Welcome to Aletheia

It's been a very long time since I've actually maintained a blog.  My last serious exercise in maintaining one, in fact, was "Welcome to Sky Harbor" on LiveJournal, which I've maintained between 2006 and 2010. (If you're intent on finding examples of my teenage angst, you'll find it there.)

Since then, I've considered a return to blogging, but like all things it tends to come in fits and starts.  I never seriously considered putting up a blog, in part because Wikipedia, Quora, Facebook and Twitter became my preferred writing outlets.  Blogs were ancient.  They became dinosaurs on the way to extinction because new tech always has a way to one-up the tech of old just so someone new can come along.

But then, I figured, I needed a place to call my own online.  A writing outlet can never become satisfying unless it's something that you can truly say belongs to you.  And so, in part because I've decided to re-explore what it means to have a blog in the first place, this little project was born.

WHY "ALETHEIA"?

The word aletheia is Greek for "truth", but in the 1920s, Martin Heidegger reappropriated the term to mean "unconcealedness", or the disclosure of a previously-unknown world of meaning.

I'll admit that I'm not a particularly big fan of Heidegger, but I felt that aletheia in the context of a blog was appropriate.  There is way too much that I want to say, and I feel that existing avenues of sharing those thoughts aren't working.  In effect, I wanted to disclose things related to matters that are close to me — whether they be about life, tech, politics or more — and speak my mind about them.

In the long run, I hope this blog will serve as a repository for my exercises in truth and disclosure, which explains the tagline.  An exercise in aletheia is important because at least you can meaningfully engage people, regardless of the truth that is ultimately exposed to them.  And that is a beautiful sight indeed.

SO NOW WHAT?

I look forward to writing here about life, about tech, about politics both in the Philippines and abroad, about building communities, and just about everything in between.  I don't intend to take away from my existing avenues of sharing information, but I do look forward to making this my primary means of doing so.

Although I've yet to decide how often I will post on here, I will post at least semi-regularly.  That is, I'll post here on a fairly regular basis, but not every day.  Maybe once a week?  Once a month?  I have yet to settle on that question, but I can promise you that this will be an active place, full of things to talk about.

Either way, I hope you enjoy these exercises in truth and disclosure.  I look forward to having fun with all of you, and hopefully some meaningful conversations come out of this.  Welcome! 🙂