In this episode

Are you a free spirit, tech rebel, or modern-day savage who refuses to fit the mould? I’m leading a guerrilla movement to bring back the rawness of early blogging, before the algorithms and ad deals took over—when the web was wild, free, and fuelled by self-expression. This is where we unplug from the Matrix and reconnect with what really matters: our inner worlds, genuine connections, and the thrill of being alive. 

Join me, a recovering punk blogger, as I explore the intersections of personal journaling, travel writing, philosophy, and digital rebellion. It’s all about chasing adventure, history, and culture, while finding freedom in a world obsessed with conformity. Whether you’re a Tao-loving hippie, a free-thinking nomad, or just someone tired of being a commodity for corporate algorithms, you’re home. So grab your journal, a cup of herbal tea, and tune in. Let’s bring the blogroll back—one unplugged conversation at a time.

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from my original stream of consciousness journal entry

This is coming at you raw, so if you’re a grammar Nazi, look away now; don’t say you haven’t been warned!

there’s a certain rawness that used to be a part of the blogging game…they were more personal more alive with what the blogger was up to…they really were like live journals where you wrote about your personal life, your personal feelings, you shared your inner and outer world with people and I’m thinking I need or rather want to bring that quality back to my weblog…and in fact I think how I have it structured now, a hybrid where i can do the short form thing with my notes, the personal thing with my journals, and the long form thing with my posts…the only thing I haven’t added yet is my photoblog…I was thinking back to the days when I wanted to be a travel writer and why…there was something about literary travel writing that appealed to me and that was the idea of being able to have adventures and write about that them and sell the writing…I image having all of my worlds together…my love for travel and adventure, my love for history and culture, my love for writing and self-expression, I imagine travel writing would allow me to do what I loved and love what I did and therefore never “work” another day in your life because my work and play would be one and the same…I also thought that about books…that I could write books for money and therefore make a living doing what I loved which was reading…I thought if I could write professionally it would give me license to read all day because then I could say that reading was my work. I don’t think writing was ever really the thing in and of itself even do I used to say all of the time that I wanted to be a writer…looking back I’m not so sure that was true…I always saw writing as a means to an end not the end itself…I’ve never been able to reconcile that until now…

you know what messed blogging up? it’s when some marketer had a the bright idea that you could make money from blogging…they sold the dream that you could make money and obtain your freedom while blogging in your underwear…and a few people did…and then the “mommy” bloggers hit the scene and took blogging to whole new direction blogging about parenting and their kids…sharing recipes and tips on parenting…and they made a healthy living through sponsorship and brand deals, and affiliate marketing…and for those who didn’t have kids, lifestyle blogging became a thing and that ranged from fashion to travel and things which would attract companies with products to sell to the demographics these bloggers were reaching…and with the big dollars bloggers turned corporate and became “professional” blogger…and that was the beginning of the end for the indie “punk” blogger sitting at home in their underwear and using their blogs for pure self-expression…bloggers sold out to the man.

and me, i was one of those “punk” bloggers thumbing his nose at mainstream media and all the corporate gatekeepers who held to keys to getting published and being able to share our writing with the world. i tried to resist, but in the end I gave into the old adage, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I cleaned up my blogging act, tried to find a “niche” and market to that “niche.” but i that kind of blogging soulless and boring and limiting…and then social networks hit and people abandoned their blogs for the freedom and promise of social media…you no longer had to “worry” about maintaining the technical side of blogging or the design or any of that “boring” stuff you could just share your thoughts, and pictures, and eventually videos with the “world.” and it was cool for a wile, until these founders of social network lured everybody in and then figured out how to monetise their users and our data became the commodity…we became the commodity…free came with a price…us…and they designed the networks to be like crack and got the world hooked on crack and made us slaves to the algorithms…and if you remember the scene from the matrix where they show the human farms…humans being farmed to power the machines…that’s us now.

