Trying a new Medium

Ah here we are once again, true to form, a new post several years after my last. My poor, neglected blog.

Google’s recent actions have set cyberseraphic.com off on a kind of existential crisis. With no more access to free custom-domain emails, and a blog that serves little more than a testament to my vanity in believing my writings worthy of being preserved and kept available forever-more online, I’m considering whether to simply cast this off into the Great Beyond of the Wayback Machine.

But I still enjoy writing.

Most of my stuff used to be driven by sadness or anger. I haven’t done very much of it since we had Elan because he happily occupies as much of the available time as I might have, leaving me so buggered that when he’s away or asleep I use what little energy I have left to compose myself. This consists of mostly of passive input (watching things, reading things) rather than creative output, because that requires more time and energy than I possess. I’m sure other parents can relate (at least I hope so, and I’m not just a shitty human being).

Maybe because he’s more grown up and independent now (he’s discovered videogames, hooray!), or maybe because I have an itch that demands to be scratched, but I want to write again. It was also partly because I got cancer.

It’s fine. I’m fine. I was just being provocative. It’s true though – I did have cancer towards the end of 2021 – a Squamous Cell Carcinoma to be precise, caused by a flippant attitude towards sun exposure and a reluctance to apply sunscreen. That is, I developed a tumour on my face, which had to be removed and biopsied. Typically, SCCs are benign but there was a non-zero chance that it could’ve spread.

Anyhow, cancer is such a loaded word, and upon receiving such a diagnosis, one’s mind – predisposed to doom and gloom as mine is – begins to wander to some dark, dank places. My thoughts turned to my role as a father and what legacy would I be leaving behind for my son? What advice would I want to give him? What values would I want to impress upon him?

And therefore I’ve found a reason to write again.

Given the aforementioned possibility that my domain may one day come to an end, and because there’s no longer much point to me writing in my own little echo chamber in the age of social media, I’ve decided to put some of my proverbial apples into a different basket: Medium. Plus there’s always the chance, however remote, that one day people might actually pay to read what I write.

So I invite you to follow me (ha ha), on my next adventure. See you on the other side!