When people mention writing in their diaries or journals, I often think to myself, “Sheesh, who’d ever take that much time to write out their innermost thoughts?” And then, I have to remember that as a Very Online millennial prone to oversharing, I literally keep such records and blast them out for anyone who wants to read them.
Nowhere is that more obvious to me than looking back at the original Marshall and the Movies WordPress blog where this whole project began. In my early years, I had the ambitious goal of publishing at least one post every single day. Reviews can take a minute, so I also created the “random factoid” column. This was a flexible post that could include anything from a personal story to me just riffing on a news story I found interesting. Here’s the original, which was actually published before the first review on the site:
“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be,” Joan Didion once astutely observed, “whether we find them attractive company or not.” Much has changed within the person behind the keyboard over the more than half of my life spent writing Marshall and the Movies. (Politics, largely, although it’s not just that.)
Being the tip of the spear for the online generation meant that I did keep a fairly squeaky-clean digital footprint, so there’s nothing particularly scandalous in these writings. But they’re a fascinating look back at the person who was and is during my high school years, which makes up the overwhelming majority of when these factoids were published. So I thought this 17th blogaversary made for a fun opportunity to revisit the “random factoid” archive and see the evolution — or lack thereof — on 17 items.
If you want a preview of what’s to come, check out these posts about my teen years — and think about supporting this newsletter so it can continue to be old enough to buy a lottery ticket!
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