Hello, world!

I suppose I have a blog now?

Over a decade ago, I bought my first domain to replace my @gmail.com with something that I own and control. That didn't quite happen until Google killed Inbox in 2018, which triggered my move to Fastmail and finally using the new address in earnest. A few years later, auDA released .au direct names and I migrated to this domain where I'm now settled.

During that whole period, I've wrestled with what to do with the domain itself. It's never felt right that a recipient of my email might look at my sending address, plug the domain into their browser, and get nothing. But if not nothing, then what?

Every so often, I'd look around personal websites for inspiration, but they often seem to be pushing something—a consulting business, their latest book, a podcast, or an OnlyFans account. I do none of those things.

Nor do I particularly aspire to "cultivate my personal brand" or "establish myself as a thought leader", as my AI Assistant suggests. And a CV as a personal website? I enjoy my work, but "my career is my whole identity" isn't quite the vibe I'd hope to project.

So… then what? A blog?

Even when they were a thing, I never had one. I've never been fond of writing, and while I am generally quite opinionated, I haven't felt inclined to push that on the world. But after mulling over what to do with a personal website for several years, I've come around to it for a few reasons.

1. Even though the cause seems lost, I like the ethos of IndieWeb, Small Web, et al. as an alternative to the centralised and increasingly closed social platforms, which have supplanted the online forums and the blogosphere that I grew up with.
2. I want to get better at writing. Through a few failed attempts at forming a regular journal habit, I've come to appreciate the merits of writing—not just for communication, but also for critical thinking and reflection. However, I sometimes find organising my thoughts into words a slow and torturous process, and could do with the practice. Having a space to publish things can only help, right?
3. Present-me wishes that Past-me had documented more, because it turns out that people forget things over time. For instance, the automations that I set up in Home Assistant in the first few years after we bought our place continue to work well, but the more time passes without (much) tinkering, the fuzzier the whole set-up feels. I guess this is a gift from Present-me to Future-me. You're welcome, Future-me.

What am I going to write about? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Why now? Well, several months ago I tested out Cloudflare Pages to see out how deploying a Zola site would work. At some point, I inadvertently pushed an actual home page over my intended "Under construction" banner. It looks sad with zero posts, so instead of rolling back I'm fixing forward with this post. Hello, world!