Issue #0004 - The Beginning of a Journey
I haven't posted in two weeks and it's not because I forgot or didn't know what to write. But it's true that I've been postponing it because, as I said in the last post, I wanted to create something; and these last two weeks have been that journey of creation.
This first part of the creation is a bit boring to read but it has been really exciting to set up and it's fun to explain, so I'll do it regardless. But first an unsolicited introduction!
Why do I need this "journey of creation"?
The end goal of all of this is to have my hobbies not only well defined and scoped, but also well groomed. I don't want to feel that I don't do them because I'd have to do some maintenance before getting hands-on with them.
One example is that if I want to edit some of my pictures, I don't want to have to remember where I put them, then copy them into the catalogue of my app, and meanwhile remember how I had to do it. And the worst part would be that then I have to remember how I was editing them. To avoid all of that the plan is to have some regular small maintenance tasks and one calendar event or some regular activity that encourages me to do it: for this case I want to put the pictures somewhere so my family and friends can see them; but also so others can find them.
And there is where the "journey of creation" started!
The journey of creation
During the last two weeks I've been manually setting up the platform so I can do all the hobbies I have while keeping them organised so I don't feel overwhelmed by not knowing what to do at that moment. It's not about planning what to do and when, but about having a placeholder so I know that if that day I don't feel like going for it and want to do something else, I can move that "time slot" for the other one I prefer.
So, the journey of creation started with the setup of a self-hosted mini-server where I'm going to "host" the virtual part of my hobbies; those that have one, of course. The task in itself is part of my hobbies as well, and reading and investigating what I need, how many things I'll want and how to create the infrastructure so it's relatively easy to maintain.
The first two weeks have been a test to configure all the different internal servers and physical devices I needed. As part of it I can say that I've moved this blog to my own proper server. That will give me some peace of mind in terms of backup and future expansion or migrations.
Another thing I've done related with hobbies is to have a proper photography blog. One thing I've wanted to do for quite some time is to drop, or at least reduce, the use of Instagram to post my pictures. I'm still using that platform because unfortunately it's where everybody is, but by having this blog I can move the actual posting to my site and have Instagram for stories promoting those posts from time to time. I know discoverability is not going to be the same, but remember that this is for my hobbies first and not for other people to influence them.
And yes, the blog is also self-hosted; this time using WordPress. It's nice to go back to the origins and try to remember how things were done there.
As part of this journey of creation you'll see that I finally managed to reconcile my hobbies into the same domain: fmaestre.com. And for now I'll keep them here as a public part of me that others can stalk.
I think that next time I'll start talking about photography since it's probably the most recently acquired hobby.