It’s hard to say, who ya are these days,
But you run on anyway, don’t you baby?
You keep runnin’ for another place,
To find that saving grace.
Life is a hell of a road trip, ya know? Seems like every time I think I’ve got it figured out, something bigger comes along and changes everything. Three months ago, I was putting the finishing touches on a 3-month long, next level gearhead summer camp program.
Check out how close I got. That “It’s just $27” button actually went to a product page accepting PayPal and credit cards – and worked. I was on the 58th version of that page, with the first month of program content drafted and ready for email when I decided to take a break from GBXM.
Today, I’m trying to figure out how to modify NLGSC to be more inclusive to people who might not have cars or trucks. This program is coming soon – one way or another. Adventurist Life, my new magazine venture, isn’t just about lifted trucks and dirtbikes, so it’s got to be more universally appealing, ya know? Maybe I’ll just run it here anyway. What do you think?
6 years of GBXM
Like I said, every time I think I’ve got it figured out, it all changes. Part of the problem with Gearbox is hindsight. This month marks six years of Gearbox Magazine. Six. Years. I look back and see all the things I’d do differently. Just like any gearhead like us might do with any given project.
I see the time and effort wasted on building separate channels which split our effort and died on the vine. I see the broken images and bad links on a couple hundred articles when I moved it all to this site that I haven’t had time to fix since. I see all my early, three-posts-a-week no-matter-what consistency falling by the wayside as time went by.
You reach a point where you just want to scrap it and start something new.
For me, that was worklifeparallel.com, which I started when I the only response I got to my professional development-type content being friendly jokes about this place turning into a self-help group. But then I had this next level gearhead summer camp idea. And then I was tapped as some kind of expert to launch Adventurist Life.
Don’t call it a comeback.
Six years ago, this site started as a DSM/Mitsubishi-specific, magazine-themed blog. Since then, it’s taught me the lines on the map and the badges on the grille don’t mean shit. This little website – and the conversations I’ve had with gearheads like us all over the world – have taught me much about life. Walking away for a couple months – taking a break – has given me the clean break I needed to get back behind the wheel.
Don’t call it a comeback, though. Though I still daily and play with Mitsubishis, I no longer have anything fast. I’m into trucks and camping and cycling and even hiking these days. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still think about how much more fun Fezzik, my 98 Pajero, might be as a 6G74TT daily driver. Old habits die hard. Once a DSMer. Always a DSMer.
I’m still interested in stories I can only tell here. Awesome as Curly’s Shade Tree Garage up in the Pacific Northwest might be, as much as he represents all that is good and right and honorable about gearheads like us, I don’t know how I’d get a bunch of racing and restored Miatas on Adventurist Life. It’s got to run here.
And it will. Soon.
Likewise, the conversations I want to have about life, the universe, everything. There’s 42 reasons why I want to continue writing about personal, professional, and business development over on wlpll. I’m not going to force it down anyone’s throat over here. If you just want to look at cool cars and yesterday’s reddit, I can point you to half a dozen other mainstream sites.
There’s a corner of the floor,
They’re telling you is yours.
Your confident but not really sure.
This corner of the floor is mine. I’m confident, but not really sure how often I’ll be publishing here, wlpll, or even Adventurist Life for a while. It’s all still very much up in the air.
Saving grace. I started this little website six years ago. I’m glad I did. And it’s hard to say, who I am these days, but I run on anyway. You keep runnin’ for another place. To find that savin’ grace…
