Dust off

Well the internet’s gone downhill and let itself go. Not only you’re getting screwed every which way off-line financially and socially and so on, but what used to be a fun and open and labyrinthine place of expression and socializing has gone into monopolies full of ads, bots, ad-bots and attention whores. Don’t get me started on the attention economy, “AI”, subscriptions, consumer rights and the endless list of issues that’s going to cause a headache just by listing them all.

Before I go off the rails thinking about these things, I’ll take

a breath.

OK, breath done. But I’m a bit of a hypocrite too. I cancelled my Spotify due to their shit practices but switched to Tidal. I despise the push for AI and avoid it like the plague for work, but I might open a quick ChatGPT for it to sort some ideas or, once in a blue moon, crack a quick and free “stock” photo for this website. I closed my social media and yammer on about monopolies and attention but… spend a bulk of my online time on Reddit and YouTube? The clanker websites? It’s a bit of a Sisyphean task to balance all these demons of the internet. What can you do? Simplify, trim your screen time, up your privacy, unplug more, focus on other things… Maybe even… eek. Read a book? Oof, now I feel bad about the unread shelves next to my laptop.

I made this website as an insignificant push against all these behemoths. This is my corner, private property, no gods or masters, no ads or platforms. Ah, except for WordPress I guess. Crap. And double crap for me not using it enough. The advantage is I don’t have any expectations so I don’t have to edit this stream-of-consciousness-post if I don’t want to. And I don’t. It’s just a buffer post.

A buffer because I’m switching gears to a different format that seems a bit more fun for the time being.

***

For a few months I’ve flirted with this idea for a YouTube channel. I mean everybody and their grandma had an idea for a YouTube channel, but mine was definitely half-decent. I think. I’m second-guessing this now. OK, it probably wouldn’t be too profitable, but I’m sure a few other stragglers would have watched. And that sounds fine. But before doing any of that I had to get my ducks in a row, or at least my already diminishing ideas.

And then… I watched this guy on YouTube, Sheehan Quirke. Dude made a channel and boom, first video is a hit, 100K+ subscribers. Now that’s a great start because that’s a well produced video, he’s got a hook and the background and the lot. I looked him up a bit and, well, it’s clear he already had not only his ducks in a row but his ideas as well. Cultural Substack, good knowledge, book published. Awesome dude indeed.

Well… I thought about switching things up a bit on this blog so I just straight up ~~stole~~ got inspired by his post format for my own future (hopefully regular) posts. Of course, my interests are different, so I won’t be posting about rhetoric or architecture too much. Am I trying to copy his homework and monetize a substack and YouTube? Not really, but the whole occasional “gazette” format might work better and be more fun to return here more often. Maybe stay off reddit a bit more, listen to some music more often, pick up a goddamn book…

Oh, I’m not writing a conclusion to this post. Above many words this post already be.