Well, well. Look who's back. Me!
My last real blog post was in 2020, but really I hadn't been blogging much since 2019. And even that wasn't much. Last I was in prime form was in 2017.
What happened? Big projects is what happened #
Here's the deal. I get fixated on big projects, and I think it's to my detriment. I was happily doing OH SO MUCH blogging in the earlier to mid parts of the 2010's. They were all small little experiments, and I was learning and sharing a lot. But, often times the feeling of "Yeah, I got this, lets move on to the next thing" starts creeping in. Let's go bigger, better, and splashier!
Blogging led to some great things! Lots of speaking, of course, but then in 2019 (I think) was when I officially started writing my book Web Components in Action. As tech books go, I think it was fairly successful. As far as I know, I'm still the author of the only book on Web Components (with the fantastic Web Component Essentials being the one exception) and I've sold around 3,000 copies.
From there I felt like a gosh darn native web evangelist and it was my duty to spread the word. I felt like writing an actual print book with a publisher was a bit restrictive, and I wanted to get weird with it. So, I created a video series called Web Components in Space where I'd talk about Web Components and other web technologies in a spacelab. I'd interview people, do show and tells, and even do some experiments. It was a lot of fun, and I got to interview some cool folks. I wanted to build on my past experiences with video, 3D, doing a podcast with my pal Adrian Pomilio, just intertwine a bunch of past stuff I did that I had fun doing.
It WAS fun. But OMG, it was a lot of work. Between this and the book, my experimentation crawled and I was doing all production/writing stuff that took more time than I wanted. I kinda resented not playing with technology enough anymore.
And most recently, I went local! My wife and I moved to Hayward, CA in 2021. We bought a house, and especially after the pandemic when we were online to a disgusting degree, I wanted to see REAL PEOPLE in my new REAL town. So, I joined the board of directors for a local non-profit. The Sun Gallery was just coming off of winning a grant for a brand new makerspace.
Social Media Rot, too #
The other aspect of blogging was pushing it out somewhere. 10 years ago, Twitter was awesome! Now, what I can I say...Elon...happened I guess? Twitter just felt no fun anymore, and this was after I got sick of the whole web development community sniping at each other, especially for talking Web Components. And I'll be damned if freaking LinkedIn is the best place to be to connect over professional stuff, but that seems to be where we were.
But honestly, back when Twitter was fun, it was kinda awesome to be blogging the longer form stuff and pushing it out on Twitter. It was a good time.
A bit too fixated for my liking #
The other thing is that I just got plain bored talking about Web Components ALL THE TIME. Yes, I've been using them for over a decade. I gave talks, wrote my book, and like I said, I kinda felt like I had this role pushing them.
Honestly though, I like exploring. Not telling people what to do. Just saying "Hey, here's some ideas, and here's what I did - try it and have fun!" We're well beyond that with Web Components. They're an official thing now. They're not going anywhere. I don't need to be the guy pushing them anymore. I'll use them happily and all I ever wanted was to get to a place where I have a good set of tools to build with (that aren't React LOL).
I have that, and incidentally I held off using React for so long that I just officially had my first React project (in 2024!) and I disliked it as much as I expected. Though I do get why people were asking me about state with Web Components so much, though maybe that's just a consideration for function (non-class based) components. I was so horrified to learn that my constructor looking block (that obviously wasn't a constructor) kept getting called over and over again for each render. Yo...can I just declare some normal class props please without declaring official state with an API call?
Getting back to it #
So what changed? My wife asked for a blog redo on theGourmez.com. After almost 20 years of putting up with WordPress, I really didn't want to do another WordPress site. I wanted to do something where I actually had control over actual real local files rather than a mySQL database where the content is locked up. Even though she had no idea what she was in for, nor how she was really going to write, I went Eleventy on her.
Ultimately, we bought a Wordpress->Markdown editor, and I had her install VS code and Github desktop. She's been doing great with it.
But yeah, just the notion of ditching Wordpress game me some thoughts about my own blog that I hadn't touched recently. Plus she's been on Bluesky, and that seems like a fine and actually pleasant microblogging platform to go to.
What to blog #
The other piece of me getting back to blogging is that I've been doing (and meaning to do) some cool stuff lately. None of it is Web Components, though if I need to build something, OF COURSE that's what I'll use. I've been doing some generative AI experimentation like everyone else, but I've also been playing with making digital art physical with the laser cutter and 3D printer at the Sun Gallery makerspace.
Part of my goal with writing will definitely be to do some marketing of sorts for the makerspace. But, of course it won't be phony advertising. I'm looking forward to experimenting and playing as I always have been and sharing that to hype the place and hopefully attract some collaborators and volunteers.
My other obsession lately is music. Back in the early 2000's I was in a band and we put out some albums, but I didn't keep up with music after we broke up and just became rather career focused. Though, if you look at my experiments over the years, lots were sound/music related.
But in the past couple of years, I picked up playing keys again. However, I'm a sucker for alt/pop/indie rock and I need need need vocals to make it sound good to me. Never thinking I could sing, I stumbled into a great vocal teacher who's studio is a town over from mine in Castro Valley. I had low expectations prior to meeting him, but daaaaaang this guy, Jim Bedford is a legend in the Bay Area.
I still have lots to learn, but I'm more than competent, and it's getting to where I want to focus on the whole picture. Initially I thought I'd just play keys and sing, but then I remembered...I'm a huge nerd who builds weird experiments. So lately I've been experimenting with Sonic Pi, a Ruby based music programming environment, and to a lesser extent, SuperCollider, which is what it's based on.
This is an exciting space, because I feel like a noob again, but I'm also an expert UX dev with a huge background in audio and video. This could lead to some pretty fun and hopefully rockin songs.
See ya soon #
So, I'm back and excited to get into this experimental, creative, fun, and just ALL OVER the place mode again. Blogging will hopefully be a great way to connect with people over my renewed interests, and also just a way to keep tabs on what I do. I always laugh at myself when I google how to do something and I end up on a blog post I wrote. See, even if nobody reads, it does serve a purpose!
Find me here and on Bluesky and feel free to say hi!
you can tell I'm serious because I made an experiments list on my whiteboard