In 1927, Charles Lindbergh climbed into his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, and accelerated down a 5,000 foot mud soaked runway. The plane was fully loaded with aviation fuel and there was some concern he might not get it airborne. His plane reached V1 speed, when takeoff could no longer be aborted, it was the point of no return. Fortunately for Lindbergh, he got airborne and lived to tell the tale.
It was some fifty days ago that I learnt about #100DaysToOffload. Brainchild of Kev Quirk and for which I both thank and curse him in equal measure. Today I reach the metaphorical point of no return, and it feels good. Not only has it got me back into the habit of a daily journal, it has, as I originally suspected, acted as my very own Pensieve:
One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form. – Albus Dumbledore
Ever a man to love a bit of tinkering, the blogging process has also proved to be as much a technical as a mental exercise. I began with write.as and am in the process of learning Node.js as I look to migrate my blog to Ghost; to gain ever more control over the customisation of the publishing and reading experience.
On this day, I raise a glass as the good ship blog travels past the point of no return. I toast my fellow writers who are taking part in the 100 Days challenge and look forward to sharing more adventures in philosophy and technology over the next 50 days… and beyond!
P.S. a glass also needs raising to my editor and wife-to-be who has proofed my musings each night. Without her humanising my work it would be far less readable. At this stage, surprising given how much more swearing I have done since starting the challenge, she wants to do her own 100 Days. Likely not until after her thesis is finished, but I might join her in a 100 Days 2.0 when she does.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
This post is day 050 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. If you want to get involved, you can get more info from 100daystooffload.com.
