What my site means to me today
For most of its life, this little site of mine was a massive beast of everything that represented me. It pulled in content from the ten other sites I ran, it featured reports I wrote in college, and the blog had posts about my life, opinion pieces, and lists of links. When I got burned out and frustrated with the web, I scaled it all the way back to a single page with a single post.
When I brought back laze.net last August as a more standard–but still very stripped down–site, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted out of it other than to enjoy the web again. And thankfully, over the last eight months, I have done just that. The site re-launched with maybe a dozen old blog posts. Since then, I’ve added a bunch of old favorites (including all of my past “Music Year-in-Review” posts), a handful of interviews I’ve conducted over the years, a few pages in my digital garden that get frequent updating, and a page with lists because nothing lets you get to know someone like their lists. I had my kiddo reimagine my “nerdy robot” avatar. I started writing reviews of my 100 favorite albums.
I’ve been inspired by a lot of random people I’ve found through various Indieweb/slow web lists123, bloggers I read 10+ years ago that are getting back into it again, and folks just doing fun, low stakes stuff with their personal sites. There’s a lot of joy in looking at a site and realizing you’re getting an honest look at who someone is. There’s always curation involved in one’s online persona, but the plainest of personal web sites will still say a lot more to me than their social media feed or profile page.
This year, obviously, has been one disastrous, stress-fueled day after another before you even start taking into account one’s personal struggles, day-to-day annoyances, work drama, or family issues. So, when I’ve been feeling a little jittery, uncentered, or not quite sure where I should put my attention, I open up one of my many blog post drafts, add something to the digital garden, or futz around with the structure of my site a bit. I’ve let my website be my worry stone, and it’s been serving its purpose well as such. It’s not the behemoth that it was in 2010, but that’s alright because I’m not the same person, either. I’m a little more guarded and a little more mature, but I still need a place to write as I see fit. And it’s nice to have that place back again.