A while ago when I was living near Boston, I started making Trader Joe’s cornbread. It became a habit in my life to make a tray of it frequently and share it with my roommates. I didn’t use the right size pan for it, so it came out real thick too, and it was delicious. It served as a classic dessert, a filler in between meals, or a bite in the fast-paced lives of all of us living there.
Cornbread is one of those things that’s simple and enjoyable. There’s not much to mess up with the recipe, and there’s not some high expectation for the end result - just a simple taste, a light dessert, a part of a meal that needs something extra.
The whole house would feel warm and inviting with that particular oven baked cornbread smell, especially in the winter. It’s not harsh, spicy, or pungent. The texture can be a tad gritty but also fluffy with a “homestyle” vibe. If I were to describe cornbread in two words, I would say: warmly bland. Yet, everyone loved it! Everyone who came into that house snacked on it - it’s such a simple thing that its very own happy blandness makes it successful.
So, naming this website made perfect sense to me. Part of the purpose of this website is that it is not trying to be anything special. It’s just a simple site with limited buttons and features - my cozy “private island” on the Internet. The blandness of the site is an asset in that it loads fast, there is no spam, no ads, no cookies, no BS! Simple, tried and true text with pictures.
The right amount of texture, color, fluff, and organized chaos all add to the ambiance of my life’s spaces, and I try to reflect that here. I try to make my writing and stories unique, fun, and interesting. I want to be warm and inviting, like I have home-cooked a story for the Internet and am ready to share it while it’s fresh. Like a classic pan of cornbread!
Most importantly though, I want the content here to be real. I want to be honest and open as a real person behind the screen, not like I am writing in an effort to get “likes” or increase my reputation. This simple website lets me freely write to express what I want to, how I want to.
Honestly, in the Internet of today that is on fire with flashing lights, we could all use some blandness, some peace and quiet, some light dessert, some cozy time to stop and think and be content with ourselves, while sitting in our bean bags amongst the homey smell of cornbread in the oven.
Cheers,
Daniel