Sohumborn Decision Creates a Hole in Humboldt Blogging World

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Sohumborn Decision Creates a Hole in Humboldt Blogging World

Kym Kemp / Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 @ 12:20 p.m. / Daily Photo , Humboldt , photo

bird-with-shadows-at-sunrise Wings across the Shadows

Daily Photo

Dipping in and out of the (of necessity) shadowy marijuana culture, for a few short months, Sohumborn provided the North Coast with vivid stories about a world that most people have been unable to comprehend.

In the last couple of weeks, several Humboldt bloggers ( Raincrow and Ekovox) have chosen to step back from the very public world of online blogging. Last night, Sohumborn, that talented and thoughtful writer deleted her blog leaving a empty, gaping hole where her fictional stories had provided a 3 dimensional glimpse into another very real world.

She left a brief note on another post of mine and I’m transfering it here.

I will deeply miss my blog. I have gained so much from the exchanges with each and every one of you. I knew all along that this may be a short term hobby. I will continue to write and I hope to offer my stories again someday in a new forum. Thank you all so much for a providing a wonderful respite from the daily grind. I must concentrate on my offline life for a while, please forgive me.

Her stories though are not dead. Once something is on the internet it lives forever. If anyone wants to access them, they just have to google — site:sohumborn.wordpress.com sohumborn at the end of each entry is a blue link Cached. Clicking the link will take you to a stored version of her story. It may not be the most uptodate but each link accesses a treasure of words that have given so much insight into the culture here and so much pleasure to her readers.

––––––––—

I am going to try and transfer the comments people have left on that earlier blog for her to this one but I’m a bit unsure of the best way to do it so feel free to leave advice.

UPDATE: Sohumborn left a message on Rose’s blog at 3/06/2009 7:39 PM . You can see it in the comments below also as I’ve transfered it.

40 comments

Lisahhh Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 8:09 a.m.

sohumborn,
I came here to see whether Kym knew why your blog is unavailable this morning… and here you are. I don’t know what’s happened to cause you to take the site down, but we will have to trust that you made your choice based on what’s best for you. I worry that you were outted, which could have caused problems for you. Whatever the case, you will most definitely be missed! I’m sorry we’ll never know how that last story ended!

Take good care!
Lisahhh
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 8:15 a.m. In response to Lisahhh

Lisahhh, I moved your comment and the four following it here from the post in which Sohumborn left her original comment. I thought it would be nice if your praise and concern were altogether with everyone else’s. I hope you don’t mind.
olmanriver Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 8:57 a.m.

sohumborn…thanks so much for your endeavors…you have stirred up conversations that needed to happen, and i think that has served the community.
Auntie Mayme Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 9:23 a.m.

I can understand why sohumborn pulled the blog and am considering doing the same to mine. Let’s keep writing, sohumborn!
Eric Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 9:37 a.m.

Really sorry to see sohumborn go. I thoroughly enjoyed her stories.
humdao Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 11:05 a.m.

sohumborn: What a loss! Your writing is so vivid and the pieces on your blog were so powerful. They sparked many a *good* conversation, locally, and opened up areas of discussion that too often are considered tabu. I loved that you were telling truths through fiction and am very sorry you felt the need to take the ones already posted down. Thank you for your online contributions and best wishes for your offline life. :)

kym: While I’m delurking, I want to take the opportunity to thank *you* as well. Your blog is a daily stop for me. Your photos are beautiful, I’m still creeped out about by those ghost stories, and I deeply appreciate your devotion and commitment to your community. Thanks! (and, er, don’t ever go away. please?)
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 11:15 a.m. In response to humdao

Humdao, I’m glad you delurked and told me you enjoyed my little tales. I had fun writing them. Thanks for the kind words. I plan on being around until my housework piles up on my desk so deep that I have to stop to clean!
Heraldo Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 12:42 p.m.

Thanks for the explanation. It’s a surprise because on your recent radio show together she said she’d struggled with whether to keep it going but decided she couldn’t stop now because she had so many stories she wanted to write. I’m sure there were pressures to quit.

Sohumborn, good luck with finding a new outlet for your creativity.
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 12:48 p.m.

Heraldo, do you have any idea how to transfer the comments from the Jerry Brown post to this one?
Guerrilla in the Midst Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 1:08 p.m.

