I have a confession to make. I’m embarrassed by my blog.
I’m certainly proud of (most of) the content. It’s shown significant development in complexity and depth since I started. But I have a lot of ideas running around my head all the time, some of them even good ideas, and I’d like the blog to reflect more of them.
So I’ve decided to give myself a Chanukah gift: I’m requiring myself to make every effort to come up with one blog post every day of Chanukah.
This probably makes you wonder a few things.
What?
It’s really simple. I want to make my blog better, and I think it’ll be better if I’m more inclined to post things when I have ideas which are useful to others. I’ve gotten out of the habit of blogging, with the result that lots of smaller, useful-tech-tips type blog posts, and some larger thinkpiece posts, just never happened. That means people Googling to find a solution to their problem might not find what they’re looking for, and I’ve lost the amazing conversations and learning that come from publishing thinkpieces.
Also, I really like writing.
To change my habits, I’m going to try to publish 8 posts in 8 days. That’s a big deal for me; it’ll add 50% to my current total of posts. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
When?
The 25th of Kislev through the 3rd of Tevet, which this year happens to coincide with December 25th through January 1st. Those dates aren’t related in any significant way; in 2013, for example, the first Day of Chanukah coincided with American Thanksgiving.
As I’ll clarify below, Chanukah wasn’t chosen for any religious reason; it’s just a convenient (for me) cluster of 8 days to focus a rather ambitious goal!
How?
Honestly, I’m not quite sure. I’m cheating by counting this as one post, and I have one high-quality post already written up. I also have an idea for a third. Beyond that, I’ll have to get creative!
Why?
Now’s when I’m supposed to offer some platitude about “This is my Chanukah gift to you,” or “You can think of it as a Christmas present,” or whatever. But I don’t feel comfortable with just about anything explicitly interfaith, and I don’t think I need a religious (or pseudo-religious) reason to do something valuable. Also I don’t believe in Chanukah presents, coming from a family that eschewed the practice since TBQH it seems pretty Christian. So basically, no presents. Deal.
To be perfectly honest, this is an experiment to see whether I can get my creative juices flowing. I happen to have a little extra time now, between days off and the fact that people seem to disappear for well-deserved vacation around this time of year so essentially nothing work-related gets done.
In other words, it’s the best time of year to engage in an experiment that takes a lot of time, for someone like myself who isn’t celebrating anything in particular, unless you count Chanukah, which adds maybe 20 minutes to my daily schedule but basically functions as 8 regular days.
It should be fun. There’s some good stuff down the pipeline!
Who are you exactly?
If you’re first visiting the blog, I do have an About Page. I have lots of thoughts about stuff, and occasionally speak at meetups and conferences. You know, programmer stuff?
Update!!! These are the posts I’ve written as part of this challenge: