My first blog post on Renato.mascardo.com/blog was on March 9, 2007. 16 years ago. The post was titled “Hello World!” to which I just wrote
Hello World!
That was followed by two insightful blog posts titled —
- I Can‘t Believe I’m Blogging (March 9, 2007)
- World of Warcraft is the next Golf (March 10, 2007)
Absolute drivel. Haha. I started my blog 16 years ago as just an experiment and it has evolved into an expression of my life and creativity. My interest in writing posts has come and gone through the years. You’ll see big gaps in my writing or sometimes I would just post a YouTube video. Earlier posts were trying to be “TechCrunch like” and then later evolved into more thoughtful writing about my family, our move to Utah and my stroke. My blog has become more for me than anyone else — a public facing journal and expression of creativity.
As a child, my focus was on math and science. I joke that I barely passed the “Test of English as a Foreign Language” (TOEFL) and English was sort of my second language behind Tagalog. (Or, if you saw me as a kid you might think my first language was “eating”). Writing did not come naturally to me but I do find enjoyment in the expression of my thought through writing. I’m sure any English major would laugh at the run on sentences and random drivel being throw around like spaghetti on a wall. (I think I subconsciously married an English major as a ying to my yang.). But, as I have gotten older I’ve cared less about what others have thought. Or put another way, I find it liberating to limit how much I care about what other people think especially when it comes to being creative.
The photos on my blog at 98% taken by me. I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures. My father passed that passion down to me and I think I passed it down to my daughter. I still own an old Nikon D90 camera with several lenses but have since moved to taking pictures on my phone. The Apple iPhone camera is simply amazing. My dad handed down a bunch of Leika gear to my daughter. She has developed her own passion for photography and has one some photography competitions. We share the joy of being in a dark room with some Pink Floyd playing and being alone with your thoughts.
Being creative is a unique and elusive thing for me. Growing up Filipino, we became doctors or lawyers. As a technologist, I’m at the fringes of an acceptable career. I’m pretty sure my parents think I’m a “Chief Train Officer”. My parents encouraged I learn piano like any good Asian child but no way did I ever consider a role as a traditional creative. But, I always highly appreciated the ability to come up with unique ideas, perspectives and approaches. As a child, I picked up playing the guitar. My first guitar was an inexpensive black Fender Squire Stratocaster in honor of Eric Clapton. I would sit for hours working on scales and imagining different patterns and riffs.
So, lets take take a step back and reframe why I write this blog. I enjoy telling stories. I enjoy expressing myself. I enjoy sharing knowledge. And I enjoy sharing what’s on my mind. Family, work, technology, life, whatever. I’ll write about it.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.
-rjm