After a 10+ year hiatus, I have decided that it is time to start sharing content again in a space that I own.
I am no longer interested in depending on platforms owned by mega-corporations. I left Facebook years ago on philosophical grounds, even though it means that I sacrifice connection with friends and family. And I stopped using Twitter and Reddit more recently after the rapid enshittification we have witnessed on these platforms over the past year.
I have felt somewhat adrift after the shutdown of Google Reader about a decade ago. Recently, I decided to get back into enjoying a stream of content that I have personally curated via RSS feeds again, this time using the wonderfully independent NetNewsWire as my home. I am starting to wake up and remember the internet that I so dearly loved so long ago, and sorely miss participating in today.
Over the next ten years I would not be surprised by the decline and total collapse of any or all of the major platforms—in my time on the internet, I have seen many interesting and useful platforms come and go (e.g. del.icio.us). This is not new, this will happen again.
It is time for me to put a virtual flag in the ground and stake a claim of my own small corner of the internet—today I set up a blog. I’ll be using WordPress to manage my content with the hopes of figuring out how to get it into the fediverse in a nice way via ActivityPub.
My goal is to build an independent home with longevity to share stuff that I find interesting. Possibly, this site will eventually give my kids a way to get to know who I am or who I was, a little bit better. And more broadly, I hope to contribute in my own small way to a future internet that looks a lot more like the old, weird internet, that I remember and love. I don’t think I am just feeling nostalgic, this feels important. I feel hopeful and excited.
I am not yet sure of the full scope of content that I’ll share, but I assume that it will be a collection of things I write about my life, projects that I’m working on, and links that I find. At this moment I’m pretty interested in things family management, sauna, home automation including Home Assistant, cooking, music, reading, and other media. I have perfectionist tendencies in the things I produce, and tend to over-think and over-complicate things. Here I will attempt to have a more relaxed approach, so expect the content to be a little more on the stream of consciousness end of the spectrum. I hope that less polish means I’ll be able to post more and maintain momentum for longer.
I’m still getting things set up around here, but I want to start posting now, so expect that things may look wonky while the dust settles. And please know that it might take a while for that to happen.
And finally, welcome. I hope you find something here to be of interest from time to time.
Leave a Reply