Hi! Okay I guess I fell off the wagon with blogging again. 🤣 Life of course always gets in the way of stuff we want to do but I think it's time I made time for blogging this year. Why? Because I've been noticing a major shift in the forces of the Internet as of late. With Elon Musk basically destroying Twitter, Mastodon and the Fediverse at large getting more popular, and the destruction of search as we know it at the hands of AI, I believe a battle is brewing between the corporate web and the smol and people centered web. The truth is Capitalism (as Capitalism does) has been wrecking the Internet ever since Web 2.0 became a thing. While it's true that Web 2.0 has brought a lot of helpful innovations such as Blogging, Podcasting (both powered by RSS of course), and even the Fediverse, the vast majority of the Internet (especially the web) has been corrupted by greedy Capitalists who want to use our unpaid labor (in the form of data and information) just to make a buck. We all want to make a living doing what we love to do and create value online but we can't do that if rich people keep using the value we create to make more wealth for themselves and not giving us anything in return. And lets face it, despite the fact that technology has given us was more amazing capabilities to do more of what we love, we haven't really been able to use much of any of it to our own benefit. And those services that do provide benefits for us can be totally ruined by idiots who have never did any of the work to build those services themselves on a whim. So I've decided to join the fray and commit myself to doing my part to resist what corporations are doing to the web and hopefully having fun and helping others in the process. To that end, I will dedicate this post to outlining my plans for publishing and sharing my knowledge to provide value and make a living for myself here on the open web.

A quick note before I start: This post is primarily a brain dump but I definitely want to start driving traffic to this blog for my real life friends to keep up with me as I go on this journey. Of course, anyone who finds what I am doing resonates with them are welcome to follow me as well.

📲 Social Media

To be honest, I never really liked social media. It always seemed rather antisocial in my opinion and it's not hard to see why. The idea of social media was always supposed to be that it was an easy way to get in touch with friends and loved ones, especially if they are far away. Sure, it still serves that purpose for a lot of people and I also think it's a great way for businesses to share information with customers and clients. Sadly though, it has mostly been an unending cesspool of endless targeted advertising and algorithmic fuckery boosting banal bullshit and hate speech to the point where nobody really wants to be on these platforms anymore but feel they have no choice. My aim is to change that by doing what I can to remove myself from these toxic cyberspaces and help the people I care about do the same. Here's a quick rundown of my plans for this space:

• I currently have my own Mastodon server that is just for my friends using guidance from the awesome Darius Kasumi's RunYourOwn.Social. I already have a couple people on there besides myself and I plan to reach out to more friends to see if they want to join. I really want to have my own community there for my friends online and offline and I think this is a great first step in making my own life better and the lives of my friends better. Any friends reading this should get in touch with me if they want an account but you can follow me here: @kellyn@friendo.space
• I don't want to live entirely in Mastodon though as there are other places in the Fediverse that is awesome too. Like this blog for instance, it is part of the Fediverse too thanks to the amazing Write.As software to run my blog. If you want to follow this blog on Mastodon or elsewhere in the Fediverse just copy this address and paste it in the search box for your client: @blog@kellyndelgado.com I actually want to write 2 blogs this one and a new blog about Chromebooks that I'm working on. I'll post about that later when I get my first posts up there. I might want to do a separate blog on Dudeism as well but I'll start blogging about it here first and see if it warrants it's own blog.
• I'm going to be exploring other Fediverse software that I can use (hosted or self-hosted) to bring value to friends and strangers all over the Internet.
• I want to eventually delete my Facebook account because I feel isolated from friends there and I want to reconnect with them in new ways such as Mastodon and this blog and even good old fashioned email.

I'm sure I'll want to do more in the future but already starting my own Mastodon server and 2 blogs is already a huge project for me. I'm just going to see what happens with this and go from there.

To be continued?

Wow, that was a lot just on one subject and I think I want to add more to this but I wanted to get something out there now and see if I can gain some momentum. Stay tuned for more posts and updates to come. Thanks for reading!

#personal #ramblings #rant #Chromebooks #SocialMedia #blogging #Internet #technology #anticapitalism #capitalism #SmolWeb #OpenWeb #web

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Lao Tzu

I'm just going to come out and say this from the outset, I am a mess. Does that make me special? Hardly. I think we all are complete messes. The idea that anyone isn't a mess is just a fantasy created by (ugh) Facebook et el. Being a mess, I find it difficult to get started on new projects. I mean, it's not impossible for me but it's certainly not easy. There are so many things I want to be able to do that I can't seem to get a jump start on for one reason or another. Maybe it's because there's no real way to make money from it (Damn you Capitalism! Look what you reduced me to!) or maybe I'm a perfectionist who wants everything to look as good as possible. Perhaps I think the words that come out of my mouth (or in this case the keyboard) are going to be stupid? I feel like I'm alone in this but I have to keep reminding myself that I couldn't possibly be the only one with these dilemmas. After all, it is quite logical that you dear reader might find these words resonating with you somehow.

The thing is, we as humans all have the need and desire to create and not just consume as the rich perverts would have you believe. It's perfectly fine to want to start a project and make something cool. Is it going to be cool to everyone? No. Is it going to make money? Probably not. Is it going change the world? Hell no. But will it be fulfilling? I would guess that if it involves something you're passionate about, it most likely will. We all need hobbies, something to make that gives value to someone else or maybe just you. In this day and age we have too many thoughts in our heads and we just have to let them out into the void. Maybe someone will listen or maybe not. But the important thing is that you are doing what humans do best. Share. Create. Express yourself. This is why I am making this personal blog. And even though it took me several months to finally getting around to writing a new post on it, at least I took a step in expressing myself for once. I keep a lot of things bottled up inside and that can create pressure which can lead to pain. The pain leads to sadness, anger, and resentment. It's not pretty. It doesn't have to be useful to everyone, it just needs to be you and it will resonate with someone.

So long story short, just start. Whether it's writing a blog like this one, starting a podcast, creating a video or a new business venture, the first step is usually the most powerful step you can make. I don't think I'd be where I am today if it wasn't for me at least taking one step forward. Once to you take that step, take another one after that. And keep taking steps. Eventually, you'll find that the journey is more interesting than your apparent destination.

#personal #rant #creativity #humans #social