In the near future, this blog will go off-line. But never fear! My blog writings up to this point will be compiled into a PDF, which I will make available by email to anyone. I’m actually looking forward to making this compilation for you.
And, I will continue to be available to you through my other various channels, although the mix of channels will inevitably change over time.
In addition, for those of you who particularly enjoy my writing, I will be starting an email newsletter. If you’d like to be on my email newsletter distribution list, please email me at jnazak at yahoo dot com
This will be a highly curated, low-bandwidth email. Anticipate maybe once or twice a month. Don’t worry though; I will still provide plenty of Scooby snacks for you to chew on!
My reasons are various. One is to save on the financial expense of maintaining a website. But more importantly, I am doing this to help reduce my contribution to the huge environmental footprint of “the cloud.” It’s an increasingly serious thing, these data centers and so on. Not only energy use but water use as well. (The two are interrelated of course.) And the large computing centers have caused difficulties for local communities in various places.
The cloud is a great thing, a wonderful shared resource. But I feel there are a lot of bits and bytes that we can cut, with little or no loss to the quality of information and communication.
I’ve always kept my videos and such to a minimum, and opted for the lowest-bandwidth option.
Additional steps I’ve taken in recent weeks include deleting most apps. And instead just accessing Facebook and such via web browser. And shutting down certain online shopping accounts.
And I did a massive clean out of old email boxes, and I am now being a lot more proactive about ongoing pruning. Those emails live on the cloud too and take up space.
As I have often said, by each doing our part to reduce our own resource-consumption footprint, we are not only restricting the flow of revenue to distant centralized entities that are harming the planet, but also removing much of the underlying motivation for wars.
By the way, Dreamhost is simply a first-rate web-hosting service. I’ve been with them for decades, and would recommend them to anyone who still needs a website. The Dreamhost folks are not only highly technically adept and responsive, but furthermore they are simply delightful human beings. As you will see if you subscribe to the Dreamhost newsletter.
I am also grateful for the WordPress app and platform. It’s been a nice container for me to share my eco jottings.
I love you guys and will keep seeing you! Remember, the real Internet is all around us every day. In addition to this wonderful web of electronic communication which has served so well in so many ways, and will most likely continue to serve us for the foreseeable future in one form or another.
Like all technology, the Internet is what we make it. Use it for the good, and let’s have fun navigating the challenges ahead to create a beautiful future for everyone.
Also, I want to take this opportunity to post a couple of links to books that are meant to help you avoid letting financial constraints get in your way of doing your calling and living your best life.
The long book was co-authored by five of us. The short book was authored by one of us, Eric. It’s meant to satisfy readers who prefer a mini condensed version of the very lengthy book we five wrote together.
Mini condensed ebook – https://www.amazon.com/stores/Eric-Brown/author/B09WXQHJ58?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=1e2789b2-9d9f-454e-a087-f365dcb43676 (Growing FREE Simple Life)
Full-length ebook – https://thedepotlakeviewohio.com/products/growing-free-by-eric-brown-digital-e-book (Growing FREE: financially resilient and economically empowered)
Many readers have told us that our book has helped them navigate their way to more creative freedom and getting out of the “hamster wheel” of soul-draining jobs or life situations.