This is my website. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I couldn’t be happier to have you here. Thanks for stopping by.
I’ve had many failed attempts at having my own website over the years. Maybe a quick history lesson would be okay?
Blast from the Past
I’d wanted my own site forever. I mean, I’ve been writing code since I was a kid and doing it professionally since 1997 … I should have my own site, right? So back in 2011 I started a pretty nondescript Wordpress blog that was so unremarkable that the Wayback Machine can’t even remember what it actually looked like.
By the time 2013 rolled around, that site was horribly stale (because I stopped updating it) and I had an interview for a new job. I couldn’t let my potential new employer see a super old non-updated website, right? So I put up a new shiny static page that did nothing remarkable. And it has pretty much stayed that way ever since. Oh, I’ve gave it a fresh coat of paint in 2017 and updated the technology behind it as an experiment using new technologies that I was learning in 2018. But pretty much it’s just been a plain ol’ website for the past 6 years. Until today.
Welcome to the New
In August of 2018 I started blogging again, once a week, every week. I started on Medium because I didn’t have any place else to put my writing and I wanted to start actually publishing something regularly. Medium has been awesome and I don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing today without having first started there.
As great as it has been on Medium, there were some things that were just missing that I wanted to take advantage of.
First, and most important, I wanted to have a home. Medium is someone else’s home that happens to allow me to be a guest. As nice as it is, being a guest in someone else’s house can only last for so long before all the niceties wear off, right? That’s what started to happen and I feel like I’ve kind of overstayed my welcome. I’ll be back from time to time on there (just like you visit your relatives) but I’m happy to finally have a real home again.
Second, publishing on Medium is great for full-fledged articles, but it doesn’t lend itself to short form content such as quotes, or tweets, or just simple lists that I might want to share with my audience. Having my own home allows me to post pretty much whatever I want in whatever format I want. I’ve found myself wanting to do more of that lately. This gives me that chance.
Third, and last, I think the personal web log (or blog) has taken a hit in recent years. Everyone was leaving because social media was a super fast way to publish your thoughts to a lot of people. Over time (to me anyway) social media has become more noise than anything else and I’m looking forward to a slower pace in a style all my own. 240 characters or more. Any size images I want. And (thank the Lord 🙌) no comments I have to avoid. I think the personal website is about to make a comeback and I want to be there when it does.
Let’s Go!
Today I am super excited to launch my newest site! It’s not super polished or anything particularly fancy or special. There are things that probably will need to change. There are other updates coming. But we’ll get there.
My friend Joshua Blankenship posted a quote from author Austin Kleon on his site not too long ago that inspired me. It said:
”It doesn’t matter if it’s good right now, it just needs to exist.”
He was talking about writing but the premise remains the same for websites. Mine feels unfinished and that it’s lacking some finishing touches. But that’s okay. Those things are coming. What matters is that I launch something. Today I have.
This is my website. There are many like it but this one is mine. It’s my new home and I love it.
I’m super excited to have all of you here with me. It might be my writing but it’s our journey.
Let’s keep going.