I'm back

Posted Tue Feb 20 2024

And now it has been like 5 months since my last update, which is kind of wild. There were quite a few months where aside from work, I didn't do anything at all.

Well, not anything - I had a client for a wordpress web directory. It was a fun, occasionally frustrating experience which I'm not sure has ended (the client just disappeared - oh well, got paid), but I learnt a lot from it.

(weird how I didn't realise I was busy all that time. I looked at my commit history and was kind of disappointed in myself until I rememberd my client just now. I even wrote about it in my first blog post.)

things I learnt about myself

  1. I don't think I really like freelance work.
    It's stressful.
  2. I could learn to like freelance work.
    I just need to be more organised.
  3. I need to be more organised.
    I mean, not just in general, but with this it's important. I need to follow certain steps, and not rush the process either. Continued below.

I was super excited to get this client (it was my first), so I rushed the quote. That was my first big mistake. I did not have a proper grasp of what a web directory was, nor did I fully understand what the needs of the client were. This resulted in me underquoting the work, which made me resent the work I was doing when things got frustrating (and since it was my first time with wordpress (more on that later), this happened quickly and frequently).

what I'd do next time

things I learnt about myself continued

  1. I hate wordpress
    I already knew this about me. I know it's a meme at this point, but I really do think it's annoying and finicky. Maybe it would be better if I actually knew PHP or understood the wordpress API (y'know, actual skills), so maybe I'm being too harsh on it, but I spent weeks using wordpress and I don't think I learnt anything (useful) at all. Everything I did felt so darn hacky. For example, i was customising a theme, and so I create a child theme, and then had to find the files in the original theme I wanted to update, copy those over to the child, and update them there.

Meanwhile, I've spent the past couple of days building a new website using 11ty, and I feel satisfied, accomplished and eager to continue working.

Yeah, that does make it seem like I'm just blaming wordpress. Anyway, I need to stop.

what else

🐧 linux

I was kind of daily driving linux for a while, but that fizzled out. Running off an external drive just always seemed risky with two toddlers running around. I'm currently working off my hackintosh, which is mostly fine, aside from some pain issues with using an external monitor which I haven't bothered to fix.

I completed a 7k fun run 🏃‍♂️

kind of off-topic but I mentioned it here (I am reading through old posts as I write this). It was a great experience but now that I'm done, I haven't kept up the running. I wanted to try and get faster (currently at a sub 8 minute mile) but bad weather and trying to return to my former weight training schedule mean that I keep putting off the next run.

I let my cloud server die 💨

I didn't stick to the course I was doing and so I neglected it. I really did enjoy that course (plus now, this page is not live - I am writing to myself)

what next?

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