I’m Wesley King, and I’ve been writing — professionally and otherwise — for a few decades at this point, and blogging has been a part of the mix practically since the concept was introduced.
My blogs have had many names, and many forms over the years, but in the 2010s, I initially decided to consolidate it all under the name QueryBang. After film photography as a hobby took over my life in 2019, it quickly overran this site, and I ended-up moving all of that content elsewhere, largely leaving this site to die.
In 2023, I started getting the itch to have a place to post some thoughts from time-to-time, so I decided to revisit QueryBang as a home for it. I’ve begun dusting-off some of the old content, and have begun to post new material on a range of topics, including technology, food and cooking, media, home improvement, music, and whatever else seems to catch my interest — an esoteric and weird mix, but reflective of me, I suppose.
And, a mini-rant
I write because I like to, I share it because I want to, and I hope readers get something out of it. And I keep it free of everything that annoys me about most websites in general, and blogs specifically, including:
- Annoying third-party advertising (or indeed any advertising)
- Pop-up boxes begging you to subscribe to a newsletter
- Footers that urge you to “support me” or “donate” to keep this site going
- Click-bait affiliate links where people make money by getting you to buy stuff from online stores
- Constant nagging to follow me on social media
- A bunch of unnecessary tracking and violations of your privacy
About the name QueryBang
Where did the stupid name come from, and what does it mean? I’ve owned the domain querybang.com for years, and I always thought I’d do something with it. While I can’t find the reference online at this point, my recollection is that Penn Gillette used the term “querybang” in a piece for Wired many years ago to describe the character sequence ?!, as from expressions like:
“Really?!”
I just liked the word, so I registered it. I thought it would make a great name for a search engine, but alas, there’s no point in creating search engines. Since sarcasm is something I use a lot (e.g., “Seriously?!” or the aforementioned “Really?!”), it seemed suitable for this blog. And, I already owned the domain and it was just sitting there, so… Why not?! (Oops.)
About the comments (or rather, the lack thereof)
One of the things that most people think makes a blog a blog is interactivity — primarily through comments. Lots of websites beg you to post comments primarily because it (supposedly) helps search engine ranking. The problem is, most of them are from people who need an anger management class, or are from bots linking to suspicious websites.
I do not allow comments of any kind on this blog. I never have, and never will. This site is not intended to be a forum for public dialog, or debate, and screening and managing comments can become a full-time job all by itself — one I am decidedly not interested in.