my "little corner of the web"
I've been writing/creating for as long as I can remember.
I learned to read and write at age 4 and the poems and stories started to flow. I wrote a journal as far back as age 6.
(One of my favourite early entries says, in my childlike scrawl, "Today was a BAD day. I learned that soccer is stupid and SO AM I.")
I've been writing/sharing on the internet since I was 13 - in 1999.
I had a Diaryland diary (which still exists!), a LiveJournal, Geocities website, you name it. (And I was learning HTML from another pre-teen girl, the legendary Lissa.)
Before I had the internet, my ideas poured out on paper. There were countless books, stories, poems, comic strips and artwork I made for family and friends as a child.
It's just something I do.
I write to explain myself, to understand myself, to process the things I'm thinking about, to remember details I'd otherwise forget. I write to share things with others, to keep the conversation going, to stay connected.
I chronicle my life, my fears, my pleasures, my dreams, my obsessions.
I love a thought piece, a deep dive, a narrative, a carefully curated instructional guide, a personal lament, an emo poem, a pondering essay.
I have been having a conversation with my reader (hello, you!) ever since I could freakin' talk.
I know I don't want to stop doing that. (I actually don't know HOW to stop doing that.)
I found this place because I was looking for a space to exist online as a human consciousness/creative entity.
I was sick of feeling like I should be "monetizing" or "optimizing" or "building a personal brand" or "upselling" or doing whatever carefully curated strategic bullshit I needed to do to win at The Algorithm.
I don't give a fuck about The Algorithm anymore.
I was worried that something like this wouldn't exist in 2024 - a place that felt so pure and sweet and tiny and real and gentle and honest and friendly.
In other words, the exact opposite of the rapidly enshittifying, hypnotic, anxiety-inducing, rage-filled, pay-walled hallucination many parts of the internet have become.
I can't begin to describe how happy I am to find this place, and how much I'm looking forward to writing here.
P.S. Thank you, Herman, for making this simple, beautiful blogging site. Not all poems are made with words - sometimes they are made with code.