Basically the burn blog is just another personal blog drowning in the depth of the Google / Bing sea (from a SEO perspective) and in the world wide web (WWW – how strange this word feels by now). I had my own personal website in 1994, back then when Netscape was just emerging, Geocities was your hoster of choice for a personal website and Yahoo still existed and had categories for the different websites. Back then, I felt like a pioneer and I probably was. It was the time when you surfed the web and it still had boundaries.
Very, very much has changed since those days. I lost sight of my Geocities website (although I would love to have it back these days to see what I have made with my first self-taught HTML). The web evolved and today is without boundaries. When people stumbled upon my Geocities site back then and left a kind comment, this was natural as you surfed through the web as you would walk through a really big house, maybe a small neighbourhood. Today the web is an endless country with uncountable inhabitants. And as much as I love the web, sometimes I think back of those old times.
After my very first personal website on Geocities I didn’t have a personal website for about 30 years. I have built a huge number of successful websites (including my own businesses) based on that very first HTML syntaxes I taught myself sitting in the Marquette University lab back then. I have learned a lot, I have earned a lot but the web became more of a business playfield than my own.
I have been journaling and photographing for a large part of my life. But also that stopped, interestingly about the same time when I started building professional websites. As the web grew and flooded my little Geocities page, I flooded my life with business and the personal aspect of the web and also of me somewhat drowned in that flood.
I follow many personal blogs of (at least) my icons and I always thought of creating my own. But I didn’t. The logic part of it is all the privacy stuff you have to include, when you “publish” your content and viewpoint on the web. It used to be “free speech”. Now it is who (please name, address and phone number) said what? The emotional part of it is that the web has grown. Back then in my Geocities days I met so many nice people, who were like me – surfing the web, challenging the boundaries, experimenting. Today the web is more like the darkroom where you can do what you want, express your deepest thoughts (often negatively) and act like you never would in public, let alone with friends.
I still believe in the (original) power of the web, especially for common individuals like me. And maybe today I more believe in the power of me. I am not afraid that my employer might see what I am posting (as I am a successful entrepreneur), I am not afraid of what others might think of me, as probably their comment to my own posts is much better then the reaction to any alleged things I have done, said or might have said and done.
If any content of this site makes someone happy, makes him / her think, act, change or simply smile, I will be forever grateful.
If you don’t like any or some content of this site, please surf on.