Welcome to VHS Overdrive

Here you'll find assorted writings about things I'm passionate about. I'm not on any kind of deadline, and I'm not setting myself any kind of schedule, but I do hope to regularly update things around here and help provoke some thoughts. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope you'll find something here that you enjoy as much as I do.

I picked the name VHS Overdrive because it reminds me of the 80s and 90s, which is a part of my life that I'm often nostalgic for. It was a simpler time, and this is my way of trying to capture a little of that magic again. The color scheme was inspired by the old P3 phosphor monochrome displays that I did a lot of my coding on in college. They were old systems even by the time I started working with them, but again I have fond memories of that time.

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So, here it is. My little homestead on the web. It’s been a long time since I’ve published a site, but I’ve got a lot of experience doing it - mostly because I’m just old. In any case, I figured that before we really dive into things, I might want to take a minute to detail just exactly why I’m going to this much effort. I’m not making any money at it, and I honestly don’t think very many people will read anything I put here. So what’s the point?

• It makes me happy, and I think that’s probably the most important reason for doing anything. Life is too short; find something that makes you happy, and go do it.
• I like writing, and this gives me a place to self-publish without any expectations. Like I said before, I don’t think very many people will even see this site. I also don’t have any commenting installed on this site, and that’s intentional. I really don’t care about likes or upvotes or whatever internet points people use to validate their thoughts these days. I don’t have anything to prove anymore.
• It’s my little homestead on the web. Here, I’m the master of my tiny little fiefdom. In a world where people don’t always have a lot of control over their own lives, it’s nice to have a place where you’re totally in control.
• I don’t have to worry about capricious moderators. It seems like everyone gets offended so easily these days, and I don’t like the idea of taking the time to come up with a well reasoned and written argument for or against something, only to have some moderator I’ve never met come in behind me and delete my work because somebody got offended.
• The tradition of crafting amateur web pages should be kept alive. These days, people consume far more content than they create, and that’s a shame. It’s not what the web was created for. Pithy one-liners and snarky comments on a strangers Facebook feed aren’t real content - anybody can do that. I want more out of the web at large, so I’m going to be the change I want to see.

So there you have it. My justification for building this thing. It's probably delusional ego stroking, but I don't care. It's important to me to get some of this stuff out there, and If anybody else finds it interesting or useful then that's good enough. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your time here. Come back every now and then; I might have something new for you.