Hello world!
Welcome to the Analytical Bear family of blogs, of which I am and expect to remain the sole writer, editor and owner. I had originally launched this site as far back as 2020, however gradually drifted away from it due to the exigencies of pandemic life. Presently, however, I am newly resolved to take up the virtual pen, and hope that this time, there shall be very few if any interruptions or hiatuses.
The purpose of this introductory post is threefold – to explain my goals with regards to this project; to provide a quick overview of the blog “family”, and of my reasons for splitting my posts in such a manner; and to lay out certain general policies. To start, my objectives here can be summarised as follows:
- Providing a virtual platform where I could record my thoughts in a relatively organised format.
- Helping me organise and refine my views of a given problem by setting them out in written form.
- Keeping a personal record that I could refer to in the future, including, where appropriate, of any sources of information that I relied upon at a given time.
Crucially, I have absolutely no expectations that anyone, ever, will read or even be aware of this blog, unless, of course, I personally direct them to it or share some of my writings with them. The Internet is vast, and I have no plans whatsoever for self-promotion or monetisation of any of my content. This is a highly personal project, much in the same way a diary would have been in the old days – except this will be a published diary, written to conform with certain stylistic demands, and omitting any deep, dark familial secrets not fit to be shared with perfect strangers. Put differently, I am doing this for me, but keeping the blog public imposes a certain kind of writing and intellectual discipline which, I think, is more beneficial than simply scribbling in a notebook.
Moving on, after some refection I decided to segregate my future content into several distinct sections:
- The main blog, where this post will be published, shall focus on “serious” topics – economics, politics, conflicts, pandemics, public policy – and more than an occasional critique of the press.
- The “History” section will turn to matters historical, for example, World War II or Ancient Greece. I would expect the posts there to be a bit more academic in nature, with a sprinkling of book reviews and other like content.
- “Movies” will be focussed entirely on films and television series, including both quick and in-depth reviews of whatever strikes my fancy as well as commentary on the industry as a whole.
- Similarly, the “Gaming” section will centre around video games, and will feature mini-guides and character build ideas as well as reviews and general commentary.
- Finally, the Russian-language section of the website will carry its own, separate posts directed at Russian-speaking audiences. While on occasion there might be some crossover with my English-language blogs, in general I intend to make its content fairly distinct.
My feeling at this juncture is that by dividing my posts along these lines the overall reading experience in each given section will be much improved. With the obligatory caveat, of course, that I might perhaps change my mind as I really get into the swing of things.
Finally, I would like to end by summarising a few general policies with regards to this website and content:
- Privacy – I do not knowingly collect, nor do I wish to collect, any personal information of any kind.
- Copyright – all content on this website and all its subdomains is copyright to me, the site’s legal owner. It may be copied and shared so long as I am given credit as the original author and there is no commercial angle of any kind.
- Comments – at this time I have decided not to enable comments of any kind, partly because they are not necessary in the context of the site’s objectives outlined above, and partly as I have no time or desire to engage in their moderation.
- Footnotes – to avoid any potential copyright-related issues, particularly in the European Union, I plan to cite any press articles or like sources in full but without hyperlinks.
And there we are. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.