Tag: blog

Family Friendly

I was looking into my AdSense last night and discovered that the system works similarly to how YouTube advertising works in the sense that language over the PG rating is unlikely to lead to monetization of content. While making money from this blog would be a nice bonus – and ads will be staying just in case -, I will not be changing up the content for that.

It would be a move without integrity, to neuter the catharsis and the journey for monetary gain. A disservice to myself to be dishonest and a disservice to the reader, you. As overly dramatic as it may be, I remember Meditations 6.2:

“If you are doing your proper duty let it not matter to you whether you are cold or warm, whether you are sleepy or well-slept, whether men speak badly or well of you, even whether you are on the point of death or doing something else: because even this, the act in which we die, is one of the acts of life, and so here suffices to ‘make the best move you can’. – Meditations 6.2

If I’m here, sharing my stoic and spiritual journey it is my duty to do so in the proper way. Like a duty of care and quality assurance that I’m not doing it half-assed or with self-imposed censorship to try to rake in that ad money. I will cover topics that may be triggering. This includes: death, abuse, addiction, illness, and many more. Why? Because how can I talk about life while missing out key components? It’s a fraud to think that I can speak about life without death. It’s like talking about the night sky and not mentioning stars.

And, if a few fucks, shits, wankers and bollocks’ slip in: I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. Sometimes no other words will do to describe some shit. Aside from being a stoic, I enjoy brevity and swearing in comedy which you can blame The Thick of It and Frankie Boyle for. I’ve not lied to myself or the reader through this medium. I don’t plan on it either so I’m not going to censor nor rephrase because it may earn me some money. It’s not a career, it’s a service to myself and a service to you.

“Lying, too is a sin against the same goddess: her name is Truth, and she is the original cause of all that is true.” – Meditations 9.1.2

I’m not even sure about the definition of family friendly as who knows what that means anymore. I know a few families who watched Game of Thrones together as a Saturday night ritual to replace the monotony of X-Factor and Saturday Night Takeaway. Compared to that, my half-baked musings on philosophy and the divine are pretty bloody tame.

Z3N0

P.S. I know this isn’t a proper post, but it is. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for me and someone else should you or they find it useful. That lesson: don’t sell out.

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Posts, Pictures and Format

I’ve been perusing other blogs and I’ve seen that pictures are the best way to grab people’s attention and make a blog more colourful. And I’ve also noticed that my shorter posts are more popular than my longer reads.

I’ve only been doing this for 15 days and I feel like I’m getting into a nice post-dinner routine with my writing. Unfortunately for the growth of my blog: I don’t like using pictures that I haven’t taken myself. Double unfortunately: I am living in Lockdown 3 (or maybe 4, who knows, I’ve lost count) Britain and leaving my house is a treat outside of work. So I may compromise and introduce more gratuitous cat pictures to grow my blog. This started off as a cathartic journal but I’ve received some good verbal feedback that I should continue to grow and expand. A big fucking compliment, by all accounts as I was happy to ramble to myself.

Gratuitous Cat Picture

My post length may also slim down a little, as I’ve seen the more successful blogs being tagged as “2 min reads” for quick consumption. I’m open to that if it makes my content more accessible but I’m still going to be posting longer reads for topics that deserve the respect of in depth discussion.

As for my formatting of the blog entire, it’s a game of trial and error. If you suddenly see great changes or magic categories appearing at the side or some other shenanigans, bare in mind, it’s a work in progress. The format greatly reflects my own journey and as my thoughts come together and are able to be categorised in a much more digestible way, things will shift around.

Thanks for taking the time to check this post out and all my others. Again as I mentioned in my Welcome post which is buried around here somewhere, I am grateful and privileged to have you take an interest in my journey and I hope it resonates with you. I hope some lessons that I’m learning can teach you something about your own Path and help you along your way, even in the most minor way possible.

Z3N0