Since about two months have passed since the last blog post with my 2023 plans update, it’s time for another one. This time it is going to be a bit shorter, since not a lot of stuff has happened (or rather, a lot did, but it was mostly concentrated on one of the projects, which I think is… good?).
- Elisp book polishing and expanding – still nothing with this one. It still waits, and the time I get to it is getting really close now. In fact, I increased my daily timeslot for writing, so I expect some progress with the book in the following few weeks.
- My semi-secret project I keep mentioning again and again is now rolling quite well. (As you might know from one of the previous posts here, this is the reason this blog gets updates less frequently now.) The blog engine I was writing, called Org Clive, is now ready, although not yet stable (that is, anything could be changed yet). I already use it in production, though, and I’m very happy with it! While the code is not the most beautiful thing I’ve made, using it is a pleasure – I have all my blog entries, HTML templates and text assets like CSS and JS files in a single Org mode file, which is great. Also, it generates a configurable RSS feed and supports using images and other binary assets like fonts.
If you want to see the new blog, well, I haven’t officially launched it yet. I mean, it is online, it is even already indexed by Kagi, DuckDuckGo and Google, but I thought that announcing a blog which only has one post is a bit unprofessional and potentially disappointing for readers. I decided to wait for three posts to start telling people about it. I can almost make an exception for the readers of this blog, though, since you already know that I should be capable of delivering content regularly. So, a hint: the name of the blog is a certain passcode, consisting of four unrelated words, and rather well-known in certain geek circles. (And no, it is not “correct horse battery staple”!) If you type this passcode into your search engine of preference (originally, the passcode was supposed to be thought, using telepathic technology, not typed, but well, we aren’t there yet
), followed by the word “weblog” (I call it “weblog”, not “blog”, to give it some 2000s vibes), you’ll be there.
Unfortunately, it turned out that writing that new weblog takes me more time than I initially planned – I strive to make the posts short, because there is a lot to say about the topics I cover, but the two posts I have already written have over 3000 words each (which should amount to over 15 minutes of reading time), and each of them took me over 5 hours to research and write. (Fun fact: I am always very hesitant to share data about my writing velocity. The reason is that my impostor syndrome kicks in, and I’m always afraid that people would think that I’m slacking and publishing second-rate material because I spend too little time on writing. While it’s true that I could improve my writing – and in fact, I am working on it – I decided not to care that much anymore about what people would think. Not that it’s easy, but at least I’m trying.) - The book about web extensions is obviously on the back burner now. Sorry if you are one of the few people waiting for it… When the Programmer’s diary turned out to be a flop, I have to admit that I lost motivation a bit; also, I figured that the blog (weblog) might have a higher chance of success and decided to start with it instead. On the other hand, I try not to be motivation-driven (motivation, as a feeling, is very unstable, and counting on it to get things done is risky at best. My usual approach is to employ discipline instead.)
- Other projects are also being thought about, but all of them will need to wait a bit until vacation ends and my new routine kicks in. (Quite obviously, vacation time does not help with a regular writing routine – while pleasant, it was definitely a huge distraction from that standpoint!)
So, that’s it for today. I do hope to be able to share much more in October!