I had even considered writing a blog like hers except changing the title to “NorCal Courier: the Emerald Triangle and the 101 Silk Road.” Then I realized that even the title gave me an uneasy feeling. If sohumborn copped out then I suppose I have an excuse too.
Jen Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 1:31 p.m.

WAHHHHHH!! I JUST FOUND HER!!!! I love the stories there.
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 1:44 p.m.

Guerrilla, the more people tell the stories, the more the world will see that growers are people not monsters. Speaking out is always personally uncomfortable and sometimes personally dangerous. Not speaking out, I believe, is ALWAYS dangerous for society. I would love to read those tales you have waiting.

Jen, I’d lend you my handkerchief but it is pretty wet already. This is bad for our communities both on and off the online world.
Bunny Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 3:21 p.m.

It feels like the morning I turned on the radio and KERG was not on anymore. I loved her writing and the subject matter. damn. I would love to hear that radio show, could you tell me the station call letters so I can go listen to the archives? Thank you. Geez Kym, your photos need to be published. Most beautiful.
Ernie’s Place Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 3:34 p.m.

Kym, thanks for the explanation. Living in the fringe world has always had it’s price. She has incredible talent. She is a natural writer.
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 4 p.m.

Bunny, KSlG out of Ferndale but the archives as of a few days ago did not have that show unfortunately. I thought it was a wonderful look at that world.

Ernie, she is a natural writer. Her stories are gripping. I’m hoping she follows through and publishes some.
bobbi Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 4:25 p.m.

I had meant to print all her stories. There are so many I wanted to share with non-computer people. Then my computer went down and I just got back online myself a few days ago. Her blog was the first fun place I went to.. I love her stories, and the glimpse of life here.
I will try and print from the cache google pages, but not sure how that will turn out.
Too bad she left… but if she plans on writing a book, she’ll have a best seller!!
Sophie Lagacé Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 4:27 p.m.

Damn. :-(
Rose Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 4:32 p.m.

Tragic. Understandable. But tragic.
Bunny Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 5:32 p.m.

Is there another secret? I can’t get to anywhere that says cached on Google. Now I’m jonesing for the stories so I can print them. damn again. Maybe someone had the foresight to print them and will give me copies. I have a copy machine at the store. It’s worth a truffle(~;
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 5:49 p.m.

Bunny, you should be able to do it yourself. If my links don’t work for you (and I just checked and they did), google sohumborn the top entry should look like this

Sohumborn’s Blog
- 2 visits - 6:42pm
Filed under: Uncategorized — sohumborn @ 10:48 AM. The sun warms his body and chases the fall …… Filed under: Humboldt County — sohumborn @ 12:45 PM …
sohumborn.wordpress.com/ - 167k - Cached - Similar pages -

The third to the last word in that entry is Cached. Click that. I’ve even enabled it here on the comments just click and it should take you there.
Small Town Girl Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 6 p.m.

Whew…Kym, thanks for the tips, I got it to work on the first try. Such a shame that she pulled her blog. Like someone else said, if she writes a book, it will be a best seller!
Heraldo Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 7:03 p.m.

Kym, what’s the link to the Jerry Brown post? Can you simply cut and paste the comments?
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 7:11 p.m.

Its the post before this. I could cut and paste but then I don’t have the links that go with them. It is not a tragedy. I just would like them all together as sort of a tribute. God, that makes it sound like a funeral but…
Kym Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 9:10 p.m.

I figured it out thanks to the Wordpress forums so all the comments have been moved here and put in their correct time order.
Rose Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, 10:51 p.m.

I saved her stories after her first pull out - it was pretty clear that the stories were too close to home, and wouldn’t be tolerated, or safe to post much longer.

She mentioned having a piece elsewhere - perhaps she will be able to write for a magazine, or for pay.

Anyway, whoever you are, sohumborn, best of luck. You’re great.
bobbi Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 11:15 a.m.

Bunny, and to others wanting to ‘keep’ these stories. I went to the google cache page, at the top clicked, text only, and printed.. if you do a print preview you can choose to print just the number of pages for the post, or include the comments. To speed things up for me I also went to each cached page, clicked text only, went to file ‘save page as’ entered the blog title and saved everything (i think) to my hard drive so I can print them off sometime when its best for me.

