An analogy:
I join a social network with the goal of building a space that I like, out of lego pieces.
The fediverse slowly gives me a few pieces at a time, and I choose what I want. I slowly build out a nice lego structure.
Networks with algorithmic feeds dump me in a room full of legos, and say I have my pick. Most pieces aren't what I want, and a good number are even broken. I spend most of my time sifting through pieces, looking for something I can work with.
I've been really enjoying the slow pace of joining the fediverse. Find a few interesting people to follow, see who they interact with and slowly branch out connections from there.
In networks with algorithmic feeds, you're presented first with EVERYTHING, and are tasked with filtering out what you don't want until you have a nice curated space. It's stimulating by design, but a little overwhelming. Conversely on the fediverse, you start with NOTHING and slowly add content you like.
Everything is a preference for sure, this just feels so refreshing to me.
Squirrel - Archive webpages so I can find them again
I created a thing that lets me save webpage contents in a smart way. I know, there are a million bookmark managers and web archivers out there, but this one is for me.
The Motivation
From Pinboard:
Do you half-remember interesting things you saw online six months ago, but struggle to find them in a search engine?
Yes, yes, a hundred times yes. This happens to me all the time. Searching my history doesn’t work because usually the keywords I remember are not in the title. Google et al. aren’t much help either.
I want a way to have the contents of the pages I visit be searchable, in a smart way.
Tontie is the reason I can still type numbers very quickly on a 10-key keypad. Anybody else play this?
https://www.eyezmaze.com/game/tontie.html
📕 Finished The Haunting of Hill House.
First half was gripping and excellent, second half kind of lost me. Overall very good though! It made me appreciate that literature ages very well, and that scary stories will always be scary.
Next pet-project to tackle: Minimal-friction searchable archive of webpages I visit.
1. Try to use Obsidian for everything.
2. Get overwhelmed.
3. Find a dedicated app to solve my need.
4. Start customizing things but can’t do everything.
5. Realize Obsidian can do exactly what I want.
6. Repeat.
📝 The word “shampoo” is derived from the Hindi word cā̃pō (चाँपो, pronounced [tʃãːpoː]), itself derived from the Sanskrit root chapati (चपति), which means 'to press, knead, or soothe'.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shampoo
Pika Pulse is such a good idea! And applying each post’s custom theme (I’m assuming) is a really great look too. Makes me wish I had an account there too!
https://pika.page/pulse
Rebranding the site: Invisible Parade
I first started this personal website just about 20 years ago. It began as a couple of html pages, and spent time as a Wordpress blog, a Tumblr page, and is now a static blog generated by Jekyll. Through that time, it had always just had my name, alexonsager.com. This year, I’m rebranding it to Invisible Parade.
Being online then
When I started this site I had just entered university, got my first MacBook, and was excited to become a full-fledged citizen of the internet. At the time, I thought it was cool to publish as much of yourself as possible. Tag yourself and your friends in the photos you take, scrobble the music you listen to, check in to the places you go, tweet your thoughts. Since I was broadcasting myself to the world, it made sense to put my name on my website. That’s how people would know me.
At the same time though, Daring Fireball was a cool site with the coolest name. Daring Fireball man, how do you top that?
Envious, I found a site that generates random adjective + noun combinations and hoped for inspiration. The second or third result I got was “invisible parade,” and I immediately loved the oxymoron. The whole point of a parade is to be seen by all of the people. What then, is the point of an invisible parade?
The name stuck in my head, and I think at one point I may have bought the .net. But I didn’t have anything to do with it, and eventually let it expire.
Being online now
It feels less in fashion to use your full name as a brand now. There is the risk of bad attention following you around, but also it’s just more useful to have a persona. There are literally a gazillion people online, so “hey I have a website” is not enough to make you interesting. You have to let people know people what you’re about, show some personality.
My real-name domain feels like showing up to a costume party with a name tag that just says “Hi, my name is Alex”. It doesn’t feel fun anymore!
The rebranding
On a whim I looked up the invisibleparade domain, and it was available. It felt right, so I nabbed it, and here we are. And it is kind of a perfect name for the site.
I’m creating this parade of posts, if you will, and I’m putting in a real effort to make it interesting and nice to look at. But who’s even looking at it? What is the point of an invisible parade, or an invisible blog?
Well, it’s fun! I like putting it together. And if anybody happens to stumble across it, I’ll be happy to show it off. So here’s to another 20 years of parading.