I’ve always liked the idea of blogs and have ready many over the years. Considered having my own in the past, but didn’t really have much to say, so figured travelling gives me the perfect excuse. Also,as touched on in my About page, it gives me something to talk about while I work on the site as as way to keep up to speed with software development.
As my Strava followers can probably attest to, I like to wax lyrical on my activities in a way few others do, so this blog is really just an extension of that.
Why Now?
My blogging begins almost 20 years ago with the rise of social media. My first love was of course Bebo (the streets will never forget Freddie Moore) as well as a bit of MySpace before Facebook and Twitter became the standard.
Social media served the purpose of a blog in those days, but with the decline in user experience at the expense of an algorithm based approach (more on this below), I thought it would be a good time to carve out a piece of the web for my online presence.
So why now? Why not!
Shout Outs
A big inspiration to document my travels were the tales from two good friends who had Asian adventures of their own over a decade ago. Had some good nostalgic fun reading over the old emails/docs from both Éanna and Burke—written in their own inimitable style—and it gave me the idea to do likewise.
As for blogs, these two really stand out to me. One promoting Sligo and the North West in general and the other promoting the Irish festival scene.
Magnum Lady - we’re very lucky to have someone like Val promoting Sligo. Whether it’s recommendations on local businesses, notices about upcoming events, or showcasing the beautiful landscape of Sligo, Val has it covered. Been a follower for years and definitely recommend it.
Niall McQuaid - Always really enjoy Niall’s festival reviews and admire the work he puts into them. I remember in 2015 reading about past Body & Souls as I prepared to volunteer at it for the first time and it got me pumped. Since then I would excitedly check out his write-ups before attending a festival, or read them afterwards to exacerbate the FOMO having missed out. Go through his archive and read over a festival you attended for some nice nostalgic hits.
On the travel side of things, my friend’s Big Mini Travel really opened my eyes in terms of visiting South East Asia and all that is on offer here.
The Current Meta1
enshittification (noun) — the gradual deterioration of a product, platform, or service as it shifts from prioritizing users to prioritizing profit, often at the expense of user experience.
It’s not really a hot take to say that Facebook has become a ball of shite. Entirely flooded with meme pages and suggested posts it has become a bit of a wasteland. Now I’m not saying I don’t enjoy a good meme, and the Simpsons pages were the start of it, but these pages came on the scene a decade ago and slowly but surely the genuine posts from friends subsided. I recall Blindboy commenting on how they had amassed a great following yet posts would only be seen by feck all (unless they paid to promote it ofc). In recent months the Dull Mens Club has been good, but it would impact my life in no way if I didn’t see it.
I find it all particularly tragic as it was once a place I could get a hundred of those sweet, sweet, likes for just saying the word Dunnes. Halcyon days.
As for Twitter, I had to bin that due to Musk. It’s enshittification was even more pronounced and is now just a terrible site imo. Unfortunate as it was great for real time updates, but at least Bluesky is improving and is much nicer—reminiscent of old Twitter.
Even Instagram—in it’s desperate attempt to copy TikTok—you just see endless Reels and less and less from people you actually follow. Aas someone who likes to post the occasional Reel, I think the exposure is massively limited.
This is all thanks to Zuck & Musk being big greedy bastards. In recent times—in an attempt to lick Trump’s hole—they have gotten even worse as they roll back on progressive measures—it’s sad to see all these changes rolled back on a whim. Even a billionaire I’ve been in the same lift as forgoing his principles (or perhaps showing true colours) to maximise profit.
Enjoyed these articles from January, which speak to this topic well:
With all that in mind I’m trying to ease myself into the Indieweb life. Don’t see myself leaving the Gram anytime soon but it’s nice to have my own site if/when that time does come.
There’s some of the why behind the blog, along with some thoughts on internet discourse in the current era. More posts to come on that perhaps.
Thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog so far and I hope ye are enjoying it.
Don’t feed my ego too much though or next thing ya know I’ll be starting a bleedin’ podcast!
Footnotes
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The Meta here refers to the current way things are. Nothing to do with Zuck’s rebranded company name ↩
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