Or, if you prefer, "So long, and thanks for all the blogs!"
After sticking by MovableType as my blog software for something like seven years, it's time to move on. Before I do, a very brief (and by that I mean long and boring) history.
I started this blog because I wanted to take on a project that would be a little bit fun, would give me an opportunity to get my hands dirty with some open source software, and because I wanted to see if I could set up and effectively manage and run my own UNix server. Additionally, I received some excellent encouragement from my friend <a href="http://davingreenwell.com">Davin</a> at the time, when he told me "you're definitely someone whose thoughts I would be interested in reading". He may not remember saying it, and he's probably said that to a number of people. No matter, it was enough of a catalyst to get things underway.
I was indeed able to do all of those things, and while working through a Computer Science degree at the same time too. I had an old computer sitting around, and setting up the FreeBSD box that I initially used to do my hosting was a challenging task, and a great opportunity to learn. My friend Myron had already spent a good deal of his own time working with FreeBSD, so I was fortunate enough to have access to his knowledge in getting things working, which was a good thing, because even though techies will tell you that "UNix and Linux have come a long way and almost any idiot can install and run them these days", THEY ARE LYING. Well, at least in my opinion they are. I have been working with open source OS's for over seven years (my final swan-song was just before making the switch to Apple's fantastic line of computers), and I have yet to find one that didn't have me trying to compile my own code and search through forums online for the four other people that are encountering the extremely specific problem that only we seem to have. Oh well. I got things up, got a free hostname from <a href="http://dyndns.org">DynDNS.org</a>, and http://fresh.ath.cx was born.
I was able to keep things running smoothly for a while, and even hosted <a href="http://velvetycouch.com">Graham's</a> blog for him for a while. My initial interest in blogging was mostly .. well I don't know really. I guess you would call it a diversion. I wrote entries that made me laugh, and hoped that they also made my friends laugh. I never bothered to fool myself into believing that I had an audience of more than seven close friends (and still don't), but if I made myself laugh while I was writing, that was sufficient for me. At the time, I was working a job that did not have very much for me to do, so an opportunity to fill that time up with something marginally constructive was better than sitting around doing nothing (I can assure you that this is not an indication of a poor work ethic on my part).
As time pressed on, I started to fall out of touch with the administration duties inherent to running a server and hosting a website. Things went down hard for a couple of months before I was able to muster up the endurance to go through the process of reinstalling and running Linux again. When my server went down a second time, I was in the midst of dating a new girl (now, I'm happy to say, my lovely wife), and had other interests keeping me occupied. Fiddling with a server just wasn't a priority.
And so my blog sat, idling in obscurity. It wasn't until I started playing squash, after graduating, that I realized that if nothing else, blogging could act as a way for me to record my thoughts and progress as I attempted to improve in a sport that I soon realized I had a long way to go in (and still do). So, I brushed the dust off the server, spent some time fiddling once again, and got things running once more.
Traffic to the blog picked up considerably about a year later, when a controversial set of events were set into motion when I reffed his match at a tournament in Comox. The end result was that the story I blogged upon getting back home was passed around to almost everyone in the squash community in Victoria, and the link got sent as far East as Ontario. this provided me with new impetus to keep writing, and I stuck at it up until the third and final time my server died on me.
This time, I was done playing the role of server admin. It took time that I didn't have, and required knowledge that I was no longer willing to maintain. Hosting your own server is cool if you can stay on top of it, and is certainly nerd bragging rights; but, beyond that, it's work, and it's troubling if you're not 100% sure that you've got everything secure and locked down, and have the potential for running a zombie computer that's been compromised by an evil hax0r. So, the blog disappeared for a third time.
The next resurrection came as a result of a significant event in my life - our wedding. As a way to keep people up to date and aware of what was going on, and to provide a reliable place for people to go and get information about the date. That site still exists <a href="http://wedding.adamquiney.com">here</a>, for a little while longer anyway. At this point, I decided that hosting a server was no longer a practical option, so we sprung for webspace and a domain name. Fortunately, the last name Quiney is relatively rare in North America, so it was fairly easy to grab my name and set something up there. I migrated my blog software and archives over to the new server, and we were once again ready to go.
From here on up, the main changes were aesthetics. Trying to figure out a way to make a change to my design without overhauling everything, I upgraded MovableType and installed one of their pre-installed themes. Unfortunately, those sucked, but I didn't have any other options, and my time was fairly limited. So, rather than do anything about it, I posted entries complaining about how ugly my site was, and offering to trade some of my own time as a project manager, an efficiency and productivity coach, and a dance instructor, for someone else's time. Naturally no one responded. And so I complained...
The site's design changed one more time to the blue and green style that was around for a while, and that brings us to this summer, where, four days before I started law school, a new, exciting, challenging, and terrifying chapter in my life, I attempted to completely update the design of my site.
And the result of that is what you're currently looking at. For someone as keen on productivity, self-improvement, positive habits and realistic, intelligent planning, as I am, this decision really didn't reflect any of that.
Anyhow, that's all changed. Thanks to the advice of a new friend, married to another new friend, and fellow law student, I've set up WordPress on my server, and have updated the site. Going to <a href="http://adamquiney.com">http://adamquiney.com</a> should now take you to the new site, and this will be the last entry that gets posted on this RSS feed. If you are still interested in hearing what I have to say, please update your feed reader to point to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/adamquiney/ewmx
Again, in large bold letters, that new RSS feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/adamquiney/ewmx
If you're visiting the site manually, you won't need to do anything differently - <a href="http://adamquiney.com">http://adamquiney.com</a> should resolve just fine to the new site. If you do encounter any problems - please let me know.
So long, and thanks for the blogs. See you guys at the new site.
One Comment
Yep, definitely remember saying that, and no, do not say that to very many people at all. Still true. :)