- Thoughts -

12-21-2024

Hi, I’m new here.

Or, I guess I have been here before. I feel like I’ve been stuck in the gift shop and I finally made it back outside. I’d forgotten what the open air Internet feels like.

Thinking back on my online existence, how did I even get here? When did things get like they are now?

I was born into Web 1.0 and we grew up together. As the Internet became more interactive, so did my capacities for more conscious interaction. The boundary seemed to be the edge of the universe and I was chasing it. I remember hitting StumbleUpon and being taken to any possible corner of the World Wide Web as I felt unstoppable in my pursuit of curiosity.

Alongside the StumbleUpon era was Facebook. We already had user-generated content like blogs, Myspace, etc. but there was something about Facebook that seems different in my memory.

With Myspace, you could customize your page to be like your own personal website. Html was available for editing, and you could make it your own. With Facebook, now everybody’s profile had the same exact format, same font, color scheme– the only thing that was different was the “content.”

We hear that word so much now. It’s all about content. The medium is the box, the content is the goods.

Here, on my personal site, there is no distinction between the medium and the content. The box is the goods, the packaging is part of the presentation.

I’m not going to dwell on what’s wrong with social media today. We’re here now. What I want to do is think about what’s next.

That’s why I say I’m new here. I know that in a way we’re back to where we’ve been before. Early Internet literature feels more relevant than ever. I have so much to learn, but I’m committed to helping make the Internet a tool for the people. Not advertisers, the government, big businesses, but the lowercase p people.

Thanks for being here, I’m honored to be your Internet neighbor. Looking forward to building and investing into this community with compassion, curiosity, equity, and creativity. It’s up to us to envision and create the world we want to live in, online and offline. To love & beyond!

02-22-2025

Some music I can listen to a thousand times and it will never get old. Other music I listen to once and absolutely love it, but have no need to listen to it again. This has less to do with value than it does function.

I’m not going to get into the purpose of music here, but I’ll mention a few ways it fits functionally into my life.

One purpose is decoration. For the same reason I have art on the walls, or a rug and floor lamps, I use music to tailor the environment to feel more enjoyable, aesthetically pleasing, comfortable. In many human-made spaces “silence” is sterile and uncomfortable, since we’re separated from nature’s sounds and not given much in return.

Sometimes I use music for maintaining sanity. When I feel myself slipping away, I know I can lean on certain music to bring me back and through to myself. Artists who channel spirit and love into their music help carry the word of God right to peoples’ ears. It has saved me time and time again.

Then sometimes I use music to separate from worldly worries and just move my body. Stretch and move in ways that feel good and freeing. It’s a privilege that I get to move, and one I know I won’t always enjoy, at least like I do now. By dancing with gratitude, I’m engaging in prayer, meditation, body-mindfulness. I’m getting out of my comfort zone (which in the long-run ends up being the discomfort zone). Dancing is playing music with the body and I love it so much.

Some music unlocks new parts of myself— I witness new possibilities for being and expressing, doors unlock & open, my cells get rearranged over the course of minutes & seconds. After that, I feel no need to revisit., not out of indifference or distaste, but because that’s not how I use that piece of art. It still exists in my being, I take it with me, but I don’t need to consume it again, at least any time soon. Some vaccines you take yearly, some every seven years, and some are one and done.

This is all because I was unpacking how I was feeling after listening to somebody’s new song. I really enjoyed it and it inspired me in many ways, but I had the sense I probably wouldn’t return to it any time soon, or maybe ever again. And that’s okay! What’s important is that, if we like something, we support those that made it.

Love.

-J

02-12-2025

My classes in school would sometimes feel like they were syncing up even though they weren’t intended that way.

Everything is connected so it makes sense for things to feel tied together, but there comes a threshold of relevance where we start to speak of “synchronicity”. We start noticing patterns and becoming interested, paying attention.

Some say it’s God speaking to us. Our inner psyche. Maybe a roll of the dice, pure chance and coincidence. I don’t care what you call it, I’m just grateful for it. I’ve grown into the person I am by following curiosity & coincidences.

The word that keeps coming up this month has been “tolerance.” In various media and conversations I’ve heard the word pop up and it stops me each time.

tol·er·ance - /ˈtäl(ə)rəns/ “the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.”

It’s a tricky line, I know. We will not tolerate certain actions and will hold people accountable for harm. The deal is that to hold people accountable, we need to treat them as people. We need to understand that though we may find certain behaviors and beliefs contemptable, we don’t know what we would have done had we been dealt those cards, whichever game we’re talking about. People deserve respect because they exist and nobody is irredeemable.

To tolerate is not to condone or support, it’s merely to accept existence. Of course we can and must be furious, but fire can burn a million different ways. It can scorch the Earth or it can run a steam engine. We’re going to need a future for everybody, otherwise the cycle continues until we only exist in dolphin and octopus dreams.

The surest way towards practicing tolerance that I’ve found is by seeking sturdiness in education. Ignorance is useful because it allows people to be swayed into absolutes. How convenient, we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys! By educating ourselves about as many realities as possible, we learn that there are people everywhere. Even within the most cruel, repressive societies, from the bottom to the top, are people. Only by learning about people (each other) will we have any chance towards “peace”.

Until then, we’re just shouting from afar and throwing bombs. How uncreative. We could be learning each others’ languages, healing, imagining futures for all. I’m embarrassed for our species at how we’ve squandered this gift. I have not and cannot give into despair.

I have more to say, but it’ll be said in time. Love to all.

02-03-2025

Words are wonderful, but they might be our downfall. We’re speaking to each other and using the same sounds as if we understand, but we’re really having different conversations at the same time.

When I say baseball, you’re thinking of whatever images & emotions you have associated with the sport or the object. We may have never been at the same game, but we assume we know what each other is talking about.

Let’s take school. What school means & represents to people is so much more vast than we often recognize. Is can be a place of learning, safety, danger, friends, support, abuse.. these all affect how we view & talk about these big concepts like “education.”

When we use words to represent big ideas, we inevitably miscommunicate. It’s conveinent to categorize, but if we never dig into the subcategories & nuance, we’ll be stuck bumping into each other.

God is maybe the most classically miscommunicated concept. Love, of course. Depression. Fear. We tie these words to our experiences, but we can only talk about them with others by analogy. We can get more and more specific with our imagery, but it’s still just representation.

That’s why music is so useful. It isn’t a representation, it’s a direct expression. You’re not saying, “I feel my version of what you think of as love,” you’re saying “this is how it feels to love!”

Anyway, I think it’s useful to recognize that we really don’t know what each other is talking about. Then to move forward in spite of that fact, dig into the nuance and try our best to see what the other sees. It’s impossible to do, but not impossible to try.