I saw an article about the 50 Best TV Series on Netflix a while back and decided I’d compare the list with my own viewing history and use it to start deciding on new things to watch. What does this have to do with running? Nothing. But I’m not marathon training anymore…  so I have more time to watch TV? Okay, not really… I have the same amount of time because most of the time when I watch old episodes of TV it’s while I’m working and I frequently miss out on lots of the story because I use it as background noise to compensate for the fact that I don’t go into an office each day. And other times that I would have been running (aka 4AM) I think I’ll use for some sleep for a while.

I should use some of the time I’m not running to clear up my inbox. It’s out of control, but I don’t want to. It’s not fun. I’m still debating the direction of this site. In the early days of JillWillRun.com (2008) this site was all about training for a marathon with Team in Training. I made new friends and was part of a running blogger community, several of those people are still some of my most favorite people! As my running obsession grew, I started to post reviews on things I purchased just because I felt like it. Writing was fun and it felt natural.

Then I shared my decision to enter into eating disorder treatment. I wouldn’t call myself an “ED blogger” but I do advocate for positive body image messages, and that falls firmly within my definition of being healthy so it was kind of a natural addition to the site. Running and healthy living and body positivity.

Next I chronicled my years as a running coach with the Team Challenge organization and all the fun that came with that. (Seriously, I can’t say enough good things about Team Challenge!) I started receiving review products for free more frequently and I felt honored that companies reached out to me. I still had a fun community of people on this site and everything here was all fun.

Next up came pregnancy/having a baby and my time became more of a commodity. At the same time the influx of pitches coming into my inbox increased massively. I accept maybe 10% of what comes to me and I ignore anything that comes to “Dear Ms Jill Blogger” – if they can’t be bothered to find out more about my site, I can’t be bothered with their pitch. Many pitches come with the offer “for pictures of this product, write back.” I don’t work for pictures… and posting about all of these things in some ways is work. Even if my income doesn’t come from this site (I have a full-time career and the money I do get from this site would leave me homeless if I had to live off it.), taking the time to test and write a review on something takes time. And there are days it is less fun to run this site. Looking at my inbox usually invokes the “less fun” feeling.

My comments dropped and I don’t feel as much of a community here, yet my traffic increases and the pitches keep coming. But I also feel I’ve lost a little bit of “Jill” in all this. I started blogging in 2001 when I needed to do something to fill the hole that was occupied by my wedding website. (Yes, I had a wedding website way before it was considered semi-normal to do so. I was Super-geek-girl and I loved it!) Blogging was something I read about in tech magazines and I did it as a geek thing, after figuring out that I was already doing a form of blogging anyway… I just didn’t have a database engine behind it as blogs now do!

My former blog site is still out there, mostly stagnant. There are days I think I’d like to merge that one with this site, injecting more of my personal stories/anecdotes/observations into this site. There are days I think I should take this old school and write strictly about running. There are days I think I’ll just shut it down. But I can’t… I’d miss it and feel the void. Writing is my creative outlet, even when it’s really bad writing. But then… there is a void with this site right now. It’s not completely what I want.

So anyway… I saw an article about the 50 Best TV Series on Netflix a while back and decided I’d compare the list with my own viewing history and use it to start deciding on new things to watch.

1. Breaking Bad: Never seen it, it’s next to watch with my husband
2. Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared: Never seen it (er… them)
3. Louie: Never seen it
4. Friday Night Lights: Never seen it
5. Sherlock: Never seen it
6. Arrested Development: Seen the first few episodes
7. Friends: Seen most episodes, if not all, in real-time and re-runs
8. Archer: Never seen it
9. Mad Men: Never seen it
10. Orange is the New Black: Watched most of season 1, got tired of it
11. Scrubs: Seen lots of episodes, never in order
12. 30 Rock: Seen them all, mostly real time
13. The X-Files: Never got into it when it was airing
14. Gilmore Girls: Just finished watching it on Netflix because of this list
15. West Wing: Never seen it
16. Doctor Who: Never seen it
17. Firefly: Never seen it
18. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Watched first couple seasons on Netflix a few years back
19. Luther: Never heard of it
20. The Office: Watched it all, some episodes multiple times. Fantastic show!
21. Peaky Blinders: Never heard of it
22. Parks and Recreation: Never seen it
23. Black Mirror: Seen heard of it
24. Bob’s Burgers: Never seen it
25. Better Off Ted: Never heard of it
26. Terriers: Never head of it
27. The Walking Dead: Watching it now with my husband, I love it
28. House of Cards: Never seen it
29. Raising Hope: Watched it real time
30. The Wonder Years: Watched it real time when I felt like catching an episode
31. Parenthood: Watched it real time on Hulu
32. Lost: Watched it mostly real-time
33. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Watched everything on Netflix, loved it. Should have recorded season 10 on DVR!
34. The New Girl: Saw the first couple episodes, didn’t stick with it
35. Portlandia: Never seen it
36. How I Met Your Mother: Watched it all real time
37. Alias: Seen them all, have DVD boxed sets for seasons 1-3
38. Family Guy: Seen lots of episodes, some more than others
39. Quantum Leap: Never seen it
40. Cheers: Have seen lots of episodes, absolutely not in order
41. Dexter: Never seen it
42. Damages: Never seen it
43. Psych: Never seen it
44. Fringe: Watched the series in real time, recorded each week on my DVR
45. Top of the Lake: Never heard of it
46. Arrow: Never seen it
47. Scandal: Never seen it
48. The League: Never seen it
49. Sons of Anarchy: I actually kind of watched half of the first season, but just stopped for some reason
50. Broadchurch: Never even heard of it

As I mention, I watched the show Gilmore Girls due to this list and I have thoughts on it… a whole blog post rattling around in my head. It’s the type of post that I’d just dump on my old site without thinking. I want to write it, so I shall write it. But now I think, “Will anyone want to read this? Would this upset people if it’s on this running/healthy living site? Will all those companies who send me stuff dislike this? Do I care?”

So while I watch TV shows and ponder what direction this site is going to go, I’ll leave you with this: What shows have you watched on this list and would recommend and/or discourage?

//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});