tap. tap. is this mic on? it’s been getting a little dusty around here. over the the past year or so my posts have slowed from a trickle to a complete stall. after 18 years of writing stories and sharing pictures and interesting tidbits found along the way, that’s not something i want to happen. i semi-consciously took a break and now i’m consciously coming back from the break.

why the break? i could write a thousand words on “why”. a big part of the answer is simply that things that i might post here were increasingly getting sucked into other places ( facebook, twitter, instagram, mltshp etc ) and i wasn’t sure what i wanted this space to be anymore. for awhile i thought it might be Mostly Odin’s Adventures forever. but of course the inevitable happened and it became increasingly clear that odin wasn’t so fond of me telling his stories to the world ( teenagers! ). maybe someday he’ll tell his own stories. who knows.

after much contemplation i decided that it’s a foolish quest to try to figure out a “goal” for The Vast Wasteland. this place doesn’t have to be anything except what i want it to be on any given day. it’ll be whatever’s on my mind. some photos. some recipes. some random musings. maybe an interesting thing i found here and there. or whatever. it’s not for you. it’s for me. but if you like it that’s great too. leave a comment and let me know 😃

my decision to jump back into blogging is not a new years resolution per se. i’ve been meaning to do it for awhile but just haven’t found the time to hit the publish button. i have to admit i’ve been a little inspired by my mother who has been blogging up a storm over at voices of ancestors ( it all comes full circle as i believe she may have been inspired by my chronicles of Odin’s Adventures ). also, back in september, om malik’s rationale for taking a break from social media to focus on his own blog certainly resonated with me:

“Looking through a wider lens, I am starting to find a subtle change happening in myself. Despite my best efforts, I am starting to see my life in context of life led by others. It is not how I think and who I am, and perhaps a little time off the networks will give me better perspective.”

and today, coincidentally on new years day, the founder of drupal gave me the final kick in backside.

One of the things currently on my mind as we enter 2018: I feel like using social media less, and blogging more. Be part of the change that you wish to see in the world.

— Dries Buytaert (@Dries) January 1, 2018

relatedly ( in my mind at least ), i finally became a supporting superstar member of kottke.org. thanks for plugging away after all these years jason.