It's Been a While...

Wow it’s been a while since I posted here.

Why’d I stop posting on this blog?

1. Embarassingly little traffic (+ focusing on other projects). I could upload a video of myself pointing at the camera while winking to Youtube and it would get more traffic then this sad blog.

2. Using a static site generator and the command line to post is actually kind of annoying.

3. Some pictures show up weird (see above). I did some quick Google searches and nothing came up, and I don’t care enough right now to really look into this. turns out it was a problem with the images, come on Samsung Galaxy!

I much prefer having a web interface as it reduces the friction to nothing, and unfinished posts automatically get saved as drafts.

As I have it right now, posting requires running a “gatsby build” (takes maybe 20 seconds? too damn long!), make a new commit to the git repository, and push.

If I don’t finish a post, then I have to move it to the “drafts” folder so that it doesn’t get built. My text editor (Sublime Text) somehow doesn’t have a way to move folders in the sidebar, so I have to open up the explorer, etc.

Ok…are any of these the end of the world? No. But when blogging is just something you occasionally do on the side for fun, it’s enough to make me say “f!@# it”, I’d rather do something else.

Why don’t I go back to a platform with a web interface? Well whatever the platform is, I like having all of my posts in markdown format (eg. Blogger could theoretically just shut down your account and you’d lose all your posts) and having full control over the site (even if it’s ugly and has no search function right now). I may migrate to Netlify. But really, this site gets so little traffic and I have no ambitions of becoming a famous blogger (do people even still read blogs?) so it’s probably not worth my time right now.

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Ok back to my life.

What am I up to right now?

I’ve been living in Seoul, Korea for the last 3.5 months and am liking it here, especially the food. I want to learn the language now - not only to communicate with more people, but if only for the personal challenge of it.

I’m going to start applying for remote jobs. I’ve noticed there’s been an increase in quality companies offering remote jobs, which is fantastic.

It’s 2019 - ever since I started working it always struck me as odd that many companies insist on confing their workforces domestically to ridiculously expensive cities like NYC/SF that have proven incapable of accommodating reasonably-priced housing for the massive influx of residents (maybe the investors running these companies are landlords themselves?), not to mention other issues like accommodating the ever-increasing insane amount of homeless people and mentally insane people, constant ear-piercing sirens, overcongested sidewalks/streets, etc.

I feel a bit removed from that in Seoul. I never see homeless people, I’m in a hip area paying $8/night for accommodation, food is ridiculously delicious and cheap ($5-7 for a fantastic filling meal at a nice restaurant), I’ve got 24/7 coffee shops within walking distance, I’ve never felt unsafe, the air is clean, it’s quiet - yet there’s so much to do, etc.

Anyways, here’s my resume and LinkedIn. Contact me here if you need a solid remote engineer.