A Static Website

This is a project I’ve had on the back-burner for a very long time. I knew this was the direction I ultimately wanted to go with my blog - to make it as lightweight and maintainable as possible, even without an internet connection.

So, after meticulously transferring every post and page over to a new markdown format, I finally have it all together. No more javascript. No more PHP code. Just HTML and CSS, all generated in less than a second by the Hugo static website generator. It’s like going back to the classic editor for Wordpress, minus the endless security vulnerabilities.

Wordpress is/has been regressing. Substack is regressing. Fuckin’ everything is going to shit. These web services drive me crazy and I’ve had enough. Maybe I’m just getting old and curmudgeonly? Yeah, that’s probably it.

But seriously: I’ve got a set of tools that I enjoy using and I want to keep using them as they are. I don’t want updates. I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, over and over. That’s probably why I still ride bicycles that were new back in the 80s and 90s. It’s a perfected technology. We don’t need to change it! But profits must increase endlessly for some reason. What do I know? I’m not an economist.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m willing to learn new things and embrace new technology. If it’s good.

I’ve learned new operating systems and messed around with all sorts of different computer programs - all in an effort to find the most optimal way to get things done. What have I found? An offline Windows 10 machine is my ideal workstation. No worries about broken updates, or being spied on by the corporate panopticon. I’ve got a massive toolkit of software that I’ve collected over the years and I can set up all kinds of different computer systems for all types of jobs.

All subscription-free! That’s the crucial part. Resisting the endless onslaught of subscription-this and subscription-that is probably the most noble battle of our time. Fight for perpetual licenses and true ownership, brothers and sisters! Then we can worry about politics, religion, and all that other minutia later.

Anyway, I’m tickled by this static website setup I’ve got going here. I managed to cram all of my posts and pictures into less than eight megabytes. The old website took up over 600. Granted, I’ve sacrificed massive jpegs and pngs in favor of the much loathed .webp format. Too bad. Gotta be lean and light from here on out.

Don’t think in megabytes, but kilobytes.

This is where software and web development went wrong, when we started thinking that we’ve got all the storage space and running memory in the world. Well, now the big corpos want to gobble up all of the good computer hardware for themselves, leaving the rest of us to tussle over e-waste. Suddenly, every saved kilobyte matters.

Worse still, these tech companies want to charge out the ass for web hosting and other compute services, after they’ve greedily horded everything in their datacenters. To hell with that noise. I, for one, will deprive them of as much money and attention as possible, encouraging everyone around me to do likewise.

There’s still the problem of my Youtube addiction, though. Every time I get online at the library, I spin up yt-dlp - a command-line utility that enables the quick downloading of videos - and binge on multiple gigabytes of content to watch at home later. I’ve still got that FOMO for gaming and tech news. The fight against my media addiction continues. I’d like to replace that with an addiction to learning the piano. Or something… literally anything else that isn’t a vice!

At least I have to walk or bike multiple miles to get my next fix. It’s an improvement and it’s already been paying off. I feel my creative spark coming back, after what feels like ten years of smoldering in an ash bucket.

Here’s some data about what I’ve built here:

• 140 posts - spanning 14 years.
• 175 pictures - 4.5 megabytes.
• 214 html files - 2.4 megabytes.
• 71 .xml files - 682 kilobytes.
• 5 CSS files - 22 kilobytes.
• 1 PDF e-book file - 418 kilobytes.
• Total website size - 7.7 megabytes, 467 files.

I could shave off a few more kilobytes if I got rid of all the category tags, but I may find that I need those one day as I build out the site. Either way, this is a much more sound foundation to start from; one that can work with literally any internet connection and hosting situation imaginable. Making the transition away from the big, bloated CMSs (Content Management Software - like Wordpress) was a lot of work, but worth it. I spent a whole week non-stop checking and reformatting posts!

As I’ve said in a previous post, I’m not interested in being a community maintainer and moderator anymore. The Internet is increasingly becoming precisely the wrong place to discuss things. Too many bots. Too many weirdos. Too many third-worlders and ESLs. Too much content-scraping and surveillance. Too many state-sponsored bad actors. Too expensive and time consuming if it’s done right.

The people I really want to talk to: they’ve got my number. This blog is just me and my succubus demon.