JOURNAL

UNSUB, UNDO, CLEAN UP, AND WHY

Do you know that this entire website is written in plain HTML and CSS code? Of course you don't and neither should you care. Who does that any more? I feel like one of those ham radio operators who loves Morse code because it's the purest form of communication.

Anyhoo, that's beside the point. The point is: I am going back. Back to the days when the internet was fun. The days when my poor husband would wake in the middle of the night alone. And when he came to find me, I was plugged into the matrix, creating Java applet worlds and mouse trails.

It really was magic, and to a creative introvert, it was the way into Narnia.

For twenty-five years, I ran a small online business. It supported my art: supplies, trips, trade shows, exhibitions, etc. As the internet became enshittified (not my word, it's attributable to Cory Doctorow who wrote the book on the subject - Enshittification), my enjoyment lessened. Lessened so much that I hated being on the web.

I removed myself. I no longer have a mass of newsletter subscriptions from the latest platform to spew out the newest Authentic Idiocy (we'll use the acronym AI to keep the bandwidth down). Nobody sends me information on the most-up-to-date garbage disposals (you can buy them in 14 different colours - WHY?). Or, tease me with a deadline – only 10 minutes and this offer will die on the vine. Give me your money, email, address, credit card number, your wife.

NO MORE. And I don't go to the Zoom meetings that I once did.

What it all boils down to is, it’s my time. And I want to use it.

So, back to the beginning. A human wrote this website. You can peer behind the screen and look at the code. If you are on your desktop, just right click anywhere on the website and choose View Page Source. (My apologies to those of you who use Apple products, I have no idea how that works.) See, it's real. And you can bet your bottom dollar that it's had ants all over it.

Nice to return to my roots. And no pressure. I can write in this journal, as and when I please, thank you. Because no host is going to go splat and take my site along with it (as experienced once upon a time, with a WordPress mishap, and all I got from customer service was, "oh well, you can always try the Wayback Machine" - helpful, not).

RCR 03/01/26