This is an alpha

It’s been a long time and several false starts, but I think now is the time for me to return to blogging. If you’re reading this and wondering, hey, is this the Thudfactor I used to read way back in 2005 — yes, it is. Also, there are probably only ten of you. So welcome back.

I largely gave up blogging about fourteen years ago. I had a number of reasons. The biggest reason was that I had a small child, and the small child was not particularly interested in being quiet so I could write. A near second was that social media — I’m speaking here largely of Facebook and Twitter — got me a lot more engagement than my blog ever did.

The third reason was I’d had a crisis of confidence. I wrote a lot about politics. I used to think I could change people’s minds if I wrote well enough, but I don’t think so anymore.

I’m going to try not to write about politics this time.

My current intention is to use this space to write about things I learn, primarily for my own benefit. This approach has worked well for me over at FilmHydra, which serves more or less as a long form film diary. Here I will talk a lot about web development, agile processes, and … well, anything else I am bouncing around in my head.

This incarnation of Thudfactor (there have been many) was created using Eleventy. To build it, I leaned pretty heavily on Raymond Camden’s A Complete Guide to Building a Blog with Eleventy. I found that thanks to 11tybundle.dev. It was good for a leg up, but I am already full of ideas on how to take this further. I’m keeping a running list of resources I found helpful here as well.

Hello, or hello again — as the case may be. Things look a little rough right now, but it’ll get better. If you want to keep track, I think I’ve got an old-school RSS feed up there somewhere. Or you can follow me on Mastodon.