It All Begins With One

Why hello. I didn't expect you to be reading this, but you're here, so... welcome!

For a first post I initially wanted it to be some big splash of "wow!". You know, maybe a great philosphical quote that would end up changing your life. Then I'd sprinkle in some very well-crafted laughs with meticulous placement and we'd get something to where you'd be like, "Holy crap, Sean is an AMAZING writer! And oh so funny too!". However, I'm going to have to burst your bubble... I'm not. Well, at least, yet.

For a first post I wanted to set the table for why I am doing this. A blog. In 2024. And yes that 2024 is intentional as I don't want this to be pegged as some "nEw YeAr'S ReSoLuTiOn". One that I won't keep up after just a month because that's what happens to ambitions like this when they are put into that context. This site has been built for a couple of months now actually. I just haven't taken the leap of actually following through on it until I told myself it was NOT going to be what I just mentioned. I am publishing this no later than December 31st 2024!

So did I make it in time? Orrr did I get distracted and now it's 2025. I did! Sweet! Whew.

Ok for the main inspirations behind starting this and why I chose the blog route as opposed to other options. I'll just list them out in bullets because I like how they look in this css setup I put together, so hear goes:

• Social Media and I don't mix quite well. I feel at this point in my life, I have acquired enough experience and knowledge amidst a wide variety of topics that I could definitely add some value to other's lives by sharing it. However, the typical social media platforms... well they fall way short in a lot of ways. Here are a few quick sub-bullet points on some of the most common ones:
  • Facebook: It actively hides posts from MY FRIENDS on MY TIMELINE because they don't fit THEIR algorithm. Then the same thing happens the other way around as my activity is blatantly hidden from them, unless specifically searched for- Ridiculous! They had also deprecated their notes tool a few years ago, which was something I had used before. I'm not aware of a lot of people that want to read a long Facebook post in the sea of 20 other distracting photos, ads, etc right next to it on the page either. In addition to all of that, it's fleeting for the most part- posts simply get lost to time. Oh and don't ever post a link on Facebook- GASP! They want your browser locked onto their website for as long as humanly possible, so guess what they do to posts with links. Yup!
  • Twitter/BlueSky/Threads/Mastadon: First off is their format is too short text wise and I don't want to create a thread that's really hard to follow. Plus, it's also very fleeting. If I'm going to spend any amount of time carefully crafting my words, I don't want it to last for "2m" before it's lost to the scroll. Those platforms are designed more for conversations, in which, have ya seen how people treat others on them?!? I don't need some anonymous Joe Blow on there saddling up his high-horse to try and tear me down just to make himself feel better. I'm writing this blog so I can say whatever I want WITHOUT reprecuss... ok, no no come back. I do want to be held accountable for my words and I will "craft them with care", just keep the toxicity off of this site.
  • YouTube: I don't want to edit videos of me talking. It's that simple. YouTube is a great platform and would probably give me 10,000x the exposure I'll ever see with this so maybe I'll try it some time in the future, but not right now. Plus I actually love the low-key vibe of a blog. You can read this at your own pace without needing headphones or anything like that.
• I ultimately want to provide something easy to read, that is nicely catelogued if you want to read more, and in a place that is far away from the plethora of distractions mentioned above. When you are reading this, it's just you and me (I could type in the word "baby" to finish that sentence but I'm going to resist on the grounds of not wanting to sound creepy in my very first post 😁).
• The flexibility and control that I'll have on my own personally built site- that's huge! This is my Wayne's World- I get to run things the way I want them run (plus I'm doing this from my basement as well). So yes, please don't doubt that I am going to stretch the limits of code to make this something interesting to see along the way.
• I wanted a challenge to improve myself in someway in the year two-thousand-twent... oh damnit this is a "nEw YeAr'S rEsOlUtIoN"! But seriously, I do want to stretch my comfort levels of writing, humor, coding, and trying to find interesting things to discuss.

Well, I think I have typed enough to set the stage. Stay tuned for some fun as I'm going to talk about just about anything and everything. Seriously, bookmark this website (or do the RSS thing) and I won't let you down. If I do, let me know about it too! If I start slacking on these you are more than welcome to come up to me and say "Ugh, my life has just been so blah since you stopped posting to your blog." Love you all 😁

And oh, if you want to do one of these yourself (which I highly encourge and support as I just may enjoy what you write about and/or learn something)- feel free to remix the starter app for this using the link below. It runs on Eleventy (which is pretty cool and relative easy. And if you need any help just ask me and I'll be glad to assist).

Alright, now that's really enough yapping for a first post- so goodbye for now and here's a picture of my dog!