First Post!!

Oh look, here I am getting aboard that “blogging” craze, only 20 years after the fact. I’ve honestly hesitated for years from returning to writing, but frankly, it didn’t make much sense for me to have a website and NOT have some form of long-form forum to air my thoughts. Bluesky is great and all, but I need something that’s more than a couple hundred characters sometimes.

While I’m not a professional writer, I consider myself a pretty good hobbyist. And I’ve been told I’m good at spotting good copyright in my professional work and in writing documentation. Web and software development will always be my first love and what I gravitate towards, but it’s good to get some words on other topics out of my system once in a while. And I figured this is as good as any place to get my writing chops back to where they were when I stopped a couple of decades ago. I don’t have a strict schedule set for churning out content. It’s just going to be whenever for now. Everyone involved in this project is trying to find some kind of day job, and since we’re all in tech, well, we’re not having a fun time right now. And given that everyone involved is giving up their AI tools for non-professional work going into 2025 (if they didn’t already in 2024), it’s going to be a much longer process. So bear with me, because I’m having to learn Next.js over here! (Actually, this blog was created as an excuse to learn Next.js, so maybe don’t go too easy on me.)

Unlike previous blogging projects of mine, this one won’t be dedicated to just gaming. My doctorate from Abide University was in Pop Cultural Studies, after all, so I’m expanding my horizons. But granted, it’s me we’re talking about, so there’ll still be a heavy focus on gaming. Still, don’t expect that in the real first post. My first topic is actually a TV show from 1992 that I really want to talk about, but I’m still doing a little research for that in between the time I have to breathe and the work I’ve been doing to find a paying job. A couple of you on Bluesky may already know what that show is, but I want to keep quiet about it for now so as to not jynx myself.

Speaking of Bluesky, you might notice that I don’t have a traditional comments section. Instead, rather than having to deal with another component and third party to manage comments, I’m just using Bluesky as a comment section; just comment with your Bluesky account on the post about said blog entry, and they’ll be seen on this page. You probably got to this blog post from a skeet I made, so try commenting on that to see your words here. Now I know there’s the elephant in the room about the head of BlueSky trust and safety being too busy gooning to do his job and ban just ONE notorious pedophile/transphobe... and I hear you. It’s frustrating. I’ve actually put a couple of long-term projects on hold because of said Bsky employee failing to act and suspend a blatantly violator of the very terms and service said employee is supposed to be holding people accountable to. But at the end of the day, Bluesky still has incredible moderation tools that one can self-administer even when Bluesky's own moderation team fails. Most of the folks who I see commenting on this blog already have accounts, and some of the ones I don’t have already been banned to begin with! It just makes my life easier. I don’t plan on throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but I’m also not obligated to purchase a Bluesky Plus account. And neither should any of you, but that’s another rant.

Anyways, I mainly just wanted to make this blog post properly announcing the blog. Technically, it’s a whole site upgrade from where I started back in late February 2024, but the only thing that’s actually changed are some minor improvements to the loading speed… and this blog. So the blog felt like it was actually worth talking about. It’s still a bit bare bones, but there’ll be improvements. I mostly wanted to get it out there for the new year, even if it’s something I’ll mold and tweak in my spare time. I’ll just have an audience while I do it. Hope you enjoy it, and be sure to drop me a comment on the Bluesky post and tell me what you think! It should show up right below...