I talked about buying my name domain for several years before doing so, and when I eventually did, I obtained it for 10 years. Such a period would ensure I actually got my ass in gear and got something online at some point. And so, 3 years after the payment went through, I have this blog and post online, for all the world to read.

With my working days spent managing, designing, building and delivering web applications, I initially was hell-bent on building my own CMS that would do just enough of what I needed, but present exactly the site I wanted. I intended to develop using Node with JSON persistence and, to absolutely minimise running costs, designed a CMS that would run on localhost and export JSON content which could be hosted and surfaced by static HTML & JavaScript on a cheap-as-chips, static host. But that simple dream was even too lofty and never got past the mental design stage.

So, I thought, I'll get an off-the-shelf open-source solution, even in my professional language of choice, .NET, so as to potentially advance my CV. Umbraco seemed like a strong contender, but I decided to have a play with Orchard as I liked the progression of the community and solution. I got as far as purchasing Windows .NET hosting, got a place-holder site in place, designed an information architecture, and then stalled. I was again thwarted by post-work, computer fatigue, distractions like CV / LinkedIn updating, changing job, and honest-to-goodness laziness.

When I was pointed towards Ghost as straight-shooting blogging solution with a strong, independent community, I realised what I needed was to be focussed on what mattered; getting some content up there quickly and easily, avoiding getting stalled on infrastructure, bells-and-whistle functionality, look-and-feel, etc. Finding that I could get hosting, support and upgrades covered for a reasonable price that also supports the system and the community, I put all my eggs in this basket.

I began writing this post some time ago. I published it right away, and have never let go of the goal of finishing it and quickly getting onto post 2. Why am I telling you this? Simple. 1. I'm not, because no one is ever likely to read this. And 2. because I had a little story to tell, and now I've completed one blog entry...

Post Script: Since getting this far, I've gotten interested in static site generators, which tie back to my original plan of self-generation. I'll look at this closer in due course, but for now, the simplicity and regular updates on updates to this blog on Ghost are exactly what I need.