The Blog Is Back

                I really like writing, and I really like talking to people, and I really like arguing, and I need to learn how to handle feedback (of all kinds) so I am bringing this baby back.

This time, I am going to do my darndest to produce content regularly. Right now the name of the site has been changed to “Ace’s Hot Takes”. This name is meant to reflect my slightly self-reflexive/deprecating knowledge that a lot of the stuff I post on this blog won’t be completely groundbreaking, and might fall into that bottomless cultural pit of writing that is “millennial think-pieces”. A lot of it will be opinion pieces, but it’s very possible I’ll break out of objective stuff and talk about some personal stuff. This post you are reading right now is an example of the personal side.

One of my favourite authors is the late David Foster Wallace. His prose is so genuine and sincere, and his writing is basically the Holy Grail I am aiming for. I like Irony a lot too, and I’ll try to be funny, but I am going to aim to inject sincerity into everything I write. I hope that this will protect me from seeming like by creating this I am someone who sees themselves/their opinions as incredibly important and serious. I just like to express my ideas, honest!  

To celebrate my rebirth I will give some background on myself for those (probably non-existent) readers who don’t know me: (This will ~hopefully~ be the most boring that this gets).

I’m Ian Rodgers. I’m 21 years old, and just finished my second second-year at McGill University. I used to be in Chemistry, and generally thought of myself primarily as a “science-kid” (sort of) throughout high school. Whatever that means.

I withdrew from McGill in  December 2013 after a pretty bad depressive episode. I spent the remainder of that school year (2013-2014) recovering: this recovery included medication, exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy. It also included having a ridiculously supportive network of friends and family whom I am exceedingly grateful to.

Depression is a weird beast. It turns you into a version of yourself that is not at all pleasant. I still don’t know if I can separate that self from my regular self, and wonder how much I am to blame for all the bad stuff I did during the course of it (lying to my parents, a bit of shoplifting, generally being a bit of a stain). It also doesn’t go away, so y’all can expect a decent amount of discussion about it here. I am of the mind that the only real way to deal with the stigma around depression is to talk absolutely frankly about your experiences. That way, people who don’t have it -if they take the time to listen in a genuine way – can learn about it. Also, people who do have it but are still within the darkness can hopefully look to things getting better for me and see that as a positive influence. Or not.

Cultural studies is the bomb. It is basically a kick-ass approach to culture (although perhaps a bit too weighted towards the west). It uses a lot of methods taken from philosophy, anthropology, feminism and more. My love for cultural studies means that I will probably use some terms from it once in a while, and will sometimes forget to explain them. I rely on you, gentle reader, to call me out as a tool when I do so. However, I probably will devote at least one blog post to defending the use of certain terms, at least against (the misuse of in my opinion) “pretentious”.

I’m going to do my best to be a relatively good citizen of the internet here, and create a safe(r)  space. I’ll toss in content/trigger warnings, and if there is something you feel should be added, let me know and I’ll try to accommodate.

If you feel like talking to me, I am pretty much constantly on facebook, and love facebook chat. But I also can be emailed at ian.rodgers@mail.mcgill.ca or tweeted @kleixa. Please suggest topics, ideas, thoughts, argue etc etc. Or just comment them here. I will try to remain calm in the face of haters, because as (another idol of mine) Kanye West said “There are two types of people in the world, haters and dreamers… and the haters have just forgotten their dreams”.

See you next Thursday!