Blogs serve many a function.
No different to the waffle and tripe most people post to Facebook, a personal blog usually describes the achievements in a person’s life — those little victories and strokes of luck we need to brag about.
There has been a range of studies about a certain “Facebook depression” some people can sink into when all they read about are their so-called friends’ achievements — the ones who are permanently happy and always smiling. Everything seems to work out right for them, always on holiday at some exotic and photogenic location, everyone’s carefree and successful, and everyone has stacks of beautiful, cool friends. Everyone does it.
When Earth is destroyed and the Facebook servers are discovered as space flotsam by an alien race, their anthropologists will conclude that the inhabitants of this planet lived a truly joyous and leisurely existence. Recovered evidence will lead them to believe that members of the human race were vain narcissists with few worries; they enjoyed sharing pictures of their meals, and they worshipped cats. Earth must’ve been a paradise.
Only in the fewest of cases do people keep a blog as an outlet for their frustration, or as the means to cope with grief over the loss of a loved one. Purposes are plentiful.
In this case, it’s a personal journal of theories, ideas, fun, feelings, news, satire, personal progress — and old stuff. It’s interesting to read something you wrote on Monday about the task you planned to do on Tuesday — and now it’s Wednesday and it still ain’t done!
Even painful memories are worth noting down. Here be failures, too.
This blog, “Basement Archaeology“, at its current location, was started in late 2010. It took over from its predecessor hosted at blogger.com whose content has since been imported here. It has also come to include retroactive content from other, non-blog date-stamped “journals” and commentaries — such as the BBS news bulletins and my old joke site, going back as far as 1995.
As of today, this blog will also include retroactive content from my very first proper blog. Also hosted at blogger.com, it was titled “Bora Driver’s Log”.
While my driving adventures aren’t nearly as cool as this guy’s, that blog was started in June 2006 as a personal journal to test the blogging waters as well as to streamline my ideas and experiences detailing the installation of a sound system in my then-new car because, well… because “new car, dammit! NEW CAR!”
Yes, sometimes I also like to brag.
…this being a haphazard collection of irregular postings and chronological mumblings about indecisive ideas, thoughts and experiences concerning my primary means of transportation.
To summarise: this is my first blog, and it’s about my cars.
I liked that car. The sound system installation was a disastrous failure, though.
The old blog had been neglected since early 2009. Its content has now been absorbed here; the disappointment has been documented, the failure noted, the experience learnt from.
The VW Bora was sold last Saturday. It had over 288,000 km on the clock.
It was a good ride. But without thumping bass to rattle the number plates.
“It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.”
Photo credits: go.funpic.hu and hmvh.net