Change and Cherish has Moved On

Change and Cherish will no longer be receiving updates.

You can continue to read my writings over at Veritable Fountain, which picks up where Change and Cherish left off.

Thanks for reading!

veritablefountain.tumblr.com

Yes, I'm Ending This Blog Forever

Yep. Change and Cherish Blog is over. I'll do one more post after this, and then it's over.

Before you ask "But why?" hold up.

Change and Cherish Blog's successor, Veritable Fountain (located at veritablefountain.tumblr.com) is now live! If you'd like to see the response to this week's Thinkjoust Tuesday, as well as the other introductory posts, click the links below!

Welcome from Change and Cherish!

About Zachary James

Why I Hate War (And Why I Love It, Too)

How I Feel When I Ask People to Follow Me

So if more posts is all you're looking for, check it out!

If you'd like to know why I'm ending the blog, stick around.

When I first started writing this blog, I named it Change and Cherish to reflect the structure of the original posts. The first half would describe a mistake I made in the say, and the second half would describe something for which I was grateful in the day.

The blog is, today, unrecognizable. The purpose of my posts--to be introspective and spiritual--has evolved into a platform where I basically talk about anything and everything I want to. The thoughts I wouldn't reserve for my novels are blasted into the blogosphere on a schedule, complete with artwork and occasionally videos.

That last paragraph basically described why I'm ending the blog.

1.) Need for a re-brand

Change and Cherish stands for something different than it originally did. Instead of a pure focus on uplifting others, my posts can wander along topics from writing to politics to camels. The reason for this is because I started writing what I wanted to write, without much concern for what anybody else wanted to read.

This caused problems. Many people became hard-pressed to tell others what my blog was really about. It used to be the thoughts of a returned missionary; now it's the thoughts of an opinionated loudmouth who's aware and proud of it. In order to represent this change, once and for all, the re-brand had to take place.

2.) Too much time

Remember when Change and Cherish was a daily blog? I stopped doing that in part because my other responsibilities were too great for me to handle. I couldn't keep producing quality material every single day without needing a break somewhere in there, and so I used what became unpopular features (like Thursday Throwbacks and Sunday Snapshots) to give myself that rest.

Eventually, I realized that I just needed to give up on the 'daily' thing. I cut four days of the week, leaving only my most popular features. I stopped with the actual photography and made art from my computer. I only had to write one day, and draw the next.

But even that takes time. I spend an average of nine hours a week on this blog, nine hours I could be spending with friends, family, or even other pursuits. If I didn't hold myself to a schedule, this might have been manageable. I could have let a few posts here or there slide. But no. I couldn't do that.

3.) Too restrictive

Even before my new full-time job at Future House Publishing, having to work on a scheduled blog post every day became too much to handle. Sometimes, I had to run errands or spend time with loved ones or resolve a crisis, and the blog couldn't be a priority. But then I'd feel guilty, like I was letting you guys down, and stay up way too late to finish what should have already been done.

The thing was, the quality of these late-night posts would suffer, leaving a less-than-enviable product for you guys to read. This lowered your trust in me as a blogger, which explains the diminishing views over the past couple of months.

So, I'm done.

In order to give you a quality product, I'm moving my blogging to Veritable Fountain. There, I won't worry about artwork or scheduling. I'll actually write what I'm thinking, not worrying about pictures to say words for me. I'll only blog when I have something to say, which means you'll always know my posts are quality. And you will be able to tell people what the heck this thing is you keep reading.

So, if this is devastating to you, I really am sorry. But I really do think you'll like Veritable Fountain if you give it the chance.

After all, it is Change and Cherish's baby.

I'll see you over on the other site!

I love you!

Are You Pro-War, or Anti-War? - Thinkjoust Tuesday #61

I don't really know how to precede this thinkjoust, because I'm really not trying to sway you one way or the other. As it is, I'll just offer one simple question.

What do you think?

Be sure to leave a comment below, and I'll respond with my own opinions this Saturday. See you then!

I Might Kill Two Thousand People - Response Saturday #29

The main comment I received on Tuesday's post informed me of a new philosophical problem (of which I was not aware).

The thing is, both my problem (the second one, at least) and the boat problem have hidden third choices. "Take a third option," if you will.

But let's talk about the first problem, the one that initiated last Tuesday's post.

I honestly don't think there is a third option here. Your inaction leads to the death of five people; your action leads to the death of one person. If all of these individuals are strangers to me, then I think I would pull the lever. Someone would die, but at least five individuals would have a greater chance of doing good in the world.

Of course, there's a chance the five people tied to the tracks are the modern equivalents of Hitler, Caligula, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, and Vlad the Impaler, while the one person could be the modern equivalent to Nelson Mandela. The SMART move would be to not pull the lever, thus killing the five monsters, but what if my decision to save them prompted them to turn their lives around and become forces for good? There's just no way to tell.

And what if everyone was a stranger except for one of the five, who just so happens to be my worst mortal enemy? Would I stay true to my initial decision to save as many people as possible, or would my hatred for my worst enemy come out on top?

I thought this question was easier to handle.

So the trolley is coming, and I have the choice to throw the fat man over the side of the bridge to stop the trolley and save the rest of the people.

The thing is, the 'heavy weight' described in the initial problem is a pretty ambiguous term. Maybe the fat man is heavier than me, but I'm 200 pounds. I can't even bench that much, so I would consider myself a heavy weight.

