Archives

You’ve opened…

A DOOR TO THE PAST.

What should we do with old blog posts? Perhaps this wise thought from Jack Handey is relevant:

“If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let ‘em go, because, man, they’re gone.”

That’s deep. And it’s a great metaphor for living in the present, and letting go of the past. I’ll adapt it for the question at hand:

If you ever drop your blog posts into a river of molten internet, let ‘em go, because… you know. They’re gone.

Lost to obscurity.

Except, of course they’re not gone, and they may haunt you FOREVER.

More likely, no one will care.

But here you are, and I can see you’re eager to dig up some buried treasure, so let’s see if there’s anything we can do for you.

The Collection

There is a collection of posts that I think hold up okay, or at least that I’m not completely ashamed of. If you’re interested in my writing and want to see more, the collected posts might be an entertaining or worthwhile sample to browse through.

There’s good stuff that’s not in the collection, like photo posts, embedded videos, and posts that are mostly excerpts of or links to other people’s work, but the collection is meant to highlight my “writing.” Whatever that means.

The collection will spare you from a lot of my posts that are more transient or “meh”-seeming now. Or just plain awful.

The collection has posts that I hope you’ll enjoy reading. If you like what’s in the collection, you may like what’s to come for this site. If you don’t like what’s in the collection, you may still enjoy what lies ahead, because future posts are going to be way better.

New posts will be added in time, of course, although I’m not sure how soon. It may be well to let them sit for a while as I (and you) judge their worthiness. I’ll likely remove posts also, as new and way more awesome stuff crowds out the old, embarrassingly trite stuff.

And there are other routes into the thicket…

Category Archives

Miscellany is anything that doesn’t fit in another category.

Photos are mostly by me, freely shared and shareable. (Although there are many by other people, shared with more and less free terms.) Some of the most popular for Google searchers are Cascade River, Big Green Caterpillar, and Santorini, Greece (which is not by me). Have a look. They’re set up for easy browsing.

I’ve long desired to write fiction, but I often question if it’s really my thing. I don’t know if it’s resistance or common sense that gets in my way. Most of the entries are for one “blog fiction” story: Itsy Bitsy Fritsy. There are a few short stories.

The writing category is for posts about… writing! About my writing process, I guess, and my aspirations and struggles and mewling.

Music turns out to be mostly about Martin Sexton and the Ryan Montbleau Band. Not just those guys, but mostly. Some of the Martin and RMB posts I still like. Some of the others point to YouTube videos that may amuse you.

Tech posts are about specific technical topics, best left to search engine discovery.

The meta category is for posts about the site itself. More or less. Announcements, notes, stats, informational, promotional, and so on.

Finally, the free software and free culture categories were the heart of this thing in the early years. I think a lot of the posts are “meh.” There’s some good stuff in there, but it’s all just keys in a river of molten lava, now. (Man.) One of my favorite free software posts is a lengthy quote of someone else on the topic of practicality vs. politics and ideology.

When I was planning to turn this thing into a “blog fiction blog,” I wrote Stuff That “Used To Be Here” as a transitional post and a recap of the first few years. That’s probably a good place for you to start digging up that grave, if you must.

Monthly Archives

I love this grid. The numbers, the sums, the orderliness of it all. It reassures me that the world makes sense. Except for that blank spot in May 2008, which unnerves me, a bit. Especially when I posted something on June 1. Argh! Maybe I should cheat and move it back one day.

The grid says that you can count on me. I’m reliable. I’m in it for the long term. I’m not one of those blog abandoners.

(The numbers are linked to specific month/year archives.)

And, once again: A big list of all blog posts.

Tag Archives

And here we have a good old tag cloud. I like tag clouds. Maybe it will help you discover related posts of interest. I’m always re-tagging posts, so don’t count on any permanence here.