At a Waving Distance

Tag: blogging

  • Tech construction, and such

    Tech construction, and such

    I’m not gonna lie… the last couple of days has been… You know how when you ask someone how they are and they force a smile and say “I’m fine, no really”.. Forced smile and breathing in zen*

    I knew going into it that it’s a special kind of hell trying to wrangle a finicky website at the start, but it’s also something that I seem to be doing over and over again.

    Unfortunately, what doesn’t seem to be happening is actually learning and getting used to the interface and how everything works because it’s SO HARD every time. This time I tried WordPress’s own stuff, got frustrated. Installed Elementor that I have had success with before, it was pure unadulterated chaos and I still didn’t manage to fix the stuff I wanted to fix. So I tried Bricks which was fine until it….. WAS NOT.

    I still have no idea why I couldn’t get the blog posts to work at all in any way because apparently I am the only person on the entirety of the internet that has this particular problems and I’m not code-savvy enough to just FIGURE IT OUT. This is obviously not a critique of Bricks itself, it’s just me being a noobz and I don’t have the patience to traverse the learning-curve to overcome being that kind of noob right now.

    Not having functional blog posts was kind of counter-productive since my main point with a website is a silly blog for funsies. So I uninstalled all kinds of extras and is back on WordPress original stuffles again.

    And after just clearing the space out and staring at things for a while, suddenly I just recognised things and actually managed to fix a few templates successfully and surprisingly it no longer felt like a rapidly approaching slab of asphalt and more like there may actually be a blog somewhere around here.

    So, I’ve been on the tech-struggle plain of existence for a few days but now… it’s… something!

    Sweeps arm displaying the with-silvertape-patched-together website behind me, with a strained smile. –Something falls to the ground with a clang–

    Hehe. Nevermind that, it’s just the header that I haven’t gotten to stick yet. Welcome in, welcome in! The foundation is properly solid but the interior needs a little work here and there. Ahem. It’s a work in progress – with actual progress I may proudly say after getting absolutely nowhere for days.

    So, let’s do this beeches!

    –Slaps the side of the house and something falls over inside-

    I’mma fix it, it’s fine. Yeah. Fine. Hehe.

  • The first post! Well, sort of

    The first post! Well, sort of

    Yes, this post is shamelessly taken from my oldnewishyetcancelledblogherewegoagain in 2024 because I can’t seem to get the hang of this thing called “sticking with it”. But it’s new times, new eras, new kinds of sortof-sanity now so here’s to hoping it’ll last this time! The post itself is equally meaningful and mirrors reality so I figure I’ll just use it again heheheheh.

    “As long as you have something to write and an audience eager to hear what you have to say, you can start a blog.”

    A cold shiver of dread shot through my system.

    Oh no! Does that mean I can’t start a blog? I had one for years, was that wrong?! Did I break the blogging rules? Did I miss the seminar where I learn how to manifest an audience before I even start writing? Dangit, I knew something was missing from my calendar in April. I was so proud of how organized I was!

    Well shucks, you are reading this so it’s too late now.

    corrects clothing *

    Ahem.

    Welcome to my blog! I totally have readers, they’re.. over there. No not there, -there-. It’s fine, I’ll show you later. But, now that you are here, I should introduce myself!

    You can call me Elle. I’m not anonymous -per se-, but I do prefer to be a bit discreet with my pure unadulterated identity – mostly because I have had a personal blog running between 2005 (livejournal, man) and 2018… and I do experience the paralyzing existential dread of being ridiculed for whatever I touch or express interests in for no particular reason as none of my interests are noteworthy really, this possibly being grounded in my traumatic childhood experiences of being an odd kid in a neurotypical world – but.. we’re… working on it?

    I by working on it I mean, like, actually working on it. Not getting paid of course – but the mental sweat, blood and tears are being squished out of my soul every day. It’s a journey, really! I would have started a travel blog but mental trip.. “aids” are illegal in my country, so here we are with just a personal one.

    A lovely picture of our puglet when he was little, just for good measure

    Anyway, I prefer to be a little bit mystical, let a touch of secrecy surround my little dwelling on this internet. I can write silly stuff on here and wrestle the angst-bear and hold it down long enough to click on the post-button, which is not possible if I can see my own face along with the text. If I do, I will start questioning everything and promptly be eaten by the bear. Terrible for SEO.

    Shortly before I realized I must have missed the seminar where I learn how to manifest an audience before starting the blog, I had a conversation with my husband. A conversation I’ve had about two times a year since 2018 when I kind of let the whole blogging thing slip for real.

    “Hey. Starting a new blog, is that a bad idea in 2024? With all the AI horrors rolling out unbeknownst to most people around the world, scraping robots throwing themselves over human made content (and to be completely fair, a lot of robot made content as well that’s out there already) to “learn” how to emulate humanity? Clickbait??”

    My husband Smith is my eternal enabler, and I’m so thankful for it.

    “No honey, I’d say, if it makes you happy, do it!“

    “But drugs make people happy as well, not all things that make you happy is good for you!“

    Smith just stared at me for a few seconds like he usually does when I’m being facetious.

    “You know what I mean.”

    “You know what I mean as well!“

    “I don’t think you will get hunted down by human-eating robots because you have a blog in 2024. If we’re dying for AI-reasons, there’s for sure worse problems out there already.“

    He scrolls silently and thoughtfully through the website he was reading when I interrupted him. “Can AI kill us all?” rolls past in bold letters.

    The other times we’ve had this conversation, we had like, life crippling and world-setting-on-fires-adjacent kind of events around us, which kind of harshed my vibes.

    But this time? Well, fuck it. If we’re dying anyways, might as well blog about it, right! The robots must have something to parse when we’re all gone, all the cat memes won’t do on their own, not to mention all the por..

    So! Here I find myself, in 2024 (and now 2026!), starting a personal blog again. We’ll see how we fare this time.

    Crippling existential dread and all.

    Welcome!