The blog that shouldn't be
Like Twitter, but make it personal.

A blog? No. As a former journalist, I know what this entails: Publish regularly, build an audience, say something meaningful. There are way too many blogs that fail on any of these points. More gifs than text. Copy-pasted tutorials to mostly imply “hey, see this technical knowledge I have!”. WordPress security issues galore.

So a personal blog appeared too much hassle, too much commitment. Twitter’s format speaks to me, its forced brevity would make Hemingway proud, tweets are easily sent, engagement is quick (and sometimes unhealthy).

But then.

There’s this little voice saying “As all other services before, Twitter’s sun will set, your content gone”. A friend suggested writing blog posts, then tweeting about it. And my writing urge got annoying, especially when my head decided to write imaginary blog posts right before sleep. The idea grew and transformed into what you’re reading now. Including some parts that have been written in my head right before falling sleep.

This blog came into existence because of two other blogs I greatly admire:

  • Barbara Emodi. Besides her excellent sewing advice, her poetic Flypaper Thoughts (example: the persistence of Christmas edition) or her short notes on daily life (example: “Another Covid moment”) made a deep impression. Sadly, she stopped blogging, but transformed her Flypaper Thoughts into something bigger.
  • Lucy Bellwood. Her art and comics had me subscribe to her blog where I love reading her mental notes, reflections, cartoons.

Both blogs struck me because they did not necessarily adhere to what I thought a blog to be. They are mental notes, tutorials, ideas, snippets of text, short reflections on life. Anything. I could do that too. Tweeting, but as a blog.

So this is what this “blog” should be:

  • Write whatever bugs my mind. Short form, long form, an URL, no restrictions.
  • No schedule, but RSS (If you don’t know what RSS is, I urge you to use it)
  • “Twitter, but make it personal”.
  • cybersim is a concatenation of the English pronunciation of my last name “Sieber” (cyber) and a portmanteau word of my first and last name (sim).

Photo courtesy of Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.


Last modified on 2022-03-28

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