For those who have followed Coal Speaker since its birth online in 2009, you most likely have done so (perhaps without your knowledge) on Tumblr.com .. Tumblr is a blogging service created by David Karp way back during the early days of the 21st century. Since then it lots some respect when Yahoo! Took it over.. But it’s popular. It’s easy to use. And Coal Speaker will continue in some form there with a new address, coalspeaker.tumblr.com ..
In the mean time, my little website has grown up.
It’s almost as though Tumblr was the child version of the new adult Coal Speaker.
- The original Coal Speaker website design
I moved recently to WordPress.org. It’s actually the coding behind the scenes of what you are reading right now. As a bit of a former techie (someone who built websites from scratch with coding during the 1990s and early 2000s but somewhat lost now in the new world) I have used WordPress before. For new users it’s clunky. For those having years of experience, it becomes easier and completely frees you from the tyranny of pre-built systems, and blogging services that without hesitation will suspend accounts or take them down. I have over 12,500 posts on Tumblr–many of the most precious moments in my life were captured there. The night I saw a UFO while walking my deceased dog Bailey. The time I broke my ankle while running.. my coverage of major events like the Japan tsunami and the election of Obama and Trump.. and most importantly the birth of my precious son Ayden February 2011.
But as things change.. so do website platforms.
At this point it is time to grow..
- Sometimes around 2012
Coal Speaker has been a website about mostly everything.. from weather to sports, politics and professional wresting. Culture and the future… technology and the past. It is somewhat of a reflection of me..
Tumblr made it easy to just post images without words. Or lots of words without images.. Whatever I was thinking at any given time.
This new WordPress style site is more a grown up version of itself.. it’s not just a blog. It is a website. One that has matured over the past decade into the content being produced now.
It’s also a bit of a gamble. A gamble that people will read long-form posts like this.. a gamble that logic and opinions expressed without malice or anger will be accepted by the modern day internet crowd. A lot has changed since Coal Speaker was born.
And for Coal Speaker to live, another site has died.
Let me explain.
I had another site called NIGHT TERROR NEWS. It was more paranormal.. more bizarre.. other worldly. It existed until September 15 of this year when I forgot to pay the bill. About a month later, NIGHT TERROR NEWS went up for auction since I never addressed the problem. I have no sour grapes about it.. as life goes, things get out of control.. With personal semblances of non-normalcy and crises in everything mundane adulthood, I forgot. And that is no one’s fault but my own.
However, with the name absent but space still provided, it gave me the chance to use this location for Coal Speaker.. I wanted to move this to WordPress anyway.
If you see references on here to ‘NIGHT TERROR NEWS’ you will now know why. Because it was mine.
I plan on moving over my saved Tumblr website to WordPress and incorporating the old posts onto this platform. It may take a while since I want it to work well, be smooth, and have little to no hiccups.
You will continue to be able to find my on Twitter @CoalSpeaker and on Facebook @Coalspeaker as well..
The biggest change is this website. This powerhouse of my life. This online extension of my mind, and how it either works or stops working at any given time.
You’ll laugh.
You’ll cry.
You’ll be covered in the dust of coal soot.
But we will, together, be as one. A family of people speaking from the darkest and deepest mines of the east to the sunny beaches of the west. And all places in between.
So stop by.. read a bit. Stay for a while. It’s getting cold outside. And there are stories to be told among friends.
