BitterSweetLife

Christmas has left me a much happier, relaxed, and indolent person. I’ve been enjoying a vacation from pretty much everything—even blogging. But the blog ban could continue only so long, since I normally blog for the pure creative joy of it (and, of course, to keep myself sane). Blogging, like reading, is something I do constantly because I want to. But since I’ve been away for several days, I thought it best to take an easy route back in. Prepare yourself for a blow-by-blow, pseudo tech post.

A couple months ago, I broke out del.icio.us tags here on the blog—to the delight of a few techie insiders. Most of you were unmoved, however. But del.icio.us is still pulling its weight, an ingenious system that I use to index everything I write, and make it navigable. (If you haven’t already noticed, del.icio.us has made its presence felt here; check out the del.icio.us/ArielJVan link at the top of the sidebar, the “My Categories” menu further down, and the “Filed in” tags that appear under each post. Del.icio.us is ubiquitous.)

Back when I implemented del.icio.us, I set about explaining the “tags,” or labels, that I use to file my posts—and I made it about half-way through. I’m not sure if anyone is anxiously waiting for the sequel to I Explain My Tags, but here it comes, ready or not.

You’ll probably want to thank me later, so I’m saying in advance, Don’t mention it. No one salivates over the Table of Contents, but what would you do without it? I mean, other than read random posts on a semi-weekly basis. (Just kidding.)

:: Continued from I Explain My Tags ::

Joy
In the Bittersweet equation, joy is subversive and appears in strange places. It also gets the last laugh.

Lifeview
Lifeview posts tend to present a big-picture snapshot of life, aiming for an over-arching idea or metaphor. They often urge us to get our heads screwed on straight.

Lindsay
My wife refuses to write her own posts, so I generally have to write them for her. So far, she still likes me.

Paradox
Paradox is at the heart of bittersweetness. Essentially, I argue that believable paradox is the test of every wanna-be religion or worldview. Can system x account for the nuanced, mysterious texture of life down here, and the way that we experience our joy and pain, good and evil, all jumbled together? (Bittersweetness can.)

Philosophy
BitterSweetLife is a good-natured blog with aspirations to profundity. With disarming candor, the blog admits that philosophy is not its area of expertise, but it occasionally ventures into speculation that is more philosophic in nature than anything else.

Photos
I take pictures. The idea is, you look at the photos, and then try to find fitting words of appreciation. (BitterSweetLife began as a photoblog.)

Poetry
While I would never claim to be a “poet,” I do write the occasional poem. Usually they illustrate an aspect of bittersweetness. What more can I say? Lindsay likes them.

Questions
Some posts are driven by a thorny issue or compelling point of inquiry. This is especially the case in the Blogger Limelight series, which invite community participation.

Science
Before I took up English, I spent a year of my life in Pre-Med. The fascination with Biology (and Physics) is still with me, although now it’s purely a hobby. “Science” is a catch-all tag for topics (i.e. the human brain, evolution, unseen dimensions) that are generically scientific.

Speculation
Inherent to any discipline (i.e. Microbiology, Forensics, Philosophy, Theology) is a certain amount of speculation in advance of the facts. It’s unavoidable. We try to fill the holes of the unknown with the bricks of the discovered. I think it’s only honest to admit when I’m doing it.

Stories
My life is not extremely eventful, so I’ll often try to recount a fairly pedestrian incident in a way that makes it seem significant and exciting. Hey, it’s the least I can do for you readers. ;)

Tech
Despite accusations to the contrary, I’m definitely not one of the many techies running around loose in cyberspace. If I was, I would be making a lot more money than I am now. But sometimes I write a post that deals with code or tools (like del.icio.us) that even I can understand.

Updates
When technical upgrades arrive at BitterSweetLife, or when popularity spikes again, I’m not one to withhold the good news.

Writing
Sometimes I get in a strange mood and begin writing about writing. Often, it’s self-diagnostic, since I’m trying to finally figure out how to write good. You didn’t actually think this tag would apply to every post, did you?

::

And now my tags are fully explained. The way has been paved for more entries in the BitterSweet catalog. Now go and do some tagging of your own.