Brain Drippings (Blog)

May 21, 2026

Well, I figure I'll get things started so there's some content to look at on here. Though this site is still very minimal, it's almost at a place where it wouldn't be a complete waste of time to get it hosted and actually connected to the rest of the ~interwebz~.
When I tell someone I'm building my own website, the natural first question is "why?" Fair, enough, I guess. It's not a common thing in this day and age. Even people who have personal websites (usually for the purpose of self-promotion) typically either use a website building tool or pay a professional to do it for them. So I figured I'd just go ahead and answer that question right now, for anyone wondering.

• For fun. I like design and logic and being creative, and I needed a project to work on this summer. Learning html and css (and hopefully, Javascritpt) is a fun exercise in problem solving and creativity. By the way, I've decided to try not to do anything without having fun, as a general rule. Otherwise, what's the point? Perhaps that's my nihilism showing.
• To have an online presence without using social media. I want to be able to post photos, life updates, etc. for my friends, but I've eschewed "social media" (Instagram and the like) for the time being. For one, I oppose the commercialization of those sites, which has turned them into at least 50% advertising platform. And for another thing, it sends me into spirals of addictive obsession and mindless stimulation-seeking, which is detrimental to my overall ability to enjoy life and I would say reduces my ability to be a semi-functioning person in the world by at least 10-15%. I wish (or do I?) that I could be a casual user or casual consumer like most people of my generation, but it seems that my brain is too obsessively and neurotically wired, for better and/or worse.
• To push back against cultural homogenization and commercialization, and reclaim the dream of the internet. The way we use the internet today is so filtered through algorithms, which pretty much always support a commercial incentive. What you're seeing isn't just being shown to you — it's being sold to you, and you are complicit in the creation of a consumer base. Not that I blame individuals for participating in the culture — it is, after all, nearly inescapable if one wants to participate in society at all, and we all need to feel a part of something. But we desire individuality at the same time, and so social media and media consumption in general has created a product honed by engagement algorithms and analytics, perfectly tailored to feed us a fantasy of individuality and togetherness in ideal, captivating proportion. This website is my resistance — my own piece of the internet built from scratch, free from the controlling hand of corporate regulation.
• An outlet for my narcissism. What can I say, I like looking at something with my name on it and I like an audience in a space where I have control over my image and product. Thanks for indulging me!

Next question: what will I be posting here?
In case you didn't notice, my writing tends to be sarcastic, verbose, and self-deprecating. I expect I'll try to post stories from my life, random musings and observations, maybe some reviews of some media I happen to watch/read/ingest, and I might put some creative writing on here (well, more creative than that other stuff), though I think I'll create a separate webpage for that. I'm going to Europe for six weeks this summer starting in mid-July, and I plan to blog about it while I'm there. So keep an eye out for updates on my adventures hitchhiking and hosteling. So many novel opportunities to get murdered! That should provide some excitement. I figure it's a win-win situation: If I die, it'll be a great story for you all to tell at parties and/or around campfires. In that case, I'll make sure to update you from beyond the grave.