Howdy everyone, I reckon it’s time for one of deez here website roundups like I used to do…yee haw!

Okay, so in the past, I (Paul Matthew Carr) used to do these periodic updates on the “state of the site” and tease previews for upcoming projects. This was done in a hilarious way using the premise that I was a cowboy doing a “roundup” of all the goings-on as if they were cattle and affect a humorous speech pattern with lots of “howdys” and y’alls” and whatnot. This was, as you can imagine, immensely clever and a laugh riot (as the kids say).

Anyhoo, I very quickly grew bored of this particular bit and – as with many projects that I begin with earnestness and sincerity – dropped it unceremoniously and moved on to the next fleeting idea never looking back for a moment. I’m not proud, but focus and consistency have never really been my thing.

But then 2020 happened.

2020 was not really what I would call “good for me”. (If you’re interested I’ve chronicled this here and here.) But what this rather unhappy year did do was give me time to think about what it was that I wanted to do and what I wanted to achieve – at least in terms of this site.

Quick background. I started DaddyElk about 10 years ago as a portfolio of sorts. It was intended to be a way for me to showcase my writing and artwork and to build a network of contacts to maybe, perhaps, sorts-kinda move toward a professional career in creative endeavors. You know, business shit.

But it didn’t take long for my high-faulting goals to devolve into nothing more than posting links to websites and YouTube videos I liked and writing opinion pieces about movies and TV shows. You know, a blog.

And that’s how it went for quite a while until an unexpected thing happened…I actually made contacts with other creators and DaddyElk actually started to grow. Soon there were multiple blogs from several writers, podcasts, and other collaborations that expanded the site to not just one but multiple sites. At its height, there were seven sites and four podcasts from five different creators. And an actual network was born. These were good times.

But things change. Not everyone could commit to keeping up deadlines and steady flows of content (most of all from me – did I mention lack of focus and consistency?) and I’ll be honest, this has never been a financial juggernaut – only making enough to pay hosting costs essentially – and it’s hard to commit so much time and effort to maintain something that was essentially a hobby. So in the end the network whittled away to something that just limped along with just me going back to posting articles occasionally and a couple of inconsistently released podcasts.

So in 2020, the network was officially dissolved. I moved all the sites that I was a major part of in house to be under the blanket of DaddyElk and (with two exceptions) all other sites were shut down. These were sad times.

But again, if I’m honest, it streamlines things quite a bit. By putting everything under one roof as it were I am able to – believe it or not – focus. I know, right? For the first time in what seems like, well, forever I feel like there is the direction and creative ideas are flowing like a clichéd metaphor that I can’t think of right now – I don’t know running water from a faucet, let’s go with that for now.

And the other consequence of this dissolution is the acknowledgment that yeah, this is just a hobby. And that’s okay. I love to write, I love to entertain, I love to converse and get new opinions and ideas – and this site has been and will continue to be a way to do that. I guess there was a time when I had grandiose dreams of going viral and making a load of cash doing this sort of thing, but that was really never going to happen. No, this site was never really going to be anything more than a way to tell a story, share an idea, and maybe make someone laugh. That’s all I really ever wanted to do anyway.

And that is the state of the site as it stands right now. I’m going to continue to post stuff that I feel passionate about, talk into a microphone with friends, and hopefully entertain folks from time to time. DaddyElk has been at its best when I just am having fun. And so that is what I am going to try to do. Starting now.

So I got the focus down, I just have to work on that consistency thing.