Hello, it's me! - ❤︎ ∙ Greetings and Introductions

Hi there all you awesome people at the forefront of the web revival movement.

Firstly, let me say thanks to whoever approved my application to join. Much obliged.

Secondly, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Lars-Christian (that's my real given name, but if you find that boring I was always AnakiN- (styling and hyphen is important here to distinguish me from all the other Anakins on EFnet) back in the good old days. Feel free to use that if it's more to your liking.

I grew up on IRC and the web, was thrilled about the endless possibilities it afforded, and grew jaded after spending too much time inside the walled gardens of the so called "social" networks. A few years back I cut all social media. It's been great, but something's been missing. It's been missing for a long time, but with no "place" online it became even more apparent.

For many years I've dedicated myself to running (as a hobby jogger!) and made a website to share what I learned along the way, and hopefully motivate someone else to get into and stay into running as well. This fall, I stopped taking running seriously. And after pondering what I'm going to do with all that extra time and energy, I decided to pursue my long-standing dream of becoming a writer.

Not exactly sure what I need to do to fit that description, I'm thought well I need a place to publish what I write, so I decided to revive my old blog. It's not much yet, but I'm a couple of weeks into establishing daily writing habit, and I think there's much more on the way.

All of that's really a long winded way to say that, as I was setting up my blog and exploring some alternative "social" options, ActivityPub/Mastodon first and foremost, I stumbled across the whole web revival movement. I instantly knew I'd found my new online home.

I wrote in my application to join the Melonland forums that I set up my first bulletin board in circa 2001, and it ran on YaBB. In my opinion, that's still the coolest software name I've ever come across. Because it's a stylish abbreviation, but also descriptive and to the point. Because it was, indeed, Yet another Bulletin Board. The forum I started back then grew tremendously the next couple of years, and — will you believe it — still exists. No thanks to me though, because I actually sold the website and community back in 2005 as I was going to uni. (Yes, I know, I'm a sellout. Sorry, we all make mistakes!)

Anyways, I've frequented forums on and off since. But none as topically relevant to my interests as this one. I'm excited to glean inspiration for making my own blog more interesting from all of yous. Both in terms of writing, but not least from a visual and technical point of view.

(PS do we still use SHTML to include headers, footers and menus when we code our sites by hand or?? I've got some catching up to do...)

Outside of the internet stuffs, I'm dad to a couple of rascals aged five and two, and I like to read fantasy books. I also still run a fair bit, and now am also trying to stop the inevitable bodily decay by throwing some weights around on the regular. Healthy body, healthy mind and all that.

Anyways, sorry for the rant. I'm glad to be here, and looking forward to get to know you. Gotta go, though, because it's bedtime and I need to stick to that if I'm going to get in an hour of writing in the morning before the little ones wake up and the show is on once more.