paulog · the life of paul grzymkowski - [ log.paulogy.com ]

Well hello there!  So as you can see, I’m back on paulogy.  As many of you know there’ve been a number of other (not entirely unrelated) things going on lately which have been taking up my time.  But for now at least, my attention has come back here - to a site and blog which I had always intended on keeping current and fresh.

And no, this is not some early April Fool’s joke.  The growing popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter have caused me to reexamine some of the efforts I’ve taken to market “the brand of Paul Grzymkowski”.  While those relatively new sites, along with ones like YouTube, Flickr and countless others, now have folks from all over the world showcasing themselves and their works, I’ve been at it myself for quite some time.

My first effort, Paul’s Page of Pain, back in 1997 had existed to show off a little about who I was, and more about what I had done.  It underwent a number of revisions as what I did - and considered most interesting - evolved and as I learned new techniques in webdesign.  My second attempt, beautyinchaos, created in 2003, was intended to show off my work exclusively (as it contained nearly no details about myself) but did so by engaging visitors in a kind of extended conversation, instead of just listing everything on a couple pages.

But my third effort, paulogy.com was supposed to be different.  Serving the same purpose initially of showcasing my work, ultimately it was intended to showcase my life - and how the things I’ve created fit into it.  But it never really did.  And why not?

Well, partly because I was too busy actually living my life.  But also because I had never defined how I would balance content on the main paulogy site (paulogy.com), and this blog (log.paulogy.com).   I had simply treated them as one and the same.  But now I realize if I separate the two, I can hopefully provide a more enriching experience.  Allow me to explain:

For whatever reason, though I’m a fairly objective person, most words I’ve posted to the internet are shrouded in a layer of abstraction.  I tend not to simply state who I am, and what something I’ve made is about.  Perhaps it’s because I am all too aware of the worldwide scope of anything that gets committed to these ones and zeros.  Or maybe I’m just not as objective as I’d like to think I am.   Perhaps it’s because I simply don’t want to commit to what something “is” and I’d rather, like with a piece of art, let the viewers decide for themselves.

Well unfortunately, in this day and age, no one makes time for art anymore.  They want to immediately be told (a) what things are, and (b) why they should care.  And if they cared enough to get that far, then maybe they’d want to know (c) why it was created in the first place.  Not that I like things this way, but at least now I understand them.

On this site, it seems I’ve typically mentioned what something was, but only touched on why anyone should care.  And rarely did I ever get into why I created something - though for some of you that might have been the most interesting part.  To you I apologize, but please stay tuned because things are about to get much better in here.

So effective immediately (well, more like as I have time to bring this site up to speed), I will be separating out things on this site in terms of those three aspects.   For major projects, (a) what they are, and (b) why they are interesting will be on an overview page on paulogy.com.  Here’s one I just made for beautyinchaos.  Then, on this blog will be (c) why I worked on the project to begin with, what it means to me, or any other (possibly personally insightful) details about it.  This blog is supposed to be about my life, after all.

This way, for the general public who is only interested in getting to the punchline - they can quickly browse through paulogy and check out my most notable works.  But if they, or you faithful readers, want to dive in a little deeper, then there’s a blog entry here for you to see and respond to.  Sound good?

While I’m at it, there are a couple other tweaks and things worth mentioning:

1. It’s now called “paulogy - the works of paul grzymkowski” instead of “the studies of”.  For whatever reason it sounded better to have “the works of” (paulogy.com) juxtaposed against “the life of” (this blog).
2. I added a mini bio at the top of each blog page.  I’ve been reluctant to do this because I don’t think one simple paragraph really does anyone justice.  But in the interest of being “objective” I’ve created one.  What do you think?
3. I’m on twitter now, so if you are too you can follow me.
4. Yes, ratings are currently broken.  They didn’t survive the server migration, but I intend to fix them soon.
5. There’s still nothing about shirtseek on here, but rest assured there will be very soon.
6. I still intend to add a lot more photos, stories, and thoughts on here - so if you’re interested keep an eye out for those too.

So, if you like any of the new changes, think this slight adjustment in direction makes sense, or are just glad to hear I’m blogging again (or the opposite of all those things, perhaps), then be sure to let me know.

Meanwhile I’ll keep plugging away.  At least until I… oooh, look - shiny object!

-Paul

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Posted in thoughts, life, paulog, sites