Month: January 2008

I read this post the other day on ProBlogger.net about how Sometimes Your Blog Is Like Watching Grass Grow. While I don’t visit ProBlogger.net that much, I found it interesting that I visited it when this particular post was being displayed. Why interesting? Because it relates a lot to what I spoke before about permaculture and how it relates to the Web.

What’s even more interesting is that in reading this post, I realized something very important. For the longest time, I believed that I could contain all of my diverse content on one site. Now I realize that this was an inefficient approach. It’s not like it couldn’t be done though. I mean I have plans for a magazine-like site that would have various sections to it like a magazine would. There’s only one problem with this approach though. It’s takes a lot of complex work to maintain it.

You see I kept comparing my site to a garden and within this garden are a diversity of plants (i.e. content categories). What I didn’t realize until now though is that I was making my garden extremely difficult to manage and maintain because of the diversity and density of my content. Therefore, just like how plants need their own special light, space, fertilizer, and water to grow properly, I was overcrowding my plants and not giving them the space they needed.

If you see what I’m getting at here, what I realized is that this website isn’t my entire garden but just a portion of it. Therefore, just like in real life, where you plant various plants in different locations to maximize the effectiveness of their growth (i.e. some in the shade, some in the sun, etc), I’ll now be planting my various different types of content in different locations on the Web so that their growth can be maximized specifically by the location I create for them (thus the creation of my new Daily Fugue site).

BTW this principle of permaculture that I’m talking about is called Relative Location. What’ll you note in reading the principle is that each location isn’t in a vacuum but they actually interact and connect with one another and thus help each other out. So when you plant some plants below a tree, not only are they benefiting from the shade but they also benefit from the leaves that drop in the fall which help fertilize the ground they are grown within. Thus so too do I want each of my sites to eventually interconnect with one another and draw sustenance from each other.

Hope everyone had a great New Years and have thought about their resolutions for this year. For myself, I want this year to be my year of creativity. With that in mind, I’m launching my first creative project of the year called the Daily Fugue.

What this creative project allows me to do is the following.

1. Be a little bit creative daily (so I can do it on the side).
2. Lets me express myself without having to say a word.
3. Makes people aware of things and other people they may not have known.
4. Allows me to relay my values and culture (what’s important and meaningful to me).
5. Shows the connectivity in the world.

In a nutshell, I’m interpreting the hidden meaning in what’s being said (for good or bad). Thus some politician may say something he or she thinks is great but I’ll take those words and show the real meaning of what’s being said. On the flip side, I’ll take something simple someone has said and try to show the profoundness in their simple statement.

As for the site itself, it’s still in its infancy, so it will grow over time. For now, I think I have the layout I want but I’ll probably adjust the visual design slightly (i.e. add a background image) without going overboard, since I want the words to be the primary emphasis.

BTW this is my first site that I may consider adding advertisements to it in the future (assuming enough interest is generated with it). If I do add them though, I’ll want them to be minimal and to the side and also be incorporated into the design somehow (as again I want the words to be the primary emphasis on the site).