Hope that helps.
Lisahhh Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 11:39 a.m.

Thanks so much, Kym, for turning this into an entry of its own. Your generosity is truly wonderful. I hope sohumborn is reading this and knows that her work was very much appreciated and that she will be dearly missed. I send all my love and brightest blessings for a future full of abundance and peace.
Lisahhh
Bunny Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 3:42 p.m.

I got it! Thank you, now I can breathe. 42 pages to print everything in a tiny font. well worth it. I can show my non-blog people the stories.
Bonnie Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 5 p.m.

Just a few hours ago I was talking to a coworker who also reads Sohumborn. What a LOSS to all of us. She is such a fantastic writer. Sohumborn… I will miss you.
Marijuana Culture on the North Coast: KSLG Interview with Eric Sligh, Sohumborn, and me « REDHEADED BLACKBELT Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 9:11 p.m.

[…] weeks ago, Sohumborn-an anonymous blogger who writes exciting stories centered around the marijuana culture, Eric […]
Kym Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 9:46 p.m.

I just wanted to let you know that Jen Savage sent me the KSLG interview that includes Sohumborn. It is posted 2 after this one, click here.
Marijuana « The 101 Corridor Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, 10:26 a.m.

[…] weeks back, Jen from Humboldt’s KSLG interviewed three area bloggers: sohumborn (an amazing writer who penned fictionalized accounts of a different side of the marijuana […]
Mara Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, 1:16 p.m.

I’m so sad it’s gone :( it was so addicting, I checked it every day hoping something new was posted.
Kym Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, 5:32 p.m. In response to Mara

Me, too!
KSLG blogger roundtable on marijuana culture « Sohum Parlance II Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009, 9:47 a.m.

[…] I think I understand why Sohumborn is no longer posting. […]
Indie Friday, March 6, 2009, 11:39 p.m.

One of her last posts (her last post?) indicated she had been solicited for publishing her work. So I imagine publishing in book form or something commercial is her next step. The blog was an experiment with audience and immediacy. She had an overwhelming reader response and now she’s off to the next venue, so to speak. That’s my take on it anyway.
Kym Friday, March 6, 2009, 11:49 p.m.

Here’s what she posted on Rose’s blog earlier today in response to someone speculating “Gee Whiz guys, why do you think SoHumBorn deleted her blog without any notice? She said she enjoyed writing.

She was obviously pressured, maybe even threatened.

I read SoHumBorns blog and enjoyed it even though I detest what marijuana growers have done to Humboldt County over the past 35 to 40 years. The growers didn’t like the accurate depiction of certain aspects of their lifestyle.”

Sohumborn replied, “I have to clarify something. No one made me stop my blog.
I am still writing.
I had gotten caught up in the need to have something new to offer, instead of taking the time to write what I wanted well. In order to use my limited time more effectively I decided to concentrate on writing the stories.
I will still tell the stories, but I will take more time, a lot more time. I feel like I need to do this right.”
wood products Saturday, March 14, 2009, 4:28 p.m.

Thank you, Kym, for this follow-up to Sohumborn’s decision to delete her blog. I was away for awhile, and came back to find it gone. It felt like stepping into a manhole that somebody had left the cover off of. Since I had a strong intuition that this would happen, I downloaded all the stories (except for “The Ride”, which apparently isn’t cached) before I went away. They are precious and truthful, and I don’t want to forget them. Maybe more of us should start blogs on Wordpress, and tell the stories of this place and it’s remarkable inhabitants and customs. It really is an alternative world here.
Kym Saturday, March 14, 2009, 7:26 p.m.

Wood products,

I hadn’t realized that the last story (one of my favorite’s!) hadn’t been cached. I’m bummed. I would have noticed eventually. I feel bummed.

I think more of us should tell these stories. Please, start your own blog and do. Or, if that seems to overwhelming, send them to me and I’ll post them for you kymkemp@starband.net. I know how I value the stories from the era of Prohibition and this is another time in which the stories have been silenced. They are too important to be lost.
SoHumBorn Sunday « REDHEADED BLACKBELT Sunday, March 7, 2010, 9:38 a.m.

[…] three months her stories gripped the online community and then, abruptly, she was gone. Even though SoHumBorn pulled her blog, for months her stories were available in the cached version but eventually they, too, were […]