Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog
A Long and Winding Road
I’ve been blogging since 1999, first via extremely cringe LiveJournal posts and later documenting my experiences from a Rotary exchange program to Japan in 2004 (including a nostalgic return last year). Over the years I’ve used various platforms, but none have felt quite right.
The Tumblr Era: A Love-Hate Relationship
For a long time, Tumblr was my go-to platform. It was easy to use and had a great community. However, as Tumblr evolved, it became clear that it wasn’t the ideal solution for my needs. The lack of HTML support and the platform’s overall instability made it difficult to maintain my blog.
Iron Blogger SF
Because you you should blog more.
– Charlotte Brontë
Because there’s no motivation like peer pressure.
– Joseph Stalin
Because doing things for beer is never a bad idea.
– Franz Kafka
Like to write? Want to write more? Enjoy beer and good company?
Join the Iron Blogger Challenge, which has helped me keep writing and building things on a regular basis.
The premise is simple – submit one post or creation a week. Miss a week and put $5 toward an evening of free drinks for the group. Stay innovative and meet cool people.
Revisiting Japan circa 2004
While cleaning out a closet to post a few items on Yerdle I re-discovered a hard drive with a copy of my blog from 2004. At the time I was living in Tamano, Japan with three host families and studying as a first-year high school student. As I held the clunky drive in my hand a flood of memories rushed into my mind. I could smell the seaside and taste the takoyaki.
Oxidized Bismuth Blogger
After the smashing success of Iron Blogger in San Francisco, a subset of bold and daring individuals have decided to start a parallel group, Oxidized Bismuth Blogger, with a focus on short-form musings – it could be a business idea, a cool hack, or just something mindblowing that fell out of your skull. Far too often great ideas fall through the cracks and OBB is here to catch them with a reassuring trust fall.
