suffer, and game recaps were being submitted later and later (and not at the level of quality that I was shooting for) ... Once the All-Star Break rolled around, I thought it would give me a chance to recharge my batteries and tackle my game-recapping "duties" anew. Sadly, once the games resumed, Boston immediately began that West Coast road trip; sure enough, those 10 PM tip-off times were what ultimately broke me, and I was left asking myself "What's the point of doing this if it's no longer fun (ESPECIALLY if I'm not getting paid to do it?!)".

Anyway, my intention wasn't to turn this piece into a full-blown whine-a-thon like the kind you'll typically find on the blogosphere (Waah! My life is so hard! Feel pity for me! Waah! Waah!), so let me just cut to the chase ... Suffice it to say, I came to the realization that I no longer have the time nor the energy to create the kind of content that I once did, and I haven't written a game recap since.

*cue the world's smallest violin*

Once I made this decision, it was time to reasses my entire reason for creating this blog in the first place ... When I first came back on the online Celtics scene, I was under the delusional assumption that I could slowly build it back up into the honest-to-goodness business venture that I had abandoned once Rivals.Com went under in the Dot-Com Bubble Burt of Ninety-Nine. Unfortunately, it's become clear to me that that ship has sailed.

However, don't take this to mean that I'm tucking my tail between my legs and going back into online "retirement" ... I still feel passionate about this team and its players, and I still feel like I have something to contribute to the online conversation when it comes to the defending World Champions (man, it lifts my spirits just typing those words!).

So, as a brand-new NBA season lays before us, I'm going to simply accept the fact that detailed game recaps are a thing of the past for me ... Instead, I'll be checking in periodically with random observations on the team and its progress. Nothing more, nothing less - it's back to basics for this guy!

Will these posts be earth-shattering revelations that rock the very foundations of this team and the league? Probably not. Will they be entertaining and give you something to smile about as the season progresses? I'll sure give it my best shot.

So, that's where we stand right now - I'm keeping this blog going for as long as I can, but I just can't guarantee that you'll be getting fresh content every single day (hey, I'm just being honest with you guys) ... Hopefully, all of you kind people will still decide to stick around and check in every now and then.

It's kind of funny, really ... When I first began writing about the Celtics online back in the mid-90s, it was meant to be a "hobby" and nothing more. Then, it suddenly became feasible to generate a little income from this whole "World Wide Web" thing, so I decided to take a shot and turn it into a business venture. Once the dot-com bubble put an end to that, the idea laid dormant for a few years, until I worked up the nerve to try and resume this "business" where I left off by starting a blog. However, I've wasted enough of your time explaining how this strategy no longer seems feasible, so I've come back full circle to maintaining this site as a simple hobby as nothing more.

Funny how life works, isn't it?