I think I wrote my first blog post back in the early to mid 90’s using text files and coding HTML. That was fun, sort of, because not many people were posting stuff online. It was also pointless because not many people were reading online, let alone reading my stuff online. Easy to understand why not many were reading online because it is hard to imagine exploring the internet without a browser like Chrome, Internet explorer, or Netscape, or an iPhone, but it was done. I abandoned that first blog because it was a tremendously time consuming effort just to manage keeping the blog “up” in the rapidly evolving internet world.
In 2000 we moved to Bellingham/Whatcom. Within a couple of years I was about fed up with the lack of anything locally online that could be considered even remotely conservative or even having an opposing viewpoint. The electronic world of Bellingham was decidedly one sided and it was not the side that I tended to identify with. So, I started thinking about blogging again just to offer a bit of an opposing, and yes, mostly conservative viewpoint. So I brought out some of the old tools, upgraded my website software and began coding…I then discovered a new piece of software called WordPress and that was really the birth of Wally Wonders Why because I could now spend my time commenting on life rather than managing content and doing all the coding bits that nobody ever sees. I blogged under Wally semi-regularly for about 10 years but finally grew weary of threats to my life and livelihood for presenting an alternative view and to Bellingham, an opposing view.
These days the internet is a huge mess of opposing views, that in my humble opinion are feeding the growing division in our society. No matter what view we have, no matter how weird or extreme and in no matter what direction; on the internet we can find hundreds, thousands or even millions of virtual friends who will tell us that we are the “right thinkers” and it is the others that are the “wrong thinkers.” In the virtual world we no longer have to worry about compromise, hurt feelings, right and wrong, we just “unfollow” or “hide post” and all is well (at least in our own minds). However, I am on the internet daily and believe that in addition to the darkness, the web can also be of great value in so many ways, and yes even a way to bring people together rather than divide them. To that end, I believe that people need to share their beliefs and quit passing along questionable news and hateful memes.
So, today in 2017, I am cranking up a personal blog thing again for the express purpose of writing about real things, real things that are of importance to me, not just something that will garner “likes” or be “shared” for the umpteenth millionth time. So I will be writing poorly and sometimes hastily about whatever I feel is important to me at the time; and if you know me, you will know that “important” likely means something bicycle related. I won’t shy from the other stuff though, but I will do my best to not become a hater, nor a divider.
And as a personal challenge, in the name of us all getting along in this world, I will be attempting to blog while avoiding both the “D” word and the “R” word altogether. It’s not likely that you will experience the “N” word here either, but I will most assuredly sprinkle around the “G” as i see fit and with due consideration for His 3rd Commandment.
And if you don’t like the brand of bicycle I ride, please don’t threaten my life, let’s talk about it.