I told you my biggest non-promise in my previous post, but I have a few others you might want to know before proceeding.

I do not promise not to edit previously posted material. In fact, I already have. =P For the most part, I shall try to limit myself to tweaks (fixing typos I missed, picking up punctuation detritus [due to my unholy love of commas, em dashes, and brackets of assorted shapes ^^’], and/or changing a word, maybe a sentence, or two). That is, I shall try not to make substantive changes to posts I’ve already published. After all, I want to put out work that’s ostensibly done. But, honestly, even authors of published books aren’t “done”. Many, many authors make substantive changes to their books — and then they call them “revised” and “updated” editions. XD So I am not promising to leave my previous posts alone. Just sayin’.

I do not promise to write posts of any particular length. I’m rather longwinded (as you can tell ^^’), but I don’t promise to write long posts every time. (I can hear the sighs of relief from here. XD) After all, the longer a post is, the more I have to edit. And I already struggle enough as it is just to get something out the door on time! ^^’ So some posts may be very short. Think of them as bite-sized amuse-bouches. ^_^

Speaking of amuse-bouches . . . I do not promise to write everything (that is, every word) in English. (The title of this blog alone would have broken that promise. XD) I do intend on writing predominantly in English. However, I have studied a number of languages (to varying degrees of proficiency ^^’), and in so doing I have come to discover that sometimes other languages encapsulate a concept with much more eloquence (and usually quite a bit more concision) than whichever language I happen to be using at the time (like English, now). Thus, I feel completely free to draw upon languages other than English when they have better tools of expression for my purpose. I hope you will think of these forays into “foreign” languages as, say, colourful sprinkles on this delightful blog sundae. XD

I do not promise to write in this wacky winsome style all the time. This is my usual style — of both informal speech (in English, that is) and personal letter writing (imagine, respectively, a-mile-a-minute, spaghetti speaking and lots of loopy spaghetti scrawling XD), but it’s not the only kind of writing I can do, nor is it the only kind of writing I want to do.

This entire blog is experimental, which means, well, that I’m going to experiment. XD I’m trying to figure out what works (and what doesn’t) — and, honestly, the best way I know how to figure out what works is to — spoiler alert! — run experiments. (Maybe even with multiple trials, if I want to go about it like a Real Scientist™.) So, yeah, there’s going to be a lot of experimentation happening around here.

Oh, and I do not promise not to swear. (Especially when some of my experiments inevitably “fail”. ^^’ Not to mention that would make this another would-be-broken promise. XD) I shall try not to swear excessively, but I get to decide what is excessive here. =P If you’re familiar with the Motion Picture Association film rating system in the United States, I’m thinking I shall probably land at around PG-13, with room for R if I feel strongly enough. If I’m not mistaken, with PG-13, you get one “fuck” (and I just used it! XD) and an unlimited number of milder words. So . . . let’s call it PG-15 . . . ish.

To be clear, I do not promise to stick to under R-rated topics! Now, I don’t intend to write and post gratuitous content — because, by definition, gratuitous content is unnecessary —, but I may, and probably shall, write about things that some people may think are not appropriate for younger audiences.

So when I say that I’m shooting for PG-15(ish), all I’m saying is that I shall try to curb my normal salty sailor speech to mostly under R-rated swearing. And I do not promise to stick to that all the time, either! Some things can only be expressed with strong language, and if that language is watered down, it will no longer express the truth. I care much more about telling the truth than I care about being polite — or 面子 miànzi “face”. So, uhhh, yeah, best prep your pearls, if you’re prone to clutching at profanity.

(Wanna hear something funny? I used to be someone who clutched my pearls at profanity. Now, of course, I’m an unabashed hedonist when it comes to language — unredeemable, I’m afraid —, but back in the day I used to be quite the teetotaller. In fact, while my friends didn’t stop swearing around me, they were kind enough to apologize to me afterword. Like so: “Fuck!” — and then in the very next breath: “Sorry, [金妮].” Hilarious. Also rather sweet. ^_^)

Anyways, along with swearing, I do not promise not to write things that may upset you (maybe even mortally offend you) just in general, never mind a curse word or two (or ten ^^’). In fact, I will strive to write at least some things that will upset at least some of you at least some of the time — because if I write with the purpose of trying not to upset anyone, ever, then not only will my writing be bland and flaccid, but I will also clearly not be practising courage — which is the whole point of this blog.

Now, to be clear, I’m not shooting for being intentionally inflammatory here. I’m not interested in provoking — or at least participating in — any flame wars. Rather, I’m just saying that I reserve the right to publish my thoughts, opinions, and accounts of my own experiences — which is the whole point of a personal blog in general. And that may or may not rub you the wrong way. Sorry, not sorry. Consider yourself warned.

I do not promise not to delete comments, sight unseen — particularly if a comment looks to be nothing but bot-generated spam, AI-generated rubbish, and/or human-generated trolling. I have better things to do with my time and energy than deal with that kind of bullshit. I absolutely, 100% welcome thoughtful, respectful, and ideally informed engagement — including thoughtful, respectful, informed opinions that disagree with mine. However, if a comment even smells like shit, I will delete it in a heartbeat. This is my little corner of the web. My house, my rules. Shit is not allowed in my house. And — bonus! — not only does that make it much nicer for me, it makes it much nicer for you, dear reader — so that when you come into my virtual house here, you do not step in shit, either. ^_^

Finally, I do not promise to eternally stand by everything that I write and publish. After all, I’m a human being, which means that I’m not static. I’m constantly growing (ideally for the better, but growing in any case), and that means that I’ll change my mind on things. Sometimes I will change my mind quickly; sometimes it will take me years, maybe decades, to (outwardly) budge on something. Of course I won’t change my mind on everything. That would be impossible — because, again, I’m human and am thus limited by my time here on this planet. But I will change my mind on things.

Terrifyingly, some of those things may very well be sacred cows (sacred calves?) of mine. Why? Because I think it is dangerous to be too deeply attached to our ideas — especially when they are deep-seated beliefs. I think it’s a good thing to regularly check our assumptions and conclusions about the world to see whether they still hold under examination and challenge. For my money, a dogmatic person is not unshakeably right so much as insufferably self-righteous — the worst. >_< No, thank you. I’d rather risk being wrong and seeming stupid for it. After all, being wrong is really an opportunity to become smarter. ^_^ (Yes, yes, the seeming stupid part is a sticking point, but, well, broken eggs, omelettes, and all that.)

In short, all of this is a work in progress. Changes be comin’ — and a lot of them. I hope I make the experience of this blog better and better for you, dear reader, but you should know that I’m not always going to get it right. Things might very well get worse as I try things that don’t work. After all, you’re witnessing something in the making, not something that’s been put together and perfected in private before it’s been released out into the world. Instead, I’m trying out this whole learning-in-public thing.

(Which, again, is just bonkers. What am I thinking?? щ( ºДºщ ))

So, yeah . . . welcome to my (fun) house here on the web. My recommendation — to both of us! XD — is just to enjoy the chaos. (˶ᵔᵕᵔ˶’)>