A New Era of Bunsnip

It's me, Sra, and I'm back. I know I said I'd get back to blogging again about 3 years ago. Back then, I wanted to start writing again very much, after having taken a much needed a break from blogging since law school ended. I had become so negative and broody in law school. It was a life-changing, formative, and positive experience overall. But it was expensive, it made me argumentative, and I needed a break from the way it made me see things for awhile.

But just when I felt ready to get back into it, I also went through some pretty significant life events:

• After many years together, a move across states, and a lengthy law school experience that took its toll on both of us, my relationship with my longtime partner, Mr. E, nearly fell apart. We went to therapy, worked on gaining a new way of understanding and connecting with one another, and managed to salvage our relationship. Today, Mr. E and I are still together and are doing better than ever, going on 12 years.
• I gained a sister in my life, Abs, who came from a secret family affair. Secret family affairs (and surprise bonus family members) are actually pretty common, but the subject is often treated as taboo. I don't believe it should be, it's isolating to not talk about these things. Let in the light, let out the shame, I say. Abs quickly became my best friend, and I immediately recognized her as a missing piece of my life. She now lives with me, Mr. E, and our two cats Mulder and Scully in a fabulous house that we all bought together last year. I love our unconventional little family.
• I lost a brother who battled cancer bravely for 8 years. Ultimately he was failed by our broken medical system that puts provider/industry profit above patient wellness/care. Ironically, it's not the cancer that killed him, but some serious mistakes of his health care professionals. I needed to take a break from blogging after losing my brother. I lost the ability to tell my story for awhile, and turned introspective. I started to think about life in a different way after losing him. I thought a lot about spirituality, conservation of energy, quantum entanglement, and parallel dimensions. I needed to make sense and make peace with what happened. I finally have the words to talk about this now. I have learned that it will always hurt, but it does get easier.
• I earned a promotion at work in an entirely new discipline from my educational background. I actually really love the work, and am very fulfilled in my career right now. I like to talk strategy and best practices, and may write about work sometimes, although I'll try to keep things non-specific, since I am not speaking for my company.

THE NEW BUNSNIP

It's a new era, and I am in a new place in life. This is not my 20's anymore, I'm firmly in my 30's. And I have things to say again, from a slightly different perspective. I am ready to tell these stories, as Sra, evolved.

Here's what you can expect from the new Bunsnip:

• We're on a new platform now, Squarespace. It's really because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and their advertising is very effective, but it also is an opportunity to make a fresh new look. But I must admit technology is getting away from me. It is not 2006 anymore, but that's about where my technological savvy decided to take a coffee break. Figuring this out will be interesting.
• We're going multimedia. I've taken up making art as a hobby - inspired by Abs, who's a real life amazing artist - and I'm going to be sharing some of my work here under the Artwork section. It's not meant to be professional level stuff, but I feel fulfillment in creating, and sharing is caring. There is also a chance that I will introduce some podcasting at some point. It's aspirational.
• We're sticking the back-catalog of the original Bunsnip into the Archives, feel free to take a dip. Occasionally I may highlight an old article from the archives, but for the most part we're moving forward.
• Sometimes I'm going to say "we", even though it's just me. It's a habit I picked up in my career - makes things sound more official sometimes, or gives greater weight of authority to what I'm saying. But yeah, it's just Sra here. Hi. I suppose guest contributions are not out of the question, but nothing planned so far.
• Topics will be wide and varied. You'll see some things that you recognize from me, and other things that are new. For instance, I'm still interested in language and grammar, but I'm a much more relaxed grammarian today. Not so uptight. It's a new time. But we are going to talk about a lot of things. There's a lot going on in the world today, politically, socially, economically, technologically. We'll talk about a lot of those things. I also think a lot about fun topics like art, philosophy, quantum physics, true crime media, TV shows, and mathematics. We will talk about all these things too, and more.

Mainly, I want to add my voice to the voices of other real people out there. Web 2.0 is actually a pretty isolating place compared to the original internet, despite being described as "social". It's only gotten worse since people migrated from blogs, message boards, and email over to canned and pre-packaged soul sucking platforms that we all spend too much time on. You all know what I'm talking about.

We need to create more human-to-human dialog, and genuine connection with one another. There are so many things operating against genuine human connection today. There is a great societal divide, globally. And a people divided is a people easily swindled and controlled. The real power is in the hands of the real people, though. We just need to reach across the divide. That's what I aim to do.

Stay tuned for more soon!