Avner Shanan

An Introduction for Blaugust

In an attempt to do some more regular writing, I’m participating in this year’s Blaugust Festival. Blaugust is an annual blogging event that runs all August long as a way to encourage and inspire bloggers. It seems like a lot of folks aim for posting every day of the month, which I will obviously not be doing. If I can get two posts up this month I’ll consider my participation a success. One a week would feel amazing. I’ve been enjoying reading other participants’ intro posts, so I’m going to do one as well.

Hi! Welcome. Glad you’re here! This is my little corner of the Internet. I’d offer you some tea or coffee but I don’t collect user data here and I’m not sure how I’d get it to you without changing that (though this is a tempting use case). It started as a professional website and portfolio, little more than a fancy CV. It has a litte more personality now, but you can still see the marks of professionalist self-censorship all over the place. I can, anyways. I have aspirations to do more with this space, IndieWeb dreams, but for now it’s mostly a place where I post occasional thoughts about what I’ve been reading, watching, or listening to. I have been titling those kind of posts “Out of Context,” which was the name I came up with for a newsletter with similar content that I liked too much to let go of. I’ve written a few posts that aren’t link round ups, mostly having to do with projects I’m working on. You can find all of those under the notes section. I’ve also created a page with some links to various artists, tools, etc. that I am a fan of. If you want to read more about what this site is built with, check out the colophon.

I write about software and tech in general, with what I hope is a critical lens. My politics are informed by the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, and by growing up as a first generation American. I am a lifelong Chicagoan — I love this city, faults and all. Someday I dream that it will love all its peoples. Until then, there’s still work to do.