Having posted on Twitter in the past, and having tried Mastodon, I felt a blog, though old-fashioned, is ideal for this. After all, long-form and free-form commentary and thought still has its place in an era of tl;dr instant gratification.
Why the Avatar theme, if this isn’t a fandom or movie related blog? Well, because way back in the year 2009, when The War Against Terror hadn’t yet given way to the Culture War and Elon Musk hadn’t yet launched Martin Eberhard's car into space without his permission, I, like most of the planet, was keen to see this big new gazillion dollar movie that for some reason used the stock Papyrus font for it’s title (because, ya know, gotta skimp somewhere!). While it’s become a cultural trope that the biggest grossing movie of all time left no cultural impact - it actually did, and it certainly did on me. It rekindled an interest in the environment, botany and the ocean I hadn’t then felt for almost a decade. I returned to scuba diving, gardening, my love of the natural world in general, and it led to my first car being an EV (a little Peugeot that affectionately became known as “Iona”). It did not, however, engender any love in me for 3D, something for which we can all be grateful.
So, it felt appropriate, with this blog being less about politics than my previous social media (there will still be some) and more about “blue sky” thinking that it makes a small nod to the genesis for many of these thoughts. Without doubt, some sci-fi fandom will find it’s way in too, especially since it seems we’re in for a lot more of James Cameron’s world building eye candy, and who can complain at that? Love or loathe it, you can’t deny it’s beauty, and, Cameron’s awful take on the Lakota aside, it’s message.
