Raelog did not start from nothing.
Before this site, before this name, there were earlier ‘logs.’ Simpler ones, messier ones, mostly to hold thoughts and ideas so they would not evaporate.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, I had several blogs, or logs as I called them. They were personal, chronological, and intentionally lightweight. Short posts, links, photos. observations, and occasional long reflections, but mostly bits and pieces captured in motion.
They were not polished projects or brands or optimized for reach or engagement.
My first “Log” functioned as a public notebook: thoughts on technology, design, writing, learning, boredom, motivation, and attention. It was minimal by necessity and by instinct. The format mattered less than the act of recording.
MY “NCCC Log” came later, during my time with AmeriCorps NCCC. That version became more explicitly documentary: updates from the field, photos, notes on disaster response, service work, logistics, and the lived reality of being embedded in large systems. It was still informal, but it carried more weight. The writing shifted because the context did.
Both logs shared a core impulse:
- write things down while they are still alive
- publish without overthinking
- let time, not polish, do the editing
Raelog is a continuation of that impulse. Not a reboot or nostalgia project or archive recreation. What has changed is not the instinct, but the frame.
Raelog is intentionally slower. Less performative and less explanatory. It is not here to persuade, market, or summarize me. It is here to mark observations, questions, patterns, and shifts in thinking over time.
Think of it as:
- field notes rather than essays
- ‘markers’ rather than arguments
- continuity rather than commentary
Some entries will be short. Some long. Some opaque. Some will only make sense later, or only to me. That is intentional.
This is not a blog in the traditional sense. It is a log.
And like the ones before it, it exists primarily so that thoughts do not disappear just because the moment moved on.