long-time listener, first-time caller
I've been online since 2009. I was 13 years old at the time, and while the Internet was different, it completely opened up a new world to me. I spent a lot of days and late nights online, and, for better or worse, that shaped me during those crucial development years. Overall, I would say that I learned a lot thanks to that, but I've also seen a lot of shit that probably wasn't that good for me.
The first online community I found and participated in was FórumSCP, a message board focused on my beloved Sporting Clube de Portugal. And please don't call it Sporting Lisbon.
I've also been a Zwame user since 2010. I learned a lot about technology on that message board, and I'm thankful for it.
By the time I was 15/16, I became very interested in personal finances and the FIRE movement and found Mr. Money Mustache. This led to a deep dive into other personal finances, minimalism and personal blogs, and I've read a lot of blogs ever since.
Oddly enough, and despite loving to read other people's blogs, I never wrote my own blog because I felt like I had nothing to say, which I now see as a crappy excuse not to write. This view was particularly challenged in the past year thanks to the wonderful posts of people like Manu, Véronique, Jedda, Kwon, Tiramisu, and Robert. If I love to read the daily thoughts of these (and other) people, why shouldn't I do something similar?
And that led me to create a blog here at Bearblog. I don't know if I'll write every day, every week, or every month. I don't have any particular goals for sharing my writing online. I guess I want to take some control over the time I spend online and try to do something creative instead of wasting away hours scrolling Reddit, my biggest enemy when it comes to time-wasting.
Are you a big fan of RSS like me? You can find my RSS feed here. Want to reach out to say hi? See how to do that here. :)