Hello

 

I suppose that the powers that run blogging sites must have a conniption when folks like me sign up.  A “serious” writer who valued his “image” or “brand” would stay with his site and “grow” his readership to increase the number of “hits” and thus properly monetize the time spent in front of a screen puking out screed.

I guess that I am not a serious writer then.  

I suppose that I use things like sites to document the changes in overall outlook and interests.  My first blog lasted for around 15 years and covered the period of time when I was a corporate and/or government flunky.     When I started to put things together to retire and leave the humdrum day to day grubbing for nickels I started another blog over at Wordpress, but ended it soon due to Wordpresses unending and nauseating fees for anything.  So then I ended up at my first Dreamwidth account which got me through the transition from wage-slave to retired parasite.  I began a serialized book and ran with that for a while until I decided that 1-) I didn’t like the characters, 2-) I thought the plot was thin and 3.) I didn’t like being constrained by someone else’s “universe”.

I started casting around for a different place to set up shop around the same time that I was bowing out of the workplace and I tried Substack on for size. It definitely wasn’t for me, for the most part, it is a self-contained circle-jerk where wannabe writers spend time giving each other a reach around.  No thank you.

So, I am retiring all the old blog attempts as they were reflections of a “me” that really isn’t around anymore.  But I still have the reading and writing bug infecting me and I need a place to sit down and do a diary when the need takes me.  

I think that a “blog” as differentiated from “diary” is made by the simple need regarding how and the intent a person has to communicate with someone else.  Mostly a diary is for personal use and as an aide-memoire for folks who think enough to require notes on where their thoughts strayed that particular day.  

A blog is an intent to “monetize” the author’s scribblings.  Oh, they may do so very subtly, and I don’t in any way judge them harshly for this.  A person has to eat.  But I think that there are a lot of bloggers out there who spend a lot of time and considerable effort chasing the idea that someone is going to deposit some nickels in a bank account.  For a lot of the folks who blog that deposit of the filthy lucre will legitimize their obsession.

Just to be clear, I do fork over money to folks who write well.  John Michael Greer and Aurelian provide me with excellent thoughts to ponder,  and while I give them money, it is my sincere hope that they will use it for fine food and wine.  But if they use it to pay for the electricity or to defray other essentials, that might be even better.

So, I am just getting back to writing a diary.  I suppose that I could do this kind of thing on my computer not connected to the internet, but I suppose that I do need a little feedback off and on.  The idea of a secret diary always seemed kind of odd to me.  You are trying to communicate, that is the whole purpose of language (and this is a subject that is going to be discussed in depth here). So if I write, communication exists, even if it is only between the person I am today and the person who wrote the piece.

I am going to just write essays when a complex subject presents its ugly head in my cranium.  Other times I will just blurt out short questions.  Recipes and other simple things will probably show up off and on.

So, if you stumble across this little vanity, welcome to one of the affectations of an aging man.