Questions About the Blog
I’ve seen the posts going around for the blogging challenges and enjoyed reading the responses. I decided to answer some of them myself to spur myself to write something, which I suspect is the reason for the challenge in the first place.
Why did I start blogging in the first place?
I’ve been writing in some form or another for decades now (weird to say). Pen and paper of course, though not so much now. But I think online started with running a hyperlocal hardcore/punk webzine back in the 90s. It was essentially me and a friend of mine and we had a few issues. The highlights were getting early releases of albums and interviewing Earth Crisis. Victory Records was extraordinarily accommodating to local zines back then. They may still be now but I don’t operate one.
From there, it was to LiveJournal and other formats. I probably still have a LiveJournal floating around in the ether out there that’s probably being used to harvest data but I don’t use whatever email address was associated with that anymore and probably when I set it up used some alias.
What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it? Have you used any other platforms?
I’ll answer the second part first. I dabbled with BearBlog and have used WordPress in the past. Besides LiveJournal, I’m sure I’ve used others that I can’t remember off the top of my head writing this.
These days, I use 1tty to build my blog/site. The repository is hosted on GitHub and hosted on CloudFlare. I stumbled into 11ty because of Mastodon. I liked having control of just about every aspect of the site. Back in the good ol’ Geocities days, I built my sites using pure HTML, graduated to using CSS, then stopped building for a long time. I’ve forgotten more than I’ve re-learned so far but the 11ty community is so strong and vibrant that it just makes building fun. In fact, most of my ‘blog’ time is spent tinkering with the JS/HTML/CSS instead of, you know, actually writing. (Hence me writing this.)
How do you write your posts?
Right now, in VSCodium in markdown files. I’m sure I should find a better way but it works for me. I do have Decap CMS set up and could write through a browser but there’s something about writing in markdown that I enjoy at the moment. The biggest hurdle is making sure I include my frontmatter before publishing. Yikes.
When do you feel most inspired to write?
Precisely when I’m unable to. It almost always hits when I’m not near my computer. I try to jot notes down on my phone for later but always forget or it’s 2 weeks and 53 notes later until I get around to it. I have about 13 ideas at any time circling around for what I want to write about. This used to be the case with my undergrad program in English as well. I used to have hundreds of short stories written, started, or “fiinished” at any one time. To some extent, I need discipline to carve out the time for me to write.
Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
Almost always immediately and then edit several times after publishing. (Not always.) I do try to note in the post if it’s been edited especially if the edit changes the context of the post or updated any code samples I’ve shared.
What’s your favorite post on your blog?
This might be it.
Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
I’d like to update some of the design and add some more pages. Ideally, I want the site itself to be the container for all of my web presence. I’m constantly meddling with it, so future plans tend to be present plans as well. I don’t foresee moving platforms, though. I really like my current setup.
Who’s next?
Anyone who wants to if it helps your break a writer’s block or just get some words down.
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