I am JohnnyBTruant.com. Hear me roar!

I’m sitting here looking at a blank white screen (I write posts in a text editor first, then copy them onto my blog) and find myself really at a loss as to what to say. It has nothing to do with how much I actually have to say. Rather, it has everything to do with feeling out of place.

Like, you know how when you sleep over at someone’s house, a normal bed suddenly feels weird? And then you have to get up to go to the bathroom and that feels strange, and then you’re afraid that you’re going to wake everyone up in the whole house when you do it so you don’t go to the bathroom at all but instead climb up onto the roof and pee off into the neighbor’s yard?

Well, that’s how things feel right now for me. I realize that this post will be the first new post on my brand new consolidated blog. And even though I’m talking to the same people, I’m suddenly very aware that I’m doing it from a new home.

A new home where the plumbing is so bad that they have those gravity toilets used on boats instead of normal toilets, so it’s not even clear that toilet paper should go down there. So again, peeing off the roof. Onto the neighbor’s car, because that guy’s dog does the same to our car.

And if I sound stilted, that’s why. Because this is just strange and unfamiliar.

I mean, I used to have a place where I was supposed to be funny, rant nonsensically, and talk about ham. And then I had this other place where I was supposed to be all professional and wear pants and hand out technology tips. And from time to time, I’d write these epic motivational posts or something and post them on the funny blog, but even though that was a fucked up thing to do, it still made sense because I was used to that blog.

I’m not used to this place yet. I’m kind of lost. I’m a man without a blog. You know, except that I actually have a blog. But other than that, it’s exactly the same situation.

But change is good, so here we all are at JohnnyBTruant.com. This site isn’t about humor. It isn’t about technology. It isn’t even about ham.

It’s about Johnny B. Truant.

Oh, stop your fucking groaning.

But here’s what that means to you, so that you can get your bearings:

1. My pure humor posts are now in the Humor Archive (accessible through a new link in the nav bar along the top of the page). This is about 2/3 of what used to be TheEconomyIsntHappening.com. I won’t be adding to this archive; it’s just there for you to laugh at. I’ve put in a random featured post function so that you can get your merry on randomly, but you should also check out the popular posts in the sidebar of the Archive because peer pressure is important and clearly those posts are the best because they have the most comments. If, however, you’re an anti-establishment punk rock purist, you’ll want to go deep to find the posts without any comments on them at all. There are plenty in there.

2. The rest of my stuff from TheEconomyIsntHappening.com is now in this blog. So if you go back through the posts here, you’ll see your favorite not-pure-humor TEIH posts like Fear of a Truant Planet and The Answer to Why The Economy Isn’t Happening (the “The news sucks” post).

3. Because this blog is essentially the same site as LearnToBeYourOwnVA.com was last week, you’ll also see that the remainder of the posts on this blog came from that old blog.

4. Which means that going back through the posts here is a totally retarded experience. It’s more disjointed right now than I like, and more disjointed than it will be a month from now. As it stands currently, it’s like, “Hey, learn this facet of aWeber.” Then it’s like, “Here’s a selling tip for you to try.” Then it’s like, “Here’s how I feel about my financial situation.” Then it’s like, “Hey, want to know how to back up your database?”

5. But going forward, that’ll smooth out as I re-find my voice and start writing more holistic posts. You’d think finding that voice would be easy, but it doesn’t feel that way right now. This is a new home with a new life. (But I think it’ll kick ass.)

6. If you were subscribed to either the LTBYOVA.com or TEIH.com RSS feed or used to get those sites’ posts by email, nothing should change unless I fucked up. Just keep on keeping on. You’ll now get this blog’s posts.

7. Monkeys are funny.

8. I’m not totally done with the transition yet. Like, I haven’t combed totally through the old TEIH to find stuff that needs to move here. So over the next week, I’ll be adding more stuff. But it’s mostly done.

9. I added a list of all of the other places you can find my writing to the links in the far-right-hand column, under “Get More Johnny.” A lot of people probably missed those and didn’t know that I wrote on — for instance — FinanceYourFreedom.com

10. All of the old links to either of my two old sites should redirect to the corresponding page/post here. BUT, like I said, it’s still in progress. If you notice broken links or in general anything else that is amiss, please let me know. I will reward you with a virtual High-Five and promise not to cane you.

I guess that’s it.

I think this will be pretty cool. I have it in my head to write on this site about anything that comes to mind. If I want to write about some aspect of online business like I do on IttyBiz, Copyblogger, or Problogger, I’ll do that. If I feel like writing some kind of personal development revelation like the post I wrote for Tim Brownson about fear, I’ll do that. And if something occurs to me that has nothing to do with anything but strikes me as amusing, I’ll write about that too, right here beside all of the commerce and technology-making. Basically, at the suggestion of Sean “The Black Johnny Truant” Oliver, I’m going to provide you whatever content comes out of me and let you decide how you want to filter it.

So chat up, and let me know what you think. Ask any questions you have, or offer any requests. Except banjo music. That sucks.

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement on the move. I do think this was the right way to go… and now, I just need to find my footing again.

P.S: Re-doing the categories is on my list. The current ones make no sense.