Welcome to Malaise in Exurbia

Hello, and welcome to my website: Malaise in Exurbia. It may not be fancy, but this is where I hope to reestablish my online presence in light of recent events involving various social media platforms. Yes, I still intend to continue to use some of those platforms (and no, I do not intend to share those platforms here), but I wanted to establish a place separate from the eyes of the masses (not that I had many followers on any of my social media accounts) that also served as a digital playground where I could tinker around with nostalgic practices like HTML coding.

Many years ago, I operated a handful of personal and "semi-professional" websites and weblogs using little more than basic HTML coding that I learned from browsing the internet. My favorite online resource at the time was W3Schools HTML Tutorial. I spent countless hours typing out line after line of HTML code only to create the most basic websites containing only text and misaligned, grainy images. But I was so proud of myself because I was the only one of my friends doing this sort of thing at the time.

Unfortunately, my ceiling (and interest in the topic) was low, and I eventually succumbed to the ease of using basic website editors and templates. Eventually, others in my community and friends circle began to develop an interest in building websites, and they quickly surpassed me in ability and creativity. Ultimately, I figured out I was no longer enjoying it (and honestly, I became embarrassed by how basic my website designs looked) and it called time on being a webmaster for any website.

Now, after years (actually, decades) the nostalgia bug has bitten me, and I thought about how, with no actual pressure attached to it, I might want to brush off the old-school HTML coding cap and just create another basic and lame website to scratch whatever itch I am currently enduring. Also, there appears to be a trend of creating retro-looking websites and honestly, that is right up my alley because my website design skills peaked in the late 90s and early 2000s.

What is Malaise in Exurbia?

Honestly, I have no clue what I plan to do with this website other than tinker with it and see what sticks, if anything.

Why Malaise in Exurbia?

Again, if I am being honest (and I do not know why I would not be honest, this is my website), there is no particular reason why this website is called Malaise in Exurbia other than it reminds me of the names of several of my earlier websites and weblogs. For some unknown reason, I have always been drawn to the word "exurban" and its derivatives. As for the "malaise" portion of the name, please note that when I was most active in creating websites, I was a teenager, so most of my online presence centered around my angst, anxiety, and likely (undiagnosed) depression. So, I figured if I was building a website as part of a nostalgia project, I should probably pick a nostalgic name for it. Now that I think about it, I guess I did have a "particular reason" for selecting this name for this website.