A Newish Beginning

It's been nearly ten years since I started blogging. I counted up my entries earlier this year and realized that a thousand entries were within reach, in time for that anniversary, if only I applied myself. And here we are, last entry dated June 8th -- nearly two months ago. (Perhaps longer by the time I post this...)

I started writing about computers, and that's still what I write most about. I'm a sysadmin by trade, and there's a lot that I want to pass on to other people (or to myself, at a later date): problems to avoid, fixes I've found, war stories to brag about. But I'm becoming...somewhat disenchanted with system administration. I remember being ten years younger and shaking my head with disbelief when a coworker -- old then as I am now -- explained that he did not run a server at home; that was work, and he didn't want to spend his time at home doing work. I couldn't believe I'd ever think that myself.

But I do. My wife's laptop is not backed up regularly; the music server sometimes craps out; I've been meaning to move my website off Linode (who have been great) to my own machine for a month now. But I keep putting it off, and I spend my time on other things: family; other hobbies; reading; watching TV. (There's an awful lot of good stuff on Netflix.)

I've been wanting to write about some of this stuff here, but I don't. Partly that's laziness, or time constraints, or simple reluctance to make public what I think of as private. But partly -- and this is surprising to me, foreign -- I think this isn't the place to put those things. Which is bullshit.

This is my blog. It's got a tech focus, sure, but it's where I write. When I read other people's blogs, I realize that -- shock, horror -- they don't always write about the same things. I like those details -- and if I don't, I know where PgDn is on my keyboard. Yet I've read entries by people, conscious that their blogs are being aggregated on subject-specific sites, apologizing for writing about "unrelated" subjects...or responding to complaints about "unrelated" subjects. Which is also bullshit. It's their place. We're welcome to look, and that's great; their generosity makes our day better. But to quote an admonishment someone's mother gave them, you get what you get and you don't get upset.

I'm not being aggregated anymore, so I don't have to worry about that. (No, you're bitter.) But I still find myself thinking about starting up an "astronomy blog", or a "beer blog". Of course, in a couple years it'll be different: a "coding blog", or a "geology blog", or a "dendrology blog", or a "geneology blog". Which, third time's the charm, is bullshit. I've never understood the nervousness some have about keeping writing about different subjects separated. I hop about, when it comes to hobbies; I hop about, when it comes to life. I'm able to organize subjects without having stupid borders around them. Read, or don't read: that's your job.

So I'm becoming less inclined to write about system administration, just as I'm becoming less focused on system administration. I'm going to be writing more (maybe) on the other things I'm interested in. Fair warning.

TODO:

• Brew again, dammit
• Messier sketching project
• Create account on UnmannedSpaceflight.com
• Migrate my damn server back home
• New sciences: dendrology, geology