Jan 15, 2024
This marks my ninth attempt to manage my online presence through a blog. Yes, I have tried posting content in the form of long articles on different platforms. Most of the time, I failed not because of the platform but due to the challenge of posting articles regularly. I often get distracted, primarily by building and reading articles.
How will this attempt be different? I struggled to answer this question for quite some time before launching this blog. The primary reason will be my commitment to improving my writing. While I am confident in my English skills, writing something that others want to read is an entirely different challenge, and I am determined to conquer it.
Distraction, as mentioned earlier, is also a key issue when reading long-form articles. After analyzing my reading habits, I discovered the cause: technology. The technology and tools used for building the websites I read capture my attention. Developers are naturally curious about the tech stack behind websites. I go a step further, inspecting fonts, CSS frameworks, web frameworks, and colors. When your focus is more on tools than on the article you are supposed to read, you lose the essence of the post. It's challenging to ignore, but I am actively working on it.
For a personal blog, the tech stack doesn't have to be fancy. I prefer using the Rust-based static site generator Zola. It's fantastic and covers most aspects of running a website or blog. Recently, I discovered Simon's blog, which fascinated me with how it evolved to establish his online presence. The blog handles not only posts but also a 'Today I Learned' (TIL) section and other custom content. Inspired by his tech stack, I started building one from scratch in Django for myself. This blog runs on Django and SQLite3.
I'll keep my first post short as I have other things to sort out—tasks like tweaking the website design, icons, and footer. With Django, I've created an admin page for writing posts and a clean public view for reading. I hope to find time to maintain this blog regularly, even with the demands of playing with my little ones.