Time for another annual product review! The thing that I do so infrequently that my last one was at v31.0 in January 2019. This time I’m not writing it as a series of release notes. Gotta shake it up! And my thoughts just aren’t flowing like that right now.

Obviously a lot has happened in the past three years, not just to me but to the world. I have been in a very privileged position to mitigate a lot of the issues that have cropped up. My family is general healthy, still employed, and in a safe position.

Writing and Coding

I haven’t written in this blog in almost two years, and I keep telling myself that will change. I don’t want to be the kind of blogger who only updates to say, “long time no see!”, or, “more incoming”. But alas, here we are.

At the very least, I have been keeping my newsletter going on an almost weekly basis, so it’s not like I’ve been doing nothing! I’ve just been doing it in a different form wiht a different type of feedback. I’m quite liking that return to newslettering, and I have plans for a second one that I want to try to form an actual community around this year. You should subscribe and see what interesting things I’m finding online.

I’ve started a new coding project for the year, which is both exciting and daunting. My intent is to code up as much as I can on some artistic project each month, with a new project to start out each month. Whatever I have I will share publicly by the end of the month and hopefully blog about. I’m really pumped on the idea, but I’ve already stalled out on month one a bit!

I’m working on the blog post to hopefully put up tomorrow, but January’s goal is to create a basic Full Site Editing theme to start using on my personal site and get a feel for how themes would be developed for clients and for public release. I’m fairly excited, but also intimidated by the concept. Still, I want to see improvement in the space, and I want to work on my very lackluster design abilities. Maybe that’ll be a future project…

Personal Stuff

This has been one of the biggest areas of growth in the past few years for me. Like a lot of folks, I’ve used the separation from constant events and being in public around ohters granted by the pandemic to do a bit of introspection. A topic that’s fascinated me for years has been identity. Both in how we form and shape it for ourselves, and how we reflect that back onto others. I think that internet technology has done a lot to morph self conception, and it is truly something worth studying more in depth. Something that I personally want to study more in depth.

For those who can take a cursory glance at me, I am in fact gay (surprise!). For those who know me a bit better, you may know that’s overly simplistic, as I’ve complicated myself enough that I don’t really know where I’m at. Here’s a list of things that I’ve been thinking about my gender and sexuality over the past few years: gay, agender, pansexual, non-binary, polyromantic, transgender, polyamorous. I don’t think that all of these fit me, and certainly not all of the time, but it’s a start. I have pretty consistently stuck with the label queer, as it’s one that I’m ok with simplifying something complex and amorphous and not really necessary to label.

“Not queer like gay. Queer like, escaping definition. Queer like some sort of fluidity and limitlessness at once. Queer like a freedom too strange to be conquered. Queer like the fearlessness to imagine what love can look like…and pursue it.”

—Brandon Wint

For what it’s worth, many people are going to see me for the first time in years having moved from using he/him pronouns and being married to a man. Still that, but also preferring they/them pronouns, more outwardly presenting myself as queer, and in a loving relationship with that same man, as well as transgender and non-binary partners who make me just as happy in different ways, having taught me new ways to love and be loved. I’m excited to meet you all over again!

I can’t tell how many folks think that I just got lazy with my own name, but I have in fact stopped capitalizing it last year. I’ve got a bunch of reasons for that, but I admit that I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from two writers who I have great respect for, danah boyd and the unfortunately passed bell hooks. There’s a lot that I could give about why I made this decision, but suffice to say it’s complicated in the same way that any part of being human is.

Moving into another year

I’m rambling a lot but I wanted my birthday post to let out a bit of this stuff in a place other than my newsletter or in private chats with friends. I promise that there is more to come but for now I am going to celebrate my birthday with some loved ones today who go out of their way to make me feel good.

If we’re meeting again after a while or for the first time: hello, my name is david. I’m queer, I’m tremendously thankful for everything in my life, I’m working on getting a little better every day, and I love you 💝