Catching up on my RSS feeds, Ava’s bear blog question challenge has been making the rounds. The last blogging trend I remember going viral was App Defaults inspired by an episode of Hemispheric Views back in November 2023. I felt too awkward last time around to take part, and I wouldn’t have said anything this time either, except that I got tagged by Mark Pitblado.

Nothing makes you feel more cool on the Internet than getting tagged to participate.

Why did you start blogging?

In the sappiest way possible, I’m not sure where I would be in life if the Internet didn’t exist. It’s really the generosity of people that share the things they’ve learned and the life they’ve lived, that helps guide me through mine.

For this reason, blogging for me has originally served two purposes:

1. To give back to the community by sharing what I’ve learned;
2. To serve as a second-brain for myself, lest I forget.

As time progresses, I’ve been slowly exploring blogging from a more social context. A recent addition to my website is /postroll, where I give shout-outs to blog posts I’ve enjoyed. Previously, I’ve written a couple reply posts, and I’m less shy on reaching out to fellow bloggers over email.

To the last point, I’m always ecstatic when a reader reaches out to me. That could be you!

What platforms are you using for your blog, and why?

I currently use the static site generator Hugo which takes my blog posts written in Markdown, and presents this great HTML that you’re reading right now!

My website files are hosted on two servers. One in New York City hosted by EasyVM and another in Singapore hosted by GreenCloud. The server you’re talking to right now is hopefully the one closest to you. Check out my GeoDNS post to learn more.

For all I know though, you dear reader are from the distant unforeseeable future. If so, hello! I can’t guarantee that anything from this section is correct anymore. This website may be quantum powered instead.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

In what feels like an eternity ago, my blog used to run on a self-hosted version of Wordpress. Unfortunately, the server provider I was with has faded from my memory. Exactly when the switch occurred is lost to the sands of time as well. According to the Internet Archive, I started using Hugo sometime between April to July 2019.¹

On a separate note, even though I don’t actively use them myself, I’m a huge fan of tildespaces. I first discovered them during my undergraduate days, and unfortunately that page has since been taken down. Nowadays, I currently have one at my graduate institution and you can also find me on Tilde Club.

How do you write your posts?

Since I write my posts in Markdown, I open up Typora and button smash until the words stop coming out. I use hugo serve to check that the page renders fine, and then I commit the Markdown file to my website’s GitHub repository. From there, some automation kicks off which rebuilds my website.

I like to tell myself that I lint my blog posts, but let’s be real. Who likes having their computer tell them they’re wrong? Most of the time these posts escape that extra scrutiny.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

Usually after I’ve learned or done something cool. Honestly, there’s a slight pressure for me to keep trying new things, since the reward is that I can create a shiny new blog post. I’m far from consistent with writing. I passively collect ideas I want to play around with, and then spend an evening going through my backlog. This results in my publishing happening in bursts.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

In an effort to get posts out of the door, I rarely spend over one session in drafting them. I let these drafts rest a day and give them a quick proof-read when my mind is clear. Since I go through my backlog in batches, I try to keep myself to a one-post-a-day rule. I personally don’t like receiving a bunch of updates all at once, so I try my best to not subject my readers to that.

This post happens to be an exception! I created this over two whole sessions.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

Writing for many years now, I won’t say that I have an absolute favorite. If forced to pick from 2024, I would probably say my post on Ice Hockey. It gives a little taste of my personal life while also cataloging what I’ve learn so far about the sport. My favorite technical deep-dive post of 2024 has to be Constraints and Safety in PDDL.

Any future plans for the blog?

My blog is coming up on its 10-year anniversary this April which is mind-boggling to me. The vast majority of my posts are technical pieces, and some are opinion pieces, and travel logs. Thinking about it now, I want to add two other types of pieces to my repertoire:

Retrospectives: With the blog anniversary coming up, I’m thinking about looking at some older pieces and see how my perspective has changed over time. I’m also open to talking more about my life in general.

State of TOPIC: Back in 2019, what services did I run on my homelab? Unfortunately, I can’t recall! With all the technical posts, we can likely infer that I ran a service that I talked about. However, it would be much simpler and likely more useful to people if I cataloged everything that I’m doing at a particcular moment for TOPIC. Currently thinking of my website and homelab.

Who will participate next?

I tag Ethan Martin, Zak, and bacardi55. Hopefully you’ll take part, and if you do, I’ll link your response below.

Update:

• bacardi55’s response