Category: blogging

Posts about blogging

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Writing

When people ask me what I like to do, besides skateboarding, RPGs, and Aikido, I tell them reading and writing.

I think it surprises some folks to find out that I write a lot. I write every day. I this this and other blogs. I write tabletop RPG stuff for my campaigns. I’ve been keeping a physical, paper journal for nearly 20 years.

I write a lot. Almost compulsively. I have a few readers (I think), but since I stopped using analytics on my sites I have no idea unless someone comments or writes me an email.

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Blog More

A blogger I followed shared this post, Your words are wasted, this morning. It’s a 13-year old blog post about why you should own your own content, mostly likely on your own blog, with your own domain name and all that. Basically all the IndieWeb principles.

I know I go on about this topic a lot. I’m sure my friends are tired of hearing me talk about it, but this is my blog and so, well, here I go again.

Edit: I wrote a bunch of boring paragraphs under this line, which I just deleted, because good God they were just not needed.

OK, now that my edit is out of the way, here is what I have to say.

If you want a web presence, have a blog. If you don’t know how to do that, ask me. It’s really that simple. If you must use social media, use it sparingly. If you must use social media, consider using Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other Fediverse stuff and bringing your friends along. As soon as advertising, MAGAs or other kooks, or AI bots show up on a social media silo, stop participating.

That is all.

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Blog changes and stuff

This morning I indulges in some obsessive blog theme adjustments. I changed the color of all the links. I felt like the previous maroon shades were kind of harsh. I didn’t like them. My goal is that this blog be easy to read. It is, in the end, about the words. I think the various blue shades retain plenty of contrast, and the mouse-over pink let you know you are on that link.

I’ve been fiddling around with other blogging platforms a lot, but I’ve had this blog running on WordPress for almost 20 years. I just can’t see changing it until the day comes that this theme is no longer working with the system and there are no good themes available. Now, that might seem crazy, but I have looked and for the most part all the themes are horrible corporate bullshit looking things.

However, this theme looks good on computer, phone, or tablet. It works. So I’m sticking with it.

While I do maintain some blogs over on micro.blog, I am not crazy about the notion of having my main blog housed on a “service.” Micro.blog is fantastic, but the owner is one guy. He’s a genius, but he’s one guy. Same with Bearblog. Hosting on Dreamhost.com — having my own WordPress installation or whatever static site I might decide to build, seems a bit more solid.

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The Kids ARE Alright

This is post 999 for this blog. I had considered making it Post 1000, but I might just post a picture of my cat for that.

For the last few months I’ve been frequenting this message board, 32-Bit Cafe.  I’m amazed at the creativity and honesty I see on the sites there. It is beautiful. Seriously – just so great. This is what the internet should be about.

I’ve been blogging for 20 years. Longer, really, but this blog will be 20 next year. When I started it I had no idea that in 20 years personal blogs would be the last refuge of the “good” internet.

But they are.

Young people, at least some of them, are rediscovering the power of blogging. The 32-Bit Cafe is but one example. These are the cool kids. Seriously. These are the youth that recognize the bullshit of the current corporate internet and have found a way to express themselves away from social media. They find community, they create, they use the internet the way it really should be used — with some level of personal autonomy. These are not the kids trying to “leverage AI” to make the world a worse place. These are the young people who care about authenticity.

They get it. This gives me hope.

I am, as I sit here typing this, 60 years old. I plan to continue until the day I can’t type anymore. Oh, I might have to change platforms at some point, but this blog will continue.