I'm back, after nine years!

I’m back.

The last time I updated my Web site was in 2016, nine years ago. My last blog post wasn’t even a proper standalone piece of writing, but a reference to writing I did somewhere else.

Basically, life happened.

What happened?

Instead of trying to look back on what happened in the last nine years, I prefer to look forward. I have changed a lot, and the world has changed a lot.

Why am I back now?

I’m back because I think I have things to say, to share with the world, and not in clickbait sound bites on “social media” on other people’s platforms.

I’m also back as a gesture against the “AI slop” that is increasingly crowding out genuine human writing and communication. Yes, I use LLMs nowadays, and they are useful, but having seen too many AI-generated blog posts and news articles and product reviews, I want to write here, in my own space, in order to assert my humanity, and to encourage all of us to assert our humanity.

Humanity

Speaking of humanity, I am typing this blog post while at a Build Night by Pittsburgh Code and Supply, a local community organization that still exists and is active both online on Slack and in-person. My old programming blog, The Conscientious Programmer, even has a post from 2014 (eleven years ago!) on my first ever Pittsburgh Code and Supply meeting!

It is so awesome that in a world where so much seems transient and unreliable, Pittsburgh Code and Supply keeps going and going as a living, face-to-face community.

Tonight’s Build Night had around 24 attendees! What a great turnout.

Moving forward

One thing I still need to do with this blog is merge in the programming blog that I just mentioned. When I launched that blog in 2013, I thought it would be a good idea to separate my “computer programmer” writing from my other writing, but deep down, I never really believed this made sense. Now that I am older (and wiser?), I have grown impatient with doing what my gut tells me makes no sense, so my plan is to merge that blog into this blog so that my collection of writings will be a unified “whole me”.

This goes against advice I’ve seen that says if you write for an audience, it’s best to be narrowly focused. But I’m not writing for an audience. I’m writing for myself, and for my friends, and for anyone who cares. Not an “audience”.

Respecting your privacy

On this Web site that I relaunched only today (in which I migrated from Hugo to Astro), I’ve already thrown away the invasive Google Analytics tracking I was using in the past. I have no idea how many “followers” I have on this or that platform, and I don’t care anymore.

The other thing I still need to do is get rid of the invasive Disqus comment system I was using. I want to migrate and preserve in static fashion the comments that already exist. I still don’t know if I should use some other comment system or just not have a formal comment system at all on my site.

Also, I was thinking of taking photos of tonight’s Build Night, and using them here, but although I took a photo to upload to the Meetup event, I decided not to use it here. There really is no need. If you want to experience a Build Night, just sign up and come to one and see for yourself!

Being honest to the past

I am slightly obsessive about being honest to the past, so I have been trying to preserve as much old information as possible during all these migrations and changes. Sometimes I have wondered whether to delete all my posts (since many of them are now embarrassing to me as I have changed as a person), but I always remember my promise to keep them.

What’s next?

I’m back after nine years and I’m writing again. I’m participating in communities again, in person (I’ll be writing more about that). I’m rediscovering the urgency of being truly human as well as being truly myself.