Computer Channel

Back in the distant web past, Jemma Gura used to run a site called Prate, which was always defined as “Prate™ Computer Channel.”

I always took the “channel” thing to heart – years ago, I’d begin a day’s posting here with a startup or station ident and end the day’s posting with a Closedown. The sort of thing that you’d see in early Twitter usage, where people would bookend a day’s activity with “good morning” and “good night.”

When I returned to blog writing, I had the intent of creating longer, more evergreen pieces. And I did a few, and would like to do many more. But the energy and inspiration just haven’t been there, especially as I began driving into creating a slate of original audio-drama podcast productions. The newsletter tends to suck up more of the joined-up thinking than it should.

But. As I’ve noted here, this place has value to me as a personal digital tool.

I’m conceiving of it, at this time, as the digital tool that fills in the few gaps I have remaining in a life of knowledge work and personal record. Here’s where I am today and here’s what I think it looks like. These are the things I can see and hear. These are the books I want to remember because culture is made up of what remains after everything else has been forgotten. Also photos of chickens.

Perhaps it was always supposed to be a computer channel. Not just a repository of thoughts and information on storytelling, culture and knowledge work, but also the digital diary for the things I can’t easily record with a pen, and the low-power radio station run by a single hermit with a battery-operated transmitter who just rambles into the ether from startup to closedown.