I've been meaning to create my own personal website for a long time, but it took none other than John Malkovich to convince me to do it. Originally, I had intended to do all of the web design myself, perhaps after taking some kind of front-end web developer course, but I couldn't motivate myself to actually do it, partly because I felt like I should be using my time to teach myself skills that are more relevant to my career. Then, one day, I see a squarespace commercial on TV starring John Malkovich. He's walking along a river on some Parisian street, looking contemplative while wisful music plays in the background. He speaks in voice-over. "Make your next move. Make it beautiful."
My first thought was: Wait... John Malkovich designs menswear? Since when? But my next one was: Maybe I can use this squarespace thing to make my own site. I wouldn't even have to learn anything about CSS! And so here I am.
For now it's little more than a blog. Not that I have anything especially interesting to blog about, but I do aspire to be a better writer, and if there's one thing established writers all seem to agree on, it's that the key to becoming a better writer is to write. Everyday. This isn't the first time I've attempted to start a blog, but it is the first time I've paid for my own website, so perhaps that knowledge will motivate me to keep it up this time. I won't pretend that I'll be able to write an entry every single day, but I hope to write several entries per week.
The other major reason for my wanting to create my own site is to promote myself as a software engineer. I suspect that the average young engineer graduating college in 2017 maintains an elaborate online presence, a "personal brand" that they can link to their resumes and LinkedIn profiles and what not. And if I'm right about that, then it will only be a matter of time before all of us -- even us older engineers -- are expected to have a chic web presence just to get a potential employer to talk to us. So, just to be proactive for once, I figured I should get around to it now. My intention is to work on some side-projects on nights and weekends and showcase it here. I might even start a tech blog, separate from this one, though I don't intend to update that as frequently.
And perhaps I'll make a page to share some of my insipid photography.