And let's be honest. It's not easy to just push a fat guy over. If I grabbed this dude and tried to throw him overboard, he'd probably resist, and then what? Now nobody gets saved.

So why not just jump off the bridge myself?

Now, on to the boat problem presented via the text of a picture at the beginning of the post.

For one thing, I think the problem contains a logical error. If one boat breaking down can be turned into two smaller boats that can contain the same amount of people (which I'm not sure is possible on the high seas), why can't two boats breaking down be turned into four smaller boats? In addition, if everyone on the boat is using up supplies, then the boats would actually gain more space as time went on. As it is, for the sake of this blog post, I'm not going to explore the problem beyond the initial prompt.

It seems obvious to me that, as the boat's engineer, I am the extra person described. In that case, it doesn't matter which boat I fixed, I'm always going to be included in the group of 2001 people. The question then becomes, should I sacrifice my spot on the boat for someone else on the other boat, or do I stay with the original boat to keep finding ways to fix it as more issues crop up?

I think I could do the greatest amount of good by staying with the boat to possibly save more people, but let's be honest. I'm a writer, not an engineer. They'd probably throw me on the sinking ship, and I wouldn't blame them.

What Makes a Pickle? - Thursday Thought #15

Let's examine pickles.

What makes a pickle? Is it the word? The name? If pickles were called something else, would its chemical and physical makeup be changed? I think not. Therefore, for the sake of this blog post, let's call pickles blorbnacks.

Now, blorbnacks are green and have bumps on them. In addition, they taste very good. I love sinking my teeth into a heap of blorbnacks.

Therefore, we see that blorbnacks are actually toads.

The thing is, blorbnacks are hard to catch. They hop around all over the place and hide in the tall grass. It takes a lot of skill, determination, and fortitude to catch a blorbnack,

Therefore, we see that blorbnacks are actually Pokemon.

Your average blorbnack is actually fairly easy to recognize. If you've spent a lot of time with blorbnacks, you can probably name them on sight.

Therefore, we see that blorbnacks are actually your coworkers.

Some blorbnacks are all right to be around, but others are just insufferable. You always have to avoid that one blorbnack who smells awful all the time, and has that strange habit of spitting everywhere.

Therefore, we see that blorbnacks are actually camels.

And I am a camel.

THEREFORE. I AM A PICKLE.

And you thought the header image was anything but dead serious.

How Many People Would You Let Die? - Thinkjoust Tuesday #60

One day, this philosopher lady was all like, "I want everyone to feel terrible about themselves!" So he created what's now known as the Trolley problem, which you've probably heard of.

I'd heard of the most basic Trolley problem. The scenario here is usually presented as follows.

"A trolley is speeding down a track, to which five people are tied. You could pull a lever and divert the trolley onto a different track, but this alternate track one person tied to it. Do you pull the lever?"

Some people make the question more difficult by revealing that the one person is a beloved family member or close friend. Other times, the five people are family members or close friends, and the one person is a total stranger. Let's ignore these extra details for now.

NOW STOP. Decide how you'd act in this situation.

PROCEED.

Some other philosopher dude responded to the Trolley problem with a similar situation.

This time, you're standing on top of a bridge next to a fat person. The runaway trolley will soon pass underneath the bridge upon which you're standing. Five people are again tied to the end of the tracks, in danger of being squashed by the trolley. In this scenario, you are aware that this particular brand of trolley is easily stopped by a heavy weight. Do you push the fat man off the bridge?

NOW STOP. Decide how you'd act in this situation.

PROCEED.

How did you react to the first situation? The second situation? How many people did you save in each scenario? Did you save the same amount of people both times? Be sure to leave your comments below, and I'll discuss your general trend, along with how I'd react in the scenario, this next Saturday.

See ya soon!

What Do You Want To Talk About? - Response Saturday #28

This past week, I asked y'all to tell me how you apologize.

I didn't end up getting any responses!

Now, maybe it was a bad question, in which case, that was my fault, and I apologize (Hey? See what I did there?). If it was a bad question, you may wonder, "Come on, James, I've seen you do better. Get with the program!"

You're right, you're right. But first, let me explain how I come up with blog post ideas.

Usually, I'll be sitting around, minding my own business, when something just ... happens. I may see a video talking about how to improve your sense of humor. I may get into a debate regarding the effectiveness of compliments. I may be asked to give dating advice.

I'm not always thinking, "Oh man, this is a great idea for a blog post!" But then, after everything calms down, I may jot some relevant notes on a draft and come back to it later. If the thing that just happened still has relevance and importance in my mind, then I get to writing 'write' away. You, of course, may recognize some problems with this technique.

After all, I inevitably end up writing about the things I want to write about, instead of necessarily thinking about my audience. It seems I've tilted in the opposite direction from earlier in the year, when I was so dragged down by writing things I thought new readers would like that I ended up burning myself out and changing the schedule from a daily to a thrice-weekly schedule.

So even after two years of blogging, I'm still trying to figure out how to be a good blogger. Some days, I focus too much on writing for myself; some days, I don't write for myself at all (which then becomes a chore).

So as I continue to write (I have no intention of stopping C&C anytime soon), don't be afraid to let me know what you guys think I should write about next. It could be political. It could be religious. It could be personal. It could be anything. As long as it fits in my brand (and there are few things that don't fit into my brand), I'll say something on it.

So go ahead.

I'm waiting. ;)