First Post

Published:

Hey. My name is Ozzy and I’m starting a blog.

Why am I doing this?

It’s the start of 2025 and I’m thinking about my life. I’ve never been one for New Years Resolutions, but January is definitely a month for reflection. December tends to mean meet-ups with people that I haven’t seen for many months, and the ‘so, what have you been up to?’ question rears its ugly head.

I’ve never been that good at answering that question and it scares me a little that after so many months I can’t think of how my life is different now compared to last year.

I have a terrible tendency to drift through life. I suspect everyone gets to a certain age and takes a glance at their past 5 years, their likely 5 years ahead, and panics a little. That’s what mid-life crises are all about.

There’s a page of the Dr Seuss book (Oh, the Places You’ll Go) that rather haunts my mind at these times.

The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

This blog is meant to help some of those feelings. It’s not meant to be a diary - I’ve been finding that looking back on my photos for the year works for that. It’s meant to be a place to share small snippets of information that I find interesting, or projects that I finish, without worrying about the audience that I’m talking to.

Apart from that, there are a few other reasons that I think this ought to be a good idea.

1. I quite like blogs in general

For me, blogs occupy something of a sweetspot in terms of attention. It’s easy to start reading a post, and then come back to it later if you had to take a break for whatever reason. They also tend to be very easy to reference - more so than videos.

Blogging also seems to have died down a bit as a form of communication with the rise of Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram. This has tended to mean that people in it for the money have moved on to other platforms, leaving people more passionate about their content. Or its just much easier to block adverts on traditional blogs. Either way, it feels like a much more personable form of communication.

2. I used to like writing

I remember enjoying writing as a creative output many years ago. I’ve rediscovered some of that joy when keeping people updated about projects around the house, but our projects are slowing down and our audience is limited. There’s still plenty else in my life that I’d like to record in this way (I hope)

3. It forces me to think about things

I would love a record of things that I was thinking over the year. Or the small things that I worked on that didn’t end up going anywhere. Or the odd things I learned.

So there you have it - blogging to prove to myself that I’m not an entirely static person

How is this happening?

A less then useful habit of mine is to analyse the how to do something to such an extent that I never actually get around to doing the actual thing.

To get to this stage I’ve been;

Fortunately, I caught myself this time. What’s currently on display has no fancy integrations and requires various manual steps to update it. I’m sure this will change going forward.

So what do I think is going to happen?

Well, traditionally for New Years Resolutions, this should barely make it past January. I feel like I should open with a post about the benefits of blogging, followed by around 3 other posts, and then leave it dormant until next year.

We’ll see what actually happens

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