The chances of you needing yet another random person in your feed is, likely, extremely low.
And that’s fine. Hell, I don’t read blogs much either. They’re usually written by tortured artists, clout chasers, copywriting interns, confused thought leaders, or even worse than all of them, politicians.
And yet here I am, probably one of those dreadful people, typing words into a digital box, hoping you’ll read them.
I am late to the party. My business case is slim to none. I have nothing to sell you. I have no products in the pipeline. I have no album to hype. I have no gallery exhibition to pitch. I have no startup to flog.
There is no actual reason for this blog to exist, save for one:
I want to get into the habit of writing.
This blog is, maybe, a way for me to reach out and build an audience in a lazy and forgetful way. What sort of an audience? You tell me. You’re the one reading.
I’m a guy, living in the Midwest. I am in my early 40s. I am married, I have cats. I have a job, one that I rather enjoy. I almost died at least once. I have stumbled through a half a dozen industries, and somehow never managed to use my college degree in any of them. I have too many hobbies. I am easily distracted. I find almost everything interesting. I read widely, although not as much as I’d like.
I also enjoy creating. I love the alchemy of food. I have been doing photography for the better part of ten years, mostly portrait work. I can code. I can produce (bad) music. And here, in the now, I am trying to get decent at writing.
It’s something that’s been gnawing at my bones the last few years; I was never good at journaling, even though I thoroughly enjoy the physical sensation of pen to paper (my handwriting, on the other hand, has always looked like a shaky addict writing a ranson note). But I like having thoughts and trying to be clever in writing them down. Fortunately I spent my formative years Very Online, thanks to USENET, IRC, ICQ, and video game lobbies. The written word is my natural form of communication. Unfortunately, spending my angsty teenage years Very Online in those same spaces has turned me into a combative, sarcastic jerkass when writing for personal projects.
Being somewhat mindful of future job prospects, I have always stopped short of publishing anything under my actual name because of that very predilection.
That said, I don’t think I come here with an axe to grind. But I am getting old. I am in the back half of my life, statistically speaking. And I want to spend some of that back half writing. Even if only a dozen people read it, I want to write. I have a need to flex my creative muscles which have been withering on the vine (messy combined metaphors, sorry) since the pandemic, and writing is part of that.
So, this is part practice, part midlife crisis, part new year resolution (hey, look what day it is!)
Things you may expect from this blog:
Irregular updates – I’m not going to put my face to the grindstone to chase the Content Dragon. I’m not going to goose my articles with artificial word counts to boost SEO engagement (looking at you, Grandma’s Cooking Recipe blogs that have ten pages of filler content for a 1 page recipe) I have seen many creators burn out trying to keep pace with the algorithm. Fuck that. Speaking of…
Cursing – I have a potty mouth. Another benefit of being pseudonymous, I suppose. Maybe don’t read my posts to your kids at bedtime.
Food – I enjoy thinking about food, reading about food, creating food, and eating food. It is what sustains us all, so this isn’t exactly a dangerous topic.
Video Games – another reason for pseudonymousity is that I really enjoy games. PC games, especially. It has remained one of my main hobbies since I was a wee nerd plonking away on my Packard Bell 486. I am acutely aware that online gaming culture is a cesspit of misogyny, villainy, racism, incel niceguy culture, and other horrors. I know. I get it. It’s a cringe hobby. And yet, 20 hours a week, easy, is spent on games in my household. And I’d like to write about them without getting painted as a fuckin weirdo on LinkedIn.
Life – Boy, that one sounds so eye-rollingly Deep™, doesn’t it? I don’t want to sound like an ego-driven maniac here, but I am kinda old, and because my cats don’t generally engage in discussions about my personal thoughts and philosophies, you get to read them instead. Expect nothing profound, but maybe something funny and entertaining. I am not a thought leader or policy wonk. I’m just a guy. But a guy with sometimes spicy takes.
Humor – Even serious subjects need levity. I’m not a professional comedian, but my writing style is basically irreverent, irrelevant, and sarcastic, so any topic I’m meandering on about will surely include an attempt at being funny. Whether I’m successful or not is up to you.
Coding/Tech – My current job is in the technology sector, a position I rather accidentally stumbled into. I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with technology, and have been forced to essentially learn programming on the job. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and if you don’t think so, congratulations, you already had a degree in Computer Science. I came into the job with a city planning degree, for chrissakes. Expect musings on programming, personal hobby projects, and links to interesting articles.
Cool Stuff On The Internet – growing up, BACK IN MY DAY, the internet wasn’t a series of social media algorithms pumping you full of Media Content. It was full of webrings, personal websites of varying qualities, and niche sites where you would get shown links that the authors of said sites thought were cool in some way or another. This was ruined by sites like Digg, and Reddit, and Facebook, and all the rest we use now; why seek out content when you can just plug your face into a screen and have it come to you? Well, screw that. Let’s bring back personal recommendations for random shit we find online. Expect lots of links to people cooler than I am doing amazing feats.
Bullshit – word counts, amirite? Actually no, I’m not going to artifically pad articles with word counts, that’s stupid. But my takes are going to be bad, my opinions worse, and my writing style is not the most concise, so… it falls under General Bullshittery.
Anyway, if you made it down this far, you may be interested in subscribing. Allegedly, Write.As pumps these posts out into the fediverse automatically, something which I will be keeping tabs on. Isn't technology neato?
Anyways, hello. And goodbye for now. Stay chill.