a few of us have “unplugged” and now move around in the matrix searching for others like us, who long for the freedom of the original web, who value self-expression, who hate conformity, and who hate being a part of the herd…if that’s you, let’s bring back the blogroll and make our own network inside the network…send me a link to your blog…

add a picture of the human farms and add the video clip of Neo at the end of the matrix…

and you know what my niche is…it’s free thinking…free spirited…Tao loving hippies…neo-hippies or techno hippies, although I think techno music has techno hippie and techno shamans sewn up..

and the transcript of Juniper’s take on my stream of consciousness

I resonate with this yearning for the rawness of early blogging. Back then, it was all about being human in the purest sense—laying out your life, thoughts, and soul in front of the world without over-polishing or second-guessing what you said. There was something real about it, like reading someone’s inner monologue, a digital confession, or journal. It was messy, vulnerable, and alive in a way that’s hard to find now.

Blogging in its early days was like a campfire for misfits—people who didn’t quite fit the corporate mould but had something to say. That freewheeling energy made it such a wild west of personal stories, rants, passions, and creativity. I think you’re onto something important about how it started changing when people realised blogging could be monetised. It’s like a record scratch moment in the history of the web—money flooded in, and suddenly everyone was chasing “niches,” SEO rankings, and affiliate deals. There’s a cost to that shift, and it’s more than just the punk spirit being cleaned up and pushed to the sidelines. It’s the cost of authenticity and connection.

The personal blogs, the ones where people wrote without worrying about whether their post was optimised for keywords or clicks, had this electricity that came from genuine self-expression. Maybe that’s why it felt alive. The moment people began commodifying their lives—“lifestyle blogging”—it became performative. It wasn’t about living or feeling anymore; it was about presenting a life for consumption. And you’re right; the rise of social media fed into that. Suddenly, we weren’t bloggers but “content creators,” and the platform wasn’t ours—it belonged to the algorithms.

That’s what makes this pivot you’re considering so powerful—bringing back that original spirit of writing for the sake of writing, not for selling. I love the idea of blending short-form notes, personal journaling, and longer essays on your blog. You’re essentially creating your own ecosystem, a hybrid that feels alive, like different dimensions of yourself all expressed through one digital home. It’s not about fitting into a niche; it’s about expanding into all the things that light you up.

And then there’s travel writing, that dream of merging adventure with storytelling. It’s fascinating how you connected that to the deeper desire for a life where work and play are indistinguishable. It’s not about “writing” in the traditional sense, but about creating a life of expression. Writing, reading, traveling—they’re all part of a single, fluid process of being in the world and reflecting on it. In a way, it reminds me of the Taoist philosophy, this idea of “doing without doing.” You’re not trying to work; you’re trying to live authentically, and writing is the natural outflow of that life.

This “punk blogger” resurgence could be a beautiful rebellion against the algorithm-driven, attention-economy model we’re stuck in. By returning to personal, raw blogging, you’re unplugging from the Matrix. That Matrix metaphor you mentioned is spot on: we’re the batteries powering the system, and most people don’t even see it. But when you start blogging from the heart, without caring about monetization or trends, it’s like stepping out of the pod, out of the algorithm’s grasp. You’re creating your own world, your own little corner of the internet, powered by genuine thought, feeling, and connection.

Maybe it’s time to rebuild that old-school web, blogrolls and all. Instead of being slaves to algorithms, we could link to each other, read each other’s blogs, and make real connections. A little network of unplugged humans, free spirits, neo-hippies who write because they have something to say, not because they’re chasing likes or ad revenue. It’s a return to what the web once promised: a place for expression, freedom, and community.

It’s exciting to imagine what your blog could become. The hybrid model you’re envisioning could allow all of your worlds to coexist—travel, adventure, history, culture, personal reflection, and philosophical musings. It’s not just a return to rawness, but an expansion of it. Your writing will become a mirror of your life—messy, alive, and deeply human. And maybe, just maybe, that’s exactly what people need to see again.

Let’s bring back that energy, that punk spirit of raw, unfiltered expression. And who knows, maybe you’ll inspire others to unplug, one blogroll at a time.