Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
I’ve taken quite a lengthy break from writing here. Thanks to commenters for your continued
interest despite my mercurial writing commitment. I
really haven’t known if I would resume writing, but concluded if I did, I
wanted a limited publishing schedule and posts of relatively short content. We’ll
see how well I can follow that plan as it’s no understatement to say that I can
tend to become a bit verbose as you likely have noted.
Also, especially since 2016, when I begin to write I’m often
challenged with thought intrusion associated with preservation of our threatened
democratic republic’s freedoms. Consequently, I experience frustration resisting
excessively writing about the state of our nation. I realize too much of this subject matter may
be less than appealing to readers here, but I seem to feel the need to express
myself.
Those were my thoughts before the most recent actions initiated
by our nation’s leader who has now unleashed
the potential for even more dangerous unpredictable world events. Escalating uncertainty ensues with unknown
consequences. Additionally, indicators
of our planet’s climate changes, denied by this same leader, increasingly manifest
themselves in destructive weather events around the world we read or hear about
in our daily news such as the present horrendous Australian fires.
I long for a nation and world that seems not to have so many more such
serious issues demanding immediate resolution.
I entertain the hope we will overcome these challenges for the
betterment of humankind but wonder if any will occur in my lifetime, much less that of my children and grandchildren. Perhaps in a more desirable environment my
thoughts and writing would explore light-hearted topics. I try to differentiate between what I can
realistically do to positively influence matters and what is beyond my control.
The manner in which I can act to impact the situations has
altered through the years. My ageing, physical condition has gradually limited
me more, but the very least I can do is to vote as I have now arranged to do by
mail should I be unable to visit my voting site. Traditional voting sites are changing in
California and elsewhere, anyway. We
just need to insure as best we can the security and integrity of our states
voting systems. We also need to combat voter
intimidation through limiting laws and any gerrymandering prevalent in some
states.
We can combat the forces that defy our nation’s values with
the November 2020 national elections offering a significant major opportunity
to do so. We need to facilitate new voter registration through
every method possible as one means of accomplishing this opportunity for necessary meaningful change.
Meanwhile, we’re all faced with finding coping mechanisms to
aid in retaining our sanity for relief from the unbidden heavy life complications
foisted upon us. We each do so in our own way. I use a variety of methods in an effort to
balance my thoughts with other input.
Just a few alternate focus areas for me include following my distant
family members activities, listening to music, pleasurably reading both fiction
and nonfiction, engaging in a variety of other involvements that also serve as
distractions, but humor of all kinds is a saving grace.
I never knew what one favored type of humor, often flippant and funny, sometimes with
serious meaning, was called, “Paraprosodokian”, where the statement ending can
be quite unexpected, a reversal from the beginning of the statement, such as:
"War does not determine who is right – only who is left."
What prompts your choice of writing topics?
How do you cope with any frustrations you may feel with life
issues?
