Switching Gears
( 4 min read )
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but its been a few months since my last blog post.
Here’s just a quick recap of what I’ve been up to, and what to expect from me going forward. Writing a blog has been a learning process for me and I’m adapting as I go. I’m figuratively switching gears with my content direction and topics, and literally switching gears with the tools I use to write with.
Switched to Hugo
I stopped using my custom CMS, I called Oddox, and started using Hugo.
The reason I ditched my own code was simple; I enjoyed writing code on my custom CMS using Java, Vue.js, Vert.x, PouchDB, and CouchDB, more than I enjoyed actually writing blog posts. Like a broken record, I would sit down and start writing a new post, only to get frustrated or curious if “maybe I could add this quick” or “that button should be over here”, and start coding instead of writing. Then my evening would go by, and I didn’t have anything to share.
So I decided, enough is enough. If I’m going to blog about code, then I better stop coding my blog.
Eventually, I discovered Hugo. It cli is very easy to use, and combining it with git and GitHub Pages, means I can write posts in any editor
with markdown syntax and just git push when I’m done. Well its a bit more than that, but its quite simple:
# 1. create a new post in Markdown
$ hugo new content/post/my-new-post.md
# 2. save as html files to docs
$ hugo -d docs
# 3. publish to GitHub Pages
$ git commit -a -m "My new post"
$ git pushAnd that’s it. The only downside right now, is having to convert all my html posts to markdown. So if you click through my older posts, you’ll see broken links and some funky formatting. I ported them over to Hugo, but I haven’t converted their formatting yet.
Switched Jobs
I got a new job at Apple as a Backend Software Engineer in Cupertino, California. I started in September last year and have been loving every minute of it. I’m mostly working in Scala and Python and using tools like Kafka and Cassandra.
And California has been great. My wife and I love the weather here; there’s no snow in the bay area at all. Which is quite the change from Michigan, where winters seemed to last 5-6 months of the year. We’ve both enjoyed hiking trails and playing tennis year-round now.
Blogging more about Code
I’ve written posts before about technology in general, but something I think I’ll change from now on is writing more about code. Specifically, I want to share code that I’ve found useful, or coding concepts that are tricky to navigate without some help. I also want to share my open-source projects, like Oddox (even though its crap!), and write about them as well. I’ve got a few ideas lined up for Scala and Akka, so stay tuned.
But as usual, if another year passes and I haven’t written anything. Its probably because I switched gears and stopped blogging altogether!
Published: Jul 16, 2019
Category: meta