Something I tend to forget, while spending hours fiddling with the details of styling or sketching out a new layout every day, is that creating this blog is not a major goal in and of itself. Creating the blog is a goal of mine, of course, but it is only a step on the way towards truer goals: Self expression and connection.
The thrill of the blog
My reason for creating this blog in the first place is to have a medium that quickly lets me output (dump) some thoughts. I do not find a diary particularly exciting or compelling to write, except in times of extreme anguish or mania. An online blog however, where there is a, however slim, chance that someone like you might read the entries, is thrilling. As someone who have always thought of myself as creative, but in recent years have gotten confused as to what actually constitutes my preferred medium of expression, finding a point from which I am excited to deep dive creatively is monumental. It is also safe to say that at my current point in life, I am overdue to empty myself of many quanderings by writing them out.
Weaving multidiciplinary expressions
Since my previous modes of expression really never have been writing, but rather visual (in one way or another), I would like to reduce the friction, not only of outputting writing, but of weaving my own bytes of expression with materials from different disciplines. The plan for this is not yet complete, but I don’t think it needs to be overly complicated. A blog post can already include pictures and links (oh how I love hyperlinks) and for something more interactive there is JavaScript. This should really be enough to weave interesting expressions, but in case a better concept comes up it is welcome.
Keep it simple …?
What could be the hardest part of this endeavor is to keep it simple. The blog is only the white cube where my work should be presented. Yet, something in me is strongly opposed to that idea. That something wants not only a cold, hard, ruthless shell, but a living, breathing, cozy embrace enfolding the presented material. Between these two poles I must find a balance. I know that making the blog a jungle would not facilitate the ease of my expression but only worsen it as the forest grew dense. But on the contrary, the white cube would become inhospitable without nutrition or comfort, with a tiny chance of acting as my funnel into transcendence, but most likely sucking out the joy of creating. My challenge lies in making the blog minimalistic enough for me to be motivated to fill it with posts, while still giving room to experiment and add weird hidden spaces, while still again not letting this take over the main focus. For this vision to work out I need to walk a narrow edge without falling.
Let it take time
I work in bursts of energy. When motivated - I attack the most interesting part of the problem, when unmotivated - I don’t do anything. This “””method””” can work well for small tasks, but on larger projects I lose focus, add new features and fiddle around, until the project becomes unstable and collapses in on itself, flinging my interest to the next thing.
This time, I noticed, I actually have a minimal working example up and running. No last detail just needs to be completed before I can “actually” start. The project is up and running, it is alive, and there is no need for me to mess with it. A good example is the newly constructed park: They might put down some nice paved paths, connecting the major points of interest. But people’s behavior is notoriously difficult to predict and they will, in addition to using the laid paths, cut corners and find their own ways that are better suited for their needs. Eventually new paths will emerge, maybe across a field of grass, and a good and patient park constructor can now pave this path to keep the visitors’ shoes clean from mud on a rainy day. In this spirit, I will sit on my hands in order not to pave too many paths from the get go, but instead stroll around the park at my own leisure. In time, after a short inquiry, I will know what parts work well, need modification, deletion or a better connection to another part.
❤️👾
This was not intended to be this lengthy but it was good to get a thinker about the underlying goals, driving factors and development principles of the blog. As an endnote I would like to invite you, the reader, to participate. Take a stroll in the park. And don’t be shy to leave your two cents, a recommendation, tell me I’m all wrong or instill me with wisdom of which you believe I am still unaware. For this is the beauty of the internet. It is a moving conversation piece. This is not a diary tucked away in my closet but a node in the expansive network of the internet, and nothing would make me happier right now than to interact with some other nodes!
I still don’t know enough about servers to host comments here, but I do have this nifty form that hooks up directly to a private discord channel thanks to Sadness:
Update: Thanks to Rach Smith the form now also hooks up to the netlify api from which I can fetch comments and add them as static html! More on static site comments.
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turpelurpeluren
Posted on:2024-01-30