Bear Blog Questions Challenge

2025-01-13
tags: none

Words: 444 (1 minutes to read)

(This is entry 68 of #100DaysToOffload)

Reading Kev Quirk's response to the bear blogs questions challenge I have also figured, why not do it myself?

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

I first started blogging in 2022 I believe? I did it basically after being inspired by Luke Smith to start a website, and then wanting some content to put on the website so it wasn't just a homepage.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

None, really. I have the text documents in a modified form of Markdown I call kmd, and then have a script that transforms these into HTML files using a template file. Indexes are generally from a listing of the directory, which is provided by a (very slow) shell script. Then the files are just uploaded to the server using rsync, and served over nginx.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Nope.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?

I edit the text files in vim. I have a couple of scripts on my system, e.g. `blog`, `poem`, `wv`, that allow me to write specific sections of the website. Otherwise I just cd into the website directory and modify the HTML or kmd files directly.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

I'm not sure about inspired, but I think I just tend to write when I have a bit of spare time. Sometimes I see something and that gives me an idea of something to write.

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

I generally publish immediately after writing. I don't tend to write drafts, but write the entry all at once. I find if I try to write drafts, I just end up forgetting to finish it.

What's your favourite post on your blog?

No clue. I think with time, I'll come to dislike all of them. I struggle to pick out any that I actually like, though.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

I doubt I'll move to another platform. I want to sort out kmd a bit, to allow it to have, e.g. links, and comments (not included in the resulting HTML) added as features. I also want to tidy up the website and make it actually look good - currently it looks horrific imo. And replace the shell scripts that generate the index pages, and take several seconds to run. If I can rewrite them in C or Zig, and make them fast, that would make me somewhat happy.