I have neglected my blogging duties for too long! The end of the academic year has bought up a lot of my time, but that overload has since subsided. It’s good to be back in the blogging mood and have the time for it once more.

In between preparing for four AP tests and wrangling with the post-high school road lying ahead, I’ve been tending to my personal webpage. I’d gotten very invested in it the past few weeks, learning a few new coding tricks along the way, and I’m very pleased with how it has come out. It just happens to be cropped to hell on my phone and probably yours, too. (I’ll fix that later.) It feels nice to have a little site devoted around myself, just as it feels nice to blog. I really enjoy the idea of a personal page, one’s own little corner of the internet, and I’d recommend making one to anyone, though I know that today’s oversaturated world often leaves little time for deep investment into how HTML works and the like. On the free, DIY hosting site I use, Neocities, I often see sites where the webmaster—often a teenager—openly expresses dissatisfaction with social media, with some even rejecting social media altogether. Anti-NFT and anti-“Web3.0” blinkies abound. But not everyone has the time to labor over CSS table styling, and having some form of social media is pretty much required for getting any sort of attention in this modern world unless you’re lucky. From uniting kindred spirits from across physical barriers to sending vulnerable individuals into impenetrable bubbles of harmful rhetoric, the internet has proven itself to be a double-edged sword. Neither social media feeds nor standalone sites and their sitemasters’ odd digital traditionalism are immune to that dichotomy. (And I say this as someone who absolutely despises social media.) I stand with one foot in a tradition of days gone by and another in the wild, wild west of our current, ever evolving landscape, waiting to see what happens.

I’m not the only one feeling that way lately. I know that the 2000s have been coming back in a big way, even as Apple announces the discontinuation of the iPod. (I’lll still be using mine.) Yesterday happened to be my school’s prom, which I attended, and I was very amused when the DJ loaded up “Apple Bottom Jeans” back to back with the all-time classic, “Hot In Herre.” It was truly a delight to witness. “Yeah!” and “Get Low” appeared earlier and later in the playlist respectively, rounding out a fearful foursome of bafflingly immortal 2000s partay songs. That’s “partay,” not “party.” (A trap cover of the Macarena also made an appearance early on, but that’s a whole other can of worms.) I find it interesting that, apparently, my age group as a whole, not just some niche subsection, is looking back at a previous generation’s teen hood and trying to recapture it. I would argue against the inclusion of Nelly and friends but it is all just so hilarious to me that I can’t say no. It is better for mankind to have the sense of humor to bask in the glory of the bootylicious anthems of yesteryear and beyond.

I was less interested in joining everyone else out on that dance floor, though. I’ve got a DEVO concert in four days; I need to save up the energy.