Hey there! Today’s post is something a little bit different.
For the past 10 weeks, I’ve been trying to establish the identity of this blog through the content I share here. And I think it’s working in some ways. I’m finding certain patterns and topics that I enjoy writing about, and I think I’m getting better at sharing my thoughts on things of my interest through this corner of the internet. My goal with The Lifelong Traveler was simple: to find ways to share what I see with the world through the web. And at first, writing seemed most appropriate; I still feel it is. I enjoy writing about technology, social changes, and different ways of looking at a common problem. But in the past few weeks, it’s been increasingly apparent to me that trying to isolate my contents on the web to their respective platforms is … not necessarily the best way to go. I write and record music and publish them on YouTube along with my occasional artistic musings, and that kind of content cannot be shared in text form. I’m also working on other web-related projects, and I think it would be counterproductive not to use this platform to share developments and my thoughts in that area as well. I feel that instead of this blog being a one-sided mirror of who I am, it could work better as a more comprehensive way for me to share my thoughts with the audience. In a word, I’ve decided to change some things around for this website, hopefully for the better, while still preserving its essence. The change comes in three phases.
Change One: More than just text
As I’ve mentioned above, there are some content that I share on other platforms that’s not necessarily describable in text form. Namely, pictures, videos, and music. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of my music and videos from elsewhere on this website as well, in the hopes that it will provide more diversity and interesting variations in the content here. And eventually, I hope TLT would become my primary platform for sharing thoughts and ideas. Towards that goal want to make TLT a more media-rich place, not just a novel or an essay but a magazine. I think these additions of a variety in content can make that shift happen in a positive way.
Change Two: Moving out, moving in
Currently, this blog lives on Blogger, Google’s free platform for publishing on blogs. But because of its aging nature and it’s limitations as well as my personal taste for more control, the blog will be moving out of Blogger, into a more robust platform that leaves room for more customizations and control over what I can do with the website. There’ll be some aesthetic changes that come out of this as well. Blogger’s themes aren’t hideous, but they aren’t the prettiest examples of web design in the world, either. Because this change is a more time-consuming shift, it’ll be taking place over the next months. My guess? Around Christmas, you can expect to start seeing a little less Google, a little more of my own around here.
Change Three: Blog, and beyond
Until now, TLT was almost entirely just a blog: a place where I publish a piece of writing regularly. And that’s all good, but by itself, that’s pretty bare. Not to mention, I want to not only share stuff twice a week through these posts, but also have The Lifelong Traveler be a more comprehensive website. When the blog moves into the new host, the blog will become a part of a larger, more comprehensive personal website. But no worries: the blog will still be there, as a section of the website.
What’s staying
Despite all of the changes that’ll be taking place over the next few months, I still want to preserve some aspects of what I do here. Firstly, there will definitely still be bi-weekly blog posts that go out on Monday and Thursday of every week. The topics will stay more or less the same: technology, social change, and looking at problems differently, finding interesting approaches to common issues. There’s still a lot of value in thinking and sharing on those topics, and I would like to continue that. Second, the website will still be here, though not necessarily looking like this forever. I’ll still share most of my content over at the Facebook page, if you so choose to follow.
I think it’s incredibly important that we always look for and act on ways to improve upon what is already there, regardless of if the status quo is hopelessly terrible, just average, or excellent*. For me, !0 weeks was enough time to see if this blog is here to stay or a passing idea to which I cannot commit fully. Fortunately, it turned out to be rather sustainable and beneficial in multiple ways. So the coming set of changes is an attempt from me to enhance what I already have and try out some new things. I hope you like what’s next.
* I’ll let you be the judge of which of these three things this blog currently is.
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