Last post?

I am planning to close down this blog, and I thought I'd do a warning post and leave it up for a while. I know some people who check the blog regularly, but it has other less-regular visitors, so this is a way to reach them too.

Why close it down? Well, I've been thinking about doing that for a while. For one thing, I don't post very often anymore. I think about posting-- and then don't. Sometimes it's because I'm depressed, but other times it's because I worry about the post being seen by someone I might not want to have see it. 
Even though the blog is anonymous, sort of, it's pretty easy to find. I haven't cared about that much, although I know of at least one case where I hurt someone's feelings by posting something that I never expected him to read. Mostly I try to be careful, not going into too much detail about my teaching, for example, in case a student should happen upon the blog. But it's been a little iffy for a while. I've been thinking I either need to be completely open, put my name on the blog and all that, or completely closed, a private blog open only to people I invite.

So is Magpieland going to become a private blog? I'm thinking not, although I could change my mind about that. When the boys were little boos, changing constantly, doing incredibly cute things, the blog was a really fun place to share that stuff. Now they're older -- ten years old! -- and not as cute, not changing as fast. It's just not the same. Also, they're starting to be aware of the blog! Kid A is still not much of a problem because he can't read very well. So if he stands next to me while I'm typing, he mostly can't read it. But Kid B! Kid B stands next to me and reads the whole thing and wants to know "what is this Magpieland anyway, huh????" And pretty soon his friends will be going online all the time and could see it, see the embarrassing things I write about him. And worse, the photos! (I know many kids nowadays would already be totally online all the time, but Boulder is a little different. At the kids' school I've hardly ever seen a kid with a phone. I think most parents at our school limit their kids' online activity. But middle school is coming, along with cyber-bullying...)

So my plan is to shut down Magpieland completely, stop posting in it, and take the whole thing offline. I may leave Welcome to Ridgecrest up for a while, simply because it is so adorable in so many ways. Plus, don't people still need advice about tortoise burrows? Or surviving Ridgecrest? And I may start a new blog, a public blog -- but I'm not sure about that. I was advised to do that by someone who gave me some job-finding advice, use it as a place to show off my knowledge and skills. I'm still not sure it's the right move. If I did that, I'd have to be oh so very careful about what I post. I'd have to lie, in other words. But that's the internet, right? One big lie.

Anyway, for now the plan is to shut this down completely in a week or so. And then we'll see.