I’ve had this blog on this domain for around ten years now. I originally put this up to keep sharp both my writing and web design skills. Nowadays, I’m not sure anymore why I still keep it up since I haven’t been able to make anything out of it for a whole decade. However, I’m not ready to give up on it just yet, but I do have to start whittling it down to the bare essentials so I can actually do more with it for less and without being overwhelmed.
This blog post is for getting my thoughts together on what this blog should continue to represent. After all, I’ve been paying for the domain and hosting all this time, so that must mean I believe in it somehow. But at this point, I really have to assess whether it’s still worth it to maintain my pretensions as a writer through this website. I document my thoughts and feelings here to serve as reference. Whatever I decide to do in the future, I’ll be able to compare with what I decide to do now as of this writing.
Main Categories
The two topics that are here to stay are video games and combat. Gaming and fighting are my two favorite topics, so I have to form the Avoiderdragon brand around them. But writing about those two things alone can get bland and paints a picture of me as a grown-up boy dreaming of being a hypermasculine chad bro dude, which I certainly am not.
What makes me want to write mostly about these two topics is the amount of overlap I see between them. My aim for 2022 is to be able to write more content that connects these two things together and find new ways of thinking about each of them.
But I also have no interest in writing about only these two topics. I’m a man of many interests, and I wish to write about a myriad of subjects in my lifelong quest for more knowledge and learning experiences. That’s why I maintain all the categories in this blog.
However, only a handful of them have content in them. I wish to change that, either by filling them up or deleting those categories altogether. What I can do right now is determine which additional topics I still want to keep here. Everything else should be discarded.
Among entertainment and recreational media (geek stuff), I’ll keep anime, film, and books. I don’t watch enough TV shows or read enough comics to properly write about them. I also don’t collect toys, so there’s no reason for it to stay up.
I’ll keep the tech category up since they include the tools of my trade. I know enough about computers, peripherals, cameras, audio equipment, and other gadgets to write about them with some competence. Of course, I should limit it to stuff I can afford and actually use.
Since I’m a pro wrestling commentator and figure, I can still keep the pro wrestling category up. However, I don’t watch enough pro wrestling to do the same thing as websites dedicated to pro wrestling. Therefore, I’ll have to limit it to opinion pieces related to that field.
As for worldly topics, I can write about current events and world history. I do enjoy being able to talk about those topics every now, so I’ll keep them as well. I may have to get rid of sub-categories in order to simplify and consolidate categories in the blog so I won’t be overwhelmed by how many holes and gaps there still are.
I may have to further simplify it throughout this year. When I’m done, the navigation menu will be less crowded, and yet be more substantial as well.
Giving Up Web Hosting
I’m thinking of no longer having this blog hosted. I can import the posts into a WordPress.com blog or just use the Medium mirror site as the main blog from then on. That will allow me to save the money I would otherwise pay for hosting every year. I’ll still pay for the domain name since I’ll always want to keep that.
The advantages of having it hosted are threefold. First, I can use my own web design, which I built from scratch, and update it as I wish whenever I can be assed to learn more HTML, CSS, Javascript, or PHP. Second, I can use custom plugins that can enhance it, like the Reviewer plugin I bought from Envato that I use for scoring reviews. Third, I get to call it truly my own.
Perhaps I can make my own server to host it, which will consume bandwidth and require a rig of its own. But perhaps that won’t be so bad if it ends up being a tad cheaper than paying for hosting elsewhere. That will also give me a chance to learn server stuff, which can be a nice side project to occupy me. Maybe that will progress into having my own homelab.
But right now, my concern is preserving it for posterity. Then again, I shouldn’t be thinking that if I don’t have much to show for it in the first place. I’ll have to post a whole lot more before I can consider this blog to be worth preserving at all.
Wanting to Leave Something Behind
Let’s say I suddenly kick the bucket. I want to be able to leave a trace of whatever limited writing ability I had during my life. After all, it’s the one thing I’ve consistently enjoyed throughout my existence, and perhaps it can mean something by having it still be read when I’m gone. Of course, it’d be better if I get books published while I still can help it, but I also want to have a blog that contains more of my more candid writing.
The Czech writer Milan Kundera once wrote,
“I will go still further: ‘the work’ is what the writer will approve in his own final assessment. For life is short, reading is long, and literature is in the process of killing itself off through an insane proliferation. Every novelist, starting with his own work, should eliminate whatever is secondary, lay out for himself and for everyone else the ethic of the essential.”
I’m not a novelist (not yet, at least). What Kundera says there is how a writer wouldn’t want to have every single piece of their writing throughout their entire life be laid bare for all to see. Once they’re absolutely done, it should only be their best work that represents them, and everything else that’s non-essential should be wiped out.
Read enough about the lives of famous writers and you’ll find a common theme of them burning their writings. At first, you may think of it as a waste. But once you understand the idea of leaving behind only your very best work, that makes deleting your blurbs, notes, correspondences, and other minor pieces of writing a sensible thing to do.
Do you want your sexts to be available for public consumption for generations to come?
Mind you, very few people will end up being famous enough to merit concern with that. However, think of your descendants reading your Facebook rants, drunk Twitter posts, hate comments, and so on long after you’ve expired. I don’t think you’ve lived every single moment of your life as a paragon of wisdom and level-headedness. No one has.
With that said, the reason why I wouldn’t want my blog posts to just disappear is that I view blogging as a valuable medium of equal footing with other forms of prose. If done with skill and care, blogging can be elevated on a pedestal. It’s writing with a low barrier of entry, and yet also a high ceiling as it takes both talent and hard work to make people want to read it.
Frankly, I’m not there yet, but I know what I’m capable of in this medium. I know that if I really put in the work and pay attention to both writing and marketing, I can make something out of this crummy blog. I just have to optimize both the blog and myself as a writer. The sun is still shining and I’m still writing, so there’s still hope to make something out of it, even if it’s small.
I promise myself that I’ll figure this out soon.
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