This one should be different.
First of all, I’ve figured out quite a bit about my hosting environment in the last few months and feel like I finally have a good handle on managing my web server. I’ve taken care of several recurring issues (hacking, excessive memory load, excessive CPU load, configuring email) and am now in a habit of applying updates regularly, though I still need to implement a better backup policy.
Secondly, the latest versions of WordPress are way cleaner than they used to be. This makes a world of a difference to me. Because good typography is so important to me, I would frankly prefer to create my posts with Markdown and Sublime Text, but this latest post editor has been simplified and made much more elegant (I am using Distraction Free Writing Mode at this very moment) – it will serve much better than its predecessors.
Lastly, this time I’m attempting it for a slightly different reason. Though I have always viewed blogging as incorporating a reflective component, I intend this go around to be an exercise in being reflective. I was inspired by Jennifer Dewalt‘s project to create 180 websites in 180 days and thought that the idea could apply here. That is, the best way for me to get to know the blogging platform and also to have a time of reflection every day is to try and consistently do it every day, even if it’s low-quality or irrelevant. It’s simply a lie that we are too busy to examine ourselves daily; in fact, our neglect of this introspection leads us off-course in life and must ultimately leave us ineffective and inefficient.
So, without any strings attached, here goes. My goal is to write about the things I love, because those are the things about which I think about at the end of each day: cooking, engineering, programming, religion, and typography.
How about the name? Though I have traditionally used, “The Afterburner,” as my blog name (such was the name of the first website I created back in the fourth grade – it was a collection of statistics on jet fighters), I have decided to branch off. Earlier this year I made the life-changing discovery that I am gluten intolerant. This has liberated me from years of physical bondage and the new name reflects how my life has turned around. Actually, because gluten is essential to making stretchy, CO2 trapping dough, it’s really hard to make fluffy and flaky gluten-free bread, but this is what we must pursue, no matter how great the challenge.
Χαρις και ειρηνη