It’s late February, 2021. I started putting this blog together in November of 2020, but scrapped it, renamed it, and I guess am soft-launching it now, in late February, 2021, with a flashy toothpaste logo. And gosh, late February, 2021 sure is a time to be doing anything at all. The thick, nauseous, viscous texture of experiencing the world, being in the USA, just living at this moment is hard to really wrap my head around despite its ever-presence. Maybe a way to summarize a component of it is “things aren’t going to just change” or “the world won’t improve ‘by default.’” A vaccine for the disease that’s frozen (select parts of) society in the US for the last year is slowly (glacially) making the rounds; a new, “less bad” president has taken power; the calendar doesn’t even say “2020” on it anymore. I can’t say I ever had faith that the Issues (you know the ones) would be Resolved by those changes ever since it became clear they were on the horizon, but now that they’ve arrived, I think it’s becoming more apparent to everyone that, no, things are not going to improve just because time passes or a new person with a less horrifying set of opinions ‘runs’ the country. So, what? I don’t really know at all—it’s not good.
So, what: here I am, late February, 2021, starting a “weblog.” There are a few reasons I wanted to be doing blogging, and none of them have anything to do with Resolving Issues. Some of them are summarized below.
This isn't an essential read or anything, there isn't much interesting here, but I couldn't in good conscience put this website up with nothing on it, right? And maybe it's fun to know some of where my head's at in, uh, late February of 2021.
I’ve been increasingly disillusioned with Twitter as a platform, which is where most of my Public Internet Communication currently takes place. I’m troubled by how people I respect (and others) seem to only be able to talk about even serious issues through the lens of memes and joke language there. This is, of course, a symptom of the platform rather than any specific failing of those individuals. There are plenty of other issues with Twitter’s structure and continued move toward strictly algorithmic content, but it’s that inability for users to clearly communicate that stresses me out when I log in more than anything. It feels absurd to be in a digital place where thousands of people are talking about the most dire and existentially threatening situations ever with the exact same language they use to talk about, like, how funny their dog is, or whatever. (there's a Metahaven book about that, I think. They even sell it on Amazon. Wow!). Here's a painfully concise partial-example that rolled in front of me literally as I typed this (and if you're lucky, it will have been deleted by the time you're reading); it's not exactly what I'm talking about, but the phenomenon is literally constant on there. It is, maybe, how "language has evolved" and maybe there's even something interesting to be said about that (for example, are many people who engage in this style of meme-punditry even aware they're using language originating strictly in jokes?), but for now, it just feels like "the discourse" has collapsed in on itself. The rare times I feel like I have something interesting to say, I find myself fighting the goofy character limit so hard I decide I’m better off just talking to someone I know directly about it, or writing something longer. Like blog post length, even.
And I enjoy writing! I certainly enjoy writing more the 280 characters at a time. I don’t think I’m great at it, and I don’t often have anything interesting to say, but I love typing a lot of words and sometimes editing them (not these ones though). I have a few posts in various stages of incomplete from that first version of this blog, including hits like: an amateur’s analysis of “pet ownership”; painfully long review of Centipede Hz (2012); vague discussion of the intentional use of humorlessness in media; etc. None of those may ever make it online, but, well, please feel free to look forward to whatever ends up here (note: it may be “nothing” that ends up here, after this). This also may instead just fill up with brief bits of nonsense I've decided not to tweet, or it may become the next New York Times.
Time will tell.
I love reading blog posts from people I know or respect. I’ve recently rediscovered a handful of wonderful music blogs, and I always enjoy reading the writing of game designers, media critics, or friends who are still using the blog format. This blog is built using Marina Kittaka’s Zonelets platform, which is wonderful and has exactly as much beautiful DIY spirit as I can handle. I think the “golden age of blogs” has been over for a decade and a half, but I love seeing the small garden of new ones sprouting up lately (alongside a resurgence in email mailing lists, which I also love)—I think blogs are a genuinely good (if admittedly somewhat egotistical (but publishing Things You Want To Say anywhere always is, at least a bit, right?)) method of communication, and are at least partially free from much of the nonsense that comes with the Big Platforms. No 'metrics' or 'likes' or 'replies' or 'shares' or 'discourse' or 'engagement,' just some text and images and quiet reading.
So, that’s about it: it’s a terrifying and strange time, I’m slightly upset about Twitter, I want to put some ideas down and make some jokes only I find funny, and, gosh, I want to be part of the blogosphere. Please let me in. This isn’t a food blog, by the way.