Doesn’t ‘Down My Street’ look better? It got a new look! And more focus… which now means more of that 'Up Yours' attitude!

This blog was originally started as a means to get me back into the discipline of writing. Life had decided to challenge me with a slew of harsh, disillusioning events; as a consequence, and despite trying very hard to fool myself into thinking all was swell, I woke up one morning and simply stopped writing. Entirely. I couldn’t do it. The thought of piecing words together into ideas had me reaching for Rolaids. Since I earned my living writing for corporations and newspapers at the time, this sudden and utter disgust for my trade pushed me further down into a pit of depression, which, combined with more ‘challenges,‘ helped to stretch what was then meant to be a small sabbatical into two years of unproductive anger and acrimonious thinking…

So, once I finally found the strength to peep out of my 'hole,' I did what (then) seemed like a sane thing to do... I jumped on the ‘blogwagon!’ I figured that the ‘published’ and public aspect of a blog would provide enough pressure to keep me honest and productive in regards to the content, and would thus get me back into that journalistic mode of thinking and writing.

But then I got slightly distracted…of course being me…I experimented (to the extreme!) with a whole whack of anonymous blogs on various subjects; I tested and tried and learned and observed and studied up on things like SEO and XML and upgraded my coding skills…
That phase began the day after—some 6+ months ago—the 'right' synaptic connections occured and there I was! me; my good ol’ jolly albeit overly cynical workaholic self, again.

So the original idea behind ‘Down my Street and Up Yours’ was definitely Seinfeld-esque i.e. a blog about nothing. I hadn’t it seen it for more than structured space where I could productively vent my anger – a modern version of the therapeutic diary if you will. But I didn’t want it to be about my cat’s neurotic quirks or the tulip that broke ground in my backyard or my nephew’s close-encounter of some strange kind with Lego… why the hell should anyone—except, of course, Facebook friends (and even then)—care about that?
With time, and thanks to extreme periods of self-flagellation and a few successful nibbles on the dangling carrots that encouraged me to ‘write on,’ this got me back into professional writing; but more importantly, it gave me a voice and some focus. Essentially: to inject common sense into senseless ideas and actions so that change WILL occur. I’ll define this in greater detail in the section ‘site’s philosophy,’ which will soon be added, but for now I think the following best describes my attitude: left-wing ideals through right-wing techniques for real changes down the line.

This new version now marks phase 2 of what may be a 4-phased adventure… only time will tell! Certainly, this is where much of my free time will now be directed. Why do it? Because I wouldn’t be living if I wasn’t!

Thanks for your support (and an even bigger thanks for donations...)!

Keep on clicking!

PDL

© 2009, Pascal-Denis Lussier
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