Is this thing on

First of a new way to spread the inner workings of my broken brain

I am beginning this email newsletter journey with the sincere hope that it becomes a new creative outlet for me. I am a long time blogger (holy hell I hate that term) but feel like most people are over checking in on various writers on a regular schedule. So recently I was thinking about changing my delivery system. I read a lot of email newsletters and that seemed like a natural fit for me except the process was a little intimidating. How do I send them out? I know enough about the internets that I can’t just start sending the 30 odd people who read the old weblog (that is no better than blog but I thought I’d give it a try just the same…) without ending up on some national registry of spammers thus rendering all future emails ineffective. Okay, that was a little dramatic but you get my drift.

Plus, my personal gmail attached to a group email seems wrong on a lot of levels as well. Those were the thoughts holding me back until I watched a video from a content creator I admire and follow, Ali Abdaal, talking about just this sort of publication. So I decided to take his advice and take the plunge. Plunge might be the wrong word as I find myself sketching this out a full week before I go to “press” but you get the idea. I thought the whole setup would take a lot longer and I gave myself an hour deadline thinking that might be aggressive. Here I sit six minutes later and most of that time was spent coming up with my stupid site name.

The other reason I’m making this move is my WordPress bill comes at the end of the month. It’s not a bank breaker and I do love writing but the asspain of maintaining a site that three dozen people check sporadically doesn’t seem worth it. I’m not sure if this email thing will be any better but right now it seems like a lot less hassle. Plus, this feels like a more productive platform. I can’t fully explain that thought probably because its feelings based. duh.

Some other quick thoughts. I will be starting with a goal of Sunday publication. No matter what Sunday is my day and writing is one of the things I love doing so that’s the first thing. Next is the fact that I don’t really know what this might turn into. Right now I have more ideas than anything else. I know I will write the top of my head stuff but this also gives me a space to share some things that I love. I also walk around a lot and have a knack for spotting interesting (to me) things. Those pictures will most likely end up here.

I have no idea what ritual I stumbled upon but I took this picture and scampered on down the path being very careful not to disturb a single thing.