People and Blogs: Rusty

Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

My name is Rusty. I am just a regular guy who lives in the western United States. I have been married to my wife for 30 years now, and we have three adult children. I work full-time as a software engineer for a large university, and part-time as an adjunct professor of anthropology at a different, slightly smaller university. I am a child of the 1980s - which is responsible for my love of older personal computers, science fiction novels and comic books. I am a proponent of open-source software (especially Linux) and love all kinds of sports - some of which I used to participate in but now just watch. I also love to write - anything from blog posts to stories and poems - and have been doing so nearly all my life.

What's the story behind your blog?

After getting a degree in computer science, I started messing around with all kinds of personal web sites. In 2006 I started a few small, niche blogs and posted to them for anywhere from a few months to 12 years. The two most successful and longest running ones were focused on reviewing science fiction short stories and comic books. After many years of writing posts about those subjects, I got really burned out on blogging. Around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic I stopped updating and renewing those sites and let them die. However, a couple of years ago, after I started reading more personal blogs, I got the desire to jump back into the blog-o-sphere. So I created Alien Induction as a place where I could blog about anything I wanted, and also a place to re-post a lot of my old entries from those other, earlier blogs.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

To get ideas for blog posts, I try to read and watch a wide variety of things. Anything from other blogs, to news, to movies and TV series, to novels and non-fiction books. Whenever a good idea strikes me I try to write it down so I won't forget it. Consequently, I have a nice list of things that I can write about - although if a good idea strikes me sometimes I will just write a post right then. My previous blogs were focused on specific topics, so I find it immensely freeing to write about anything I want - and in some ways that makes it easier to write now.

Anyway, once I have settled on a topic for my post I will usually do some pre-writing exercises and write down the thoughts I have about the subject. I will then order those thoughts and jump right into writing. Once I'm done then I'll markup the post with HTML and images, and read through it one more time before I schedule it for posting - usually a few days later.

Sometimes, however, I don't have much desire to write, but feel I should keep to my (self-imposed) schedule. On those days I find that if I just start writing, then I will usually get into the flow and the writing becomes easier. But I try not to beat myself up if I miss a deadline or even decide to skip writing altogether. :-)

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

I don't really have a specific space where I do my creative work. As long as it is free of distractions then just about anywhere will do. With that being said, I currently end up doing most of my writing in my recliner, with my laptop. I do think that physical space can influence one's creativity - especially if it is a negative or distracting area.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

I am currently hosting my site on a shared web hosting platform. It runs on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack, but it is a completely home-grown system that I created myself. Before I got back into blogging again, I spent about six months designing and building a site that would do exactly what I wanted it to do. I found this to be an incredibly fun and rewarding experience! My previous blogs almost all used WordPress, but I grew tired of the bloat, overkill, constant updates and continuous attacks against its infrastructure.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

I'm not sure that I would do anything too different, because it has taken me 20 years to learn how I really like things to be done! My site now is a culmination of lots of things that I had to learn "the hard way", and so I'm not sure I could have taken any shortcuts.

Now, having said that, there are some things that I would start doing earlier in my blogging life, such as: don't limit your blog to a narrowly defined niche, make sure to write about a wide variety of things, don't be afraid to be yourself and let it show, add some personal touches to your site, and reach out to other bloggers frequently. I think blogging is kind of like other things in life (like being in a marriage, or being a parent) - there isn't really a rulebook, and the best way to learn is by jumping in and doing it. You won't figure out what you like until you try lots of things and see many things that you don't like!

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?

I usually pay for multiple years at a time, because it is slightly cheaper to do so. The last time I renewed, last year, I paid $159 (USD) for a year's worth of web hosting, and $22 for the domain name. So that comes to $181 per year that I spend to keep my blog up and running. Another way I save money is by hosting my blog on a subdomain of my main website. That allows me to have a completely separate site, but only pay for one domain name.

My site now is mostly a cost, and doesn't generate much income. During the past year I think I have made about $15 from affiliate links. I use affiliate links because I recommend a lot of books, and when I give readers the links to them I figure I can make a few cents if they actually buy the books. However, it didn't always used to be this way. Back around 2007-2008 was the height of my income making blog days, and I was generating about $100 per month at the time. Given, that is not enough to quit my full-time job, but it was nice. Of course I had lots of ads and affiliate links on each page. Gah - I can't stand the thought of that now! And it was honestly a lot of work to push crap on people and make them click on links. It took me a few years to get over that mindset, but when I finally did I was much happier to be writing just for the joy of it.

Like many other people you have interviewed, I don't mind if people monetize their blog - as long as it isn't too distracting. I despise ads and always use an ad-blocker on my browser. However, when I enjoy someone's site I have given to their tip jars and clicked on their affiliate links. Heaven knows that (almost) nobody is getting rich from those meager efforts.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

Auxilliary Memory: I've been following James's blog for over 20 years now. He shares his thoughts about books, memory and getting older. His posts always make me think deeper about life, and I find myself thinking about them for many days afterwards. I would very much like you to interview him!

Rip Jagger's Dojo: Rip writes about comic books, novels and TV series - mostly from the 1960s through 1980s. I have been reading his blog for many years, and I can't tell you how many fun, new things I've discovered because of him.

A Whole Lotta Nothing: Matthew is quite the DIY guy from the Pacific Northwest of the USA. I really enjoy reading about all his projects and trips - fun and fascinating stuff.

What the Fran: Frances writes about her life, community and activities in the U.K. She posts about a wide variety of topics, and they are always interesting and fun to read.

The Silicon Underground: David writes interesting tidbits about older technology - usually stuff from the 1990s or so. It is both fascinating to read about how technology from then affects us now-a-days, and it is also a bit nostalgic for those of us that lived through that time.

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

Be nice to people. Support sites that you use and like. Wean yourself from evil and greedy mega-corporations. Use and support open-source software. And most importantly, be kind to yourself.