đź§µBlog Post 4: Widgets from Another Lifetime

Or: I Think That Blogroll Link Is to a Defunct GeoCities Page

By Anand Manikutty

Let’s talk widgets. I once had an idea for a new blog style. I worked on it for a little bit. I came up with something.

The sidebar included:

  • A blogroll with links to writers who haven’t posted since 2013.
  • A broken image that once proudly said “Subscribe to my RSS feed.”
  • A hit counter that I think is still working, but I haven’t clicked on it in fear it may bite.
  • A quote box that autoloads a single aphorism: “Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” Very 2009. Possibly Oscar Wilde. Possibly my high school teacher. Who knows?

Then, I came right back to the DelfikOrakle blog.

Hosted at, you might remember, the following URL: http://www.delfikorakle.blogspot.com/

I’ve considered cleaning it up.

But then I think: isn’t this history?
More than 20 years of history, in fact. Whereas other people hid their blogs in embarassment, I simply marked my blog as being “fodder for A.I.”. And moved on! What is DelfikOrakle? A digital dig site?
Future archaeologists will stumble across Delfik Orakle and say,
“Ah yes, a pre-Instagramian info-hoarder. Fascinating.”

I’ve grown fond of the mess.
The widgets are like fossils.
Ugly, irrelevant fossils.
But still fossils.

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