I swear that if I get tired of naming things: I'm going back to stealing song titles.
Thank you for your support, skeleton.
If I'm being honest, I'm not sure how to kick this whole thing off. My initial idea was to pick from a mental log of loosely related, yet out of context song lyrics; however, upon further review of my outline for this intro post, I imagine that would be a bit too embarrassing. I have instead opted for the casual, self-deprecating intro, which is equally as bad, but I need to express my insecurity toward starting something new, somehow. Even then, "insecurity" is a slight exaggeration. Realistically, I understand that most people are not interested in reading essay-form content, because most of the time, I am not interested either, no matter who the author may be. Though, if you've made it this far into the first paragraph, I'll finally get to the point: my name is Andres Larios, and this is a short introduction to my new blog that will serve as my mission statement moving forward.
I know, for an intro to something, I have done very little to sell or explain anything. However, I don't have a solid concept for what I want the subject matter of this blog to be, so that’s where the dilemma lies. Ultimately, the subject of each essay on this blog will just be whatever I'm interested in at the time of writing. This will likely manifest itself in research and ravings about various forms of creative media, ranging from manga to music, or anecdote-based essays used to explore and dissect observations I make in my day-to-day life. As I imagine there will be a more consistent output of the former, I must clarify: I am not seeking to write reviews, nor am I trying to be a Critic. Although this is not a hard-and-fast rule of any sort, I do plan to focus on media that I appreciate. Realistically, my end goal with each essay is to exercise the writing muscle, and to hone my ability to communicate thoughts effectively. Ideally, though, I really hope to gain a deeper understanding of the subject with each essay, and share some sort of gem of wisdom with whoever decides to read. .
While the “I’m doing this for myself and don’t expect anybody to read this” approach that I’ve heavily implied is certainly a way to preemptively cope with the less-than-ideal outcome, I do still have an audience in mind for my planned writing. In line with the goal of each essay shedding more light on the subject matter, each essay is intended to be written with the assumption that the reader has limited knowledge of the covered subject. As a result, I will aim to develop an accessible tone while avoiding pedanticism. This is not intended as an excuse to lower the amount of research for each essay; instead, this tonal distinction is meant to express my distaste with jargon and the insularity it typically generates. Yes, big talk coming from someone who just used “pedanticism” in the previous sentence, but I was concerned with SAT words at some point in my life, dammit, so I’m going to use them when I can! To be more specific, these essays are not meant to be submissions to peer-reviewed publications, or be entries in my portfolio. They’re meant to share my interests and worldview to anyone who is remotely interested.
So, what do I have to offer to those interested? Really, that’s up to you, the reader, to decide. At the very least, I hope that my writing is entertaining, and at the most, I really hope that I can inspire people to observe the world around them, with a deeper, and constructively critical lens. I come from an architecture background – which is pretty obvious if you explore the rest of my website – that will likely influence the values I hope to share. However, to those uninformed with the architecture school experience, it is likely more broad than you’re thinking. Based on what people have asked me, I can assure you there is much less math in architecture than you think, and there is way more focus on free creativity. At its essence, architecture school has many things that students can specialize in: graphic design, various forms of art, wood and metal working, digital modeling, etc. Personally, I took the middle-of-the-road approach and wanted to have a level of proficiency in everything that was interesting to me, so I’ve dabbled in a lot and have mastered none. While this may be a negative outcome to some, I find this methodology has allowed me to gain base proficiency at a lot of things quicker. Moreover, I just really enjoy learning new things, and I hope to share some of that passion with the readers.
Simply put, this blog is an extension of myself. It is not a journal, but it is an excuse to learn more about the things I value, and myself. For a bit of additional transparency, I will be searching for connecting threads in the subjects that I choose to write about, and hopefully will find a use for those threads in larger projects – either in various creative endeavors, or a larger-scale research project. Aspirations aside, though, my focus for now is on the present and what I find interesting now. I do hope that my writing can properly express my level of passion towards my interests, and if you made it this far, please reach out to let me know what you think. Part of my education was getting comfortable with criticism, so I do encourage readers to give me their feedback and constructive criticism. Also, despite my attempts to convince myself that I am solely self-motivated, people reading and interacting will offer significantly more motivation to continue with this blog. In any case, I genuinely appreciate you reading this, or if you immediately skipped to the end, maybe learn some dang patience and take some time to read every now and again. See you all sooner than later. □□□
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