I designed this thing, and it has puppies.
I have overhauled this place, making it into somewhere I like to write and somewhere I like to go back to and read the words I have written. I used a cool new databaseless CMS, and some CSS pre-processing and a text editor and some fancy new techniques and went all mobile-first, but I am not going to talk about any of that or link any of it up in this post, because my point here is to keep writing and not worry about any of that, and also because this. I can’t stop looking at that vintage photo of an Australian Shepherd puppy dressed as a cowboy slash oldtimey entertainer, because, well, it is perfect. It is not behaving correctly in iOS, but I am not sweating it. iOS will work itself out sometime, and you can still see the puppy. I have started by setting up the framework in which I like to write, and the backend framework by which I want my personal metadata to be organized. I will add in navigation and archives, etc once I see how I want to use them. I can’t really design it, at least not well, before I need it. I have also started to tweet from here and post to Facebook from here because I guess I am kind of a crazy doomsday prepper when it comes to my personal data. I want to leave a record behind, which is good, because in this digital age I really have no choice. But I also want to own and control that record so that I know it persists, and that it’s only use wasn’t to monetize some company’s strategery. If my grandma had left behind a personal site I would have every word memorized by now, and hopefully some questions answered. I have already gone back through my personal archives many, many times to regain my sanity, and it helps. I am not sure how I am going to handle comments, if at all (you can find me at @andrea on Twitter if you want to respond), and like I said, the navigation is rudimentary at best. I will be working on the design and IA whenever I feel like it, with no warning. I hope that will be soon, but I am now over 40 and a realist, so I have no idea when it will be and I’m not committing to anything. But I am writing and designing again, and that is the whole damn point. Welcome, pardner.