Dear reader, for the past few days since the last post, I have been thinking about the idea of being annoyed at myself for not keeping up with this blog. In the introductory post and on the homepage of this website, I consistently conceptualized this as a daily journal posted publicly. This is an understanding of this blog that I believe I can no longer find tennable. It would be workable, but over the past few days I've felt like I've had nothing to report on aside from starting a Nuzlocke of pokemon infinite fusion. I considered a blog post, maybe even a series of blog posts, documenting the process, but I decided against it. It was too "impersonal." That was when I had an apiphany. I have been doing this wrong. To engage with this platform fully and authentically, I need to reshape my understanding of this website, my relationship to it, and my relationship going forward with it, in conjunction with why I have chosen a personal website over more traditional social media avenues. To organize my thoughts, I present the first draft of a living document I will be calling the New Old Web Manifesto. Its tenants are as follows:
- This is MY space. This is a place for my thoughts and my own enjoyment and for the thoughts and enjoyment of none else. There will be no consideration for engagement, likes, followers, views, and so on. This is for you.
- No man is an island. This website exists in an expansive community of similiar websites. While each is a bastion of the operator's personal interests, community is key. Though there aren't friends and followers as a button you click, you can follow others and form friendships authentically and organically in such a network.
- Do It Yourself. The personal cannot be constructed for you. There will not, can not be a template that suits you personally, without modifcation. By design, most templates are built to be changed and tweaked to suit a user's needs. Just using a template and ending there is not enough. The webpage is a block of marble. Use tools from throughout the ecosystem to carve your David from it.
I appreciate the tolerance of my soapboxing. The main point here is that I don't want to do this out of obligation, but because it is fun for me. So, I'm reconceptualizing this blog. It's no longer a journal. Or at least, it's not Just a journal. The only thing I am sticking to is the daily part. This blog will be updated daily, but with whatever has my interest. A recap of a playthrough of a game. A review of a movie. A goofy personal project. Maybe even a recap of what's going on in my personal life on occasion. Whatever. The point is that whatever I post, I post because it is fun for me.
And on that note, I made a playlist of good youtube videos that pretends to be a TV channel, complete with little idents I made. Check it out here!