This is my first blog post on this webpage and the first bit of writing I have published anywhere on the internet in a long time. As such, this post is an (re)introduction of sorts of my writing persona via a medium completely of my own chosing. In this post, I hope to explore, solidify and articulate what my goals are with this project.
I’ve wanted to create a personal website that I own outright for quite some time. This is not the first website I ever created - the first attempt was made over a decade ago after graduating from undergrad. Now, I barely remember what I did with that webpage, other than losing my domain name after failing to renew it. My second attempt - this website - started over a year ago. I got as far as registering the domain name, connecting it to a host and figuring how to host a simple page with the nginx service. The friction of that experience, learning how a website is created, hosted and maintained proved too much at first. I went as far as creating a landing page and no further.
Upon reflection, starting completely from scratch was too much. I was so lost in aspirations for grand design and personalization that I lost the forrest for the trees. I lost sight of the writing, reflecting and sharing that I wanted this website to be. I spent hours attempting to learn HTML and CSS, and this website sat idle. My interest in the project waned. Nothing of substance was accomplished.
A far easier (and cheaper) way would have been to come at the project from the other end. I could have set up a free blog on Wordpress.com or Blogger.com. I have done that before, also long ago, and some of those blog posts may still be out on the web, but my heart’s desire has always been to create my own personal website - something that I own outright and had full creative control over. The itch to have my own creative space grew stronger, nagging in my mind.
This time, I chose the middle path. My previous efforts were not for nothing: I had a domain name, I had a website host that I paid for. What I needed was a framework that would get me off the ground and allow me to play with different elements, to change a bit of code here and there and see the results. I am not a coder or a web developer, I am a tinkerer. I landed on using [Astro] and the [Lipi] template, which is the flesh and bones for the for the webpage. As one of the supervising attorneys at my internship in law school constantly reminded me, “Perfect is the enemy of good enough.” I am beginning to see the wisdom in that phrase. As a visitor to this site, you will likely see much of the “Lipi” creators’ documentation still here. My plan is to gradually remove this template content as I become more familiar with how everything works and make it more of my own.
I want this to be an iterative process, something that reflects the journey I take into this space.