One Of These Again

On some iteration of jjewell.com, there is a post where I explain why I was going to stop doing… what I am about to do. It’s a process.

That thing is writing about what I want to do next. All those posts ago, I had gotten disgusted with my own progress… and increasingly embarrassed about the public signposts drawing attention to that lack of progress. I decided that limiting myself to writing about done things, achieved accomplishments, shipping products… would entice me to do, achieve, and ship, so I could get back to writing.

That… has not worked out that way. And everything has stagnated.

While writing is something I am currently considering as a possible vocation, it’s also something that I use to get thoughts into the real world. The system I am building is designed to encourage considered change and intended progression, and I am discovering I require an additional step between the rote tasks of capturing ideas and creating plans, and the taking of the physical action. The talking or writing about it could be that step that I seem to be missing (a step I was consciously, and I thought reasonably, avoiding in the first place. Learning, I guess).

With a lot of things on the verge of change in my life, I’m overstocked with ideas and plans, yet the actions aren’t following along as I’d expected. I’m particularly distressed with the state of my website, which is supposed to be helping me progress on several different long-term goals.

I need a new homepage. Although I’ve always preferred simpler, text-based websites, that’s both not the way the internet is blowing, and I’m realizing it’s simply not helping me utilize the site the ways I’ve intended. I still want to feature some of my writing weblog-style, but that weblog isn’t really the center of the universe I want to present as jjewell.com… but right now, that’s the greeting.

I need to reorganize my content. One of the primary purposes of the website is to act as my archive of knowledge on things I deem important, for my own use and for the use of others. Mentioning “others” requires mentioning a related purpose, to act as a portal to connect my work and ideas with the work and ideas of others “out there.” The content I am most interested in right now includes music, Atari computers, Minecraft… and a new religion and a new political party to replace the broken institutions we patch and curse. And the system I’ve been using to determine and develop that religion and political party. I also want to establish a different way of doing business, but just say “I wanna start a new business” doesn’t capture the scope of what I’m talking about, and “I wanna start a new capitalism” doesn’t really convey much meaning. We’ll see how that develops.

Talking about “developing,” I need to figure out how to fight through the block I’ve been experiencing, and get more content going. Taken in the order I mentioned interests above, when it comes to music, I’ve been working on my current setlist, and I’m looking at the equipment I need to record and stream performances. With the Ataris, I have a reasonably formidable collection dating back to the Sunnyvale Atari VCS we got for Christmas in 1977; I want to clean, repair, and restore those items… and use them to whatever extent possible today. I’m currently working on two Minecraft worlds, a 1.16.5 remote server and weekly-snapshot local installation. In addition to personal in-game goals in both those worlds, I’d really like to get other people involved. Perhaps most importantly, if I’m to make any real headway in the time I’ve got, I need to get more down concerning my ideas on how to remake religion, politics, business, and personal accountability. I need to formalize the foundations, receive feedback and expand on these ideas… but you can’t edit a blank page.

And pages aren’t going to get it done by themselves, these days. The things I want to work with require pictures, videos, music… I have been late to streaming and the more visual and interactive aspects the internet offers.

This post has been brewing over several days, and I’m happy with the way it’s going, already. I have identified and ordered a few music interface tools that will allow me to use this nifty new computer as a music tool (the post has now been brewing so long, the first of these items has arrived and is in place). The new homepage is up and running, and although I still hate it aesthetically, it is a lot more representative of what I want… to represent, I guess.

In every product cycle, there must be a decision to ship, and imma bouta slam that publish button on this one.