Tag, you're it

I’ve been seeing posts popping up in my RSS feed lately where folks are all answering the same set of questions about their blogs. To my surprise I was tagged by Naz and so here we are. As a complete aside: I don’t track any analytics on this site so I have no idea who is reading it and it always surprises me to find out people are, in fact, reading it.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I’m going to go ahead and quote myself since I still have my first post from this blog on the site from 2011:

[I]t mainly boiled down to two. The first is that I wanted to have a place to put links, quotes, images, and other stuff that I find on the web - somewhere it would be stored and I could have a record of it. I did think about doing a Tumblr blog, but I wanted more of a challenge coding wise, so here it is on WordPress. Yup. My second foray into the WordPress world, this time I am doing a completely custom theme for the first time. The second reason for doing the blog was to try this out, this theming thing. It’s been a challenge in all the best ways.

What’s still true about the above is that I still want a place to put the things I find on the web and keep them as an archive of sorts for myself. What is no longer true is that I have no interest in using this as a place to play with code. Over the years the consistency slowed down at times, but having my own little spot on the web has been important to me for quite some time.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

Currently I’m using Jekyll for my blog and I absolutely love static site generators. I’ve heard the arguments against, especially lately since it’s harder to post on the go, but for me that’s a feature, not a bug. I like being more thoughtful about what I post and I’ve liked having to be on my machine to do so. That being said, I’ve integrated things with Github and Netlify and that’s made publishing a breeze.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I’ve used Wordpress and Siteleaf in the past, but Jekyll has definitely been the platform that’s stuck around the longest. I really, really like not having a database involved in my site.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that’s part of your blog?

I write my posts in Byword, a really simple markdown text editor. Ever since learning markdown when working at Editorially it’s been my go to. My only customization is that I use the same font Editorially did for writing in the app as my Byword writing font, a bit of a nostalgia thing for me.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

I get most of my ideas when I’m walking and then get home from the walk and promptly do other things, so very few see the light of day. If something sticks with me for several weeks, I may eventually write it to get it out of my head, but that doesn’t guarantee that it’ll get published.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

I always let things sit for at least a bit, usually overnight. I’ve found that I usually find small errors or typos if I do that and also if emotions are running high while I’m writing I may realize that posting isn’t a great idea.

What are you generally interested in writing about?

Honestly, this is changing as we speak. I used to write a lot about tech and I no longer have any interest in doing that. I have some posts brewing in my head about making, sewing and knitting specifically, but other than that I have no idea what I’ll write. For a good while I was posting only links and my reading round up and that’s been fine with me, but it all could change, who knows.

Who are you writing for?

Me. Writing is how I think and how I process. This blog is only one piece of that writing, I do a lot more that stays private.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I scrolled through just the journal section of this site when answering these questions and there are several that reminded me of things or that were significant in some way. We are the minority was the first post I wrote that got a lot of attention and looking at it now I think it’s aged OK. On a personal level, my post about saying goodbye to my dog is right up there as is my post about Editorially. Lately I’ve been doing semi regular vibe checks (inspired by Dave and Rach) and I’ve found it really interesting to chronicle the feelings and activities of a recent time period and it’s my way of sharing now that I’m off social media.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

My biggest plan is to change platforms, hopefully. I no longer code a lot so I’m hoping I can make this happen on my own, but we’ll see. I’d like to move from Jekyll, which is Ruby based and I feel very uncomfortable in Ruby, to Eleventy, which is JavaScript based and I’m slightly more comfortable with it. I don’t plan to change design or anything in order to make it strictly about switching platforms and getting everything working. (Anyone who reads this who may have tips, articles, etc about going from Jekyll to Eleventy, I’d love to hear them!)

Tag ‘em.

I’ll tag Snook, Dave, and Rach since I haven’t seen them write one of these yet.