Being a Toolshed of Optimism

A few days ago, I noticed on Umami that there was a small uptick of referrals coming from Reddit, so I searched the site for my URL and found this lovely little post in r/IndieWeb recommending me and James. I later discovered this was posted by Billy, creator of Ctrl+Shift+3, which has been an enjoyable indie social media platform these past few weeks I've been using it. It's always interesting to hear how others describe you, and it gave me pause for contemplation. Billy wrote that I'm someone that doesn't take myself too seriously, and I certainly agree there. But "nice"? Hm. Is that how I'm viewed? Let me take a step back and say, first, that it is weird to have a readership at all. I've gone most of my life being invisible, and I've been writing online since 2015 mostly to just myself and have been content with that. This past year of creating my own independent publication and posting on a near-daily basis has changed that. Being a Jester Without a doubt, there comes a…