I'm Back -An apology

I'm going to go ahead and say this right away.

I'm Sorry.

It feels weird to say it. I don't even know if anyone's gonna care. I'm sure no one even feels it's necessary, but I felt like it was the right thing to do. Here's why.

When I started this blog, I had big plans for it. It wasn't just a place to feature cars. It was a place to promote my artwork, and hopefully a way to eventually monetize it. It was a bit far fetched, but I wanted to give it a shot. I also wanted a place to write about one of my loves in life, namely cars.

Over time, like most of my grand ideas, it petered out and I lost interest. The creative demands of drawing and writing began to be overshadowed by the more mundane demands of emailing people over and over again in order to secure interviews, spec sheets, and photos of their cars. Also, to my surprise, I found that I needed more variety in my writing. The weekly features were a lot of fun at first, but writing only features grew tiresome after a while.

I never actually "gave up." I chose to take a break from writing the blog over a summer a couple years ago, and just never really got back to it. It was always one concern or another that kept me from going back. The main problem, of course, is just that I am inherently lazy when lacking the means to motivate myself.

There is one thing I didn't consider, though.

The Fans. You guys.

I am actually pretty insecure about my abilities when it comes to writing, or really, anything that requires a subjective assessment of my abilities. I had a hard time believing that anyone was reading what I was writing. You guys proved me wrong.

I don't even know how many times in the past couple years I've had people asking me when Clean was coming back. It was a post on the Facebook page just the other day that finally drove me over the edge. The urge to write was becoming overwhelming, but there was something else. I realized that over time, I had actually begun to accumulate fans. People who actually read my work, enjoyed it, and looked forward to more. After making that realization, I felt pretty bad. I let you guys all down. On some level, you guys made enough of a personal investment to remember my writing existed, and actually check back for more from time to time. It doesn't sound like a lot, but with the amount of distractions at our fingertips everyday, it means a lot. And I intend to repay that investment from now on.

Clean is going to differ a bit from it's old format. For one thing, cars are not going to be the only subject matter anymore. Over the past year, I've bought a Honda Ruckus that I've fallen in love with. To reflect this, daily-driven custom scooters and bikes are going to be a big part of the subject matter here. Also, while I'm looking forward to writing new features, I'm going to be writing a lot of non-feature articles. Just random pieces on the highs, lows, joys, upsets, and technical nitty-gritty of riding and driving. Look forward to my upcoming piece on dressing for cold-weather riding.

That's all I have to say for now. To those of you who've stuck it out all this time, thank you.

And welcome back.

-Rabi