Issue #0003 - The Summer of...

Some weeks ago I watched a YouTube video and it was an interesting finding, because I had never thought about the summer that way, and even less since high school.

Among the several topics that were brought up in the video, the last was the one that struck me the most: name your summer. The premise is that simple: put a name to your summer, and you will remember it forever.

We all do something similar although perhaps unconsciously. We usually remember "the year we went to X", "the Christmas we spent at Y", etc. And I do remember some summers, or rather, I remember specific things I did during a summer. But the memories of the whole summer are blurry, and I'm not sure I could say exactly what year it was without making a deliberate effort.

The idea of having the summer of is kind of appealing to me, especially because I can make it part of my big plan for this year. In the last issue (#0002) I already mentioned that there was something already cooking in my mind, but I wasn't sure I wanted to make it bigger than a side quest. But this theme has convinced me to try it out bigger.

This summer is going to be The Summer of Ownership. And I don't mean it in a materialistic/capitalistic way. On the contrary!

For months I've been seeing all this "go analogue", "do something with your hands", "quit subscriptions"... And that actually sounds good. That sounds really good, and pleasing! It's a shame that I don't have any subscriptions to quit anymore, beyond my phone line, but there is something else I can have on top of all of that: I can go back to own my data, to own my texts, my pictures, my music, and my movies. I can go back to own my privacy and my intimacy.

This summer I'll be self-hosting all my things. I'll go step by step, in fact, some of those steps I've already taken (or where do you think this rambling is hosted otherwise?), but I want to expand beyond that. I want to go from the curiosity of doing a side project to actually setting up my own virtual brain without having to give away my data and content to any platform. And building a server is not only a great DIY project, for me it's an exciting way of learning something new.

And I almost forgot! The video in question is The Art of a Great Summer: