This Ain’t My First Rodeo, But It Will Be My Last

I do not recall the exact date that my previous website suffered a catastrophic database failure, nor do I honestly care at this point. Sometime around October or November seems correct, but again, it does not matter. I wasted countless hours attempting to recover anything useable, hoping that I would have the opportunity to restore the website and its content to its once former level of mediocracy. As my misfortune would have it, nothing was salvageable. I briefly attempted to standup a new website, using many of the same tools that I had in the past, but continued to face hurdle after hurdle. The webhost that I utilized for well over two decades changed their service offerings, and certainly not in such a manner that provided any benefit to me. The platform that I had managed for the actual front-facing portion of my website also changed. Going from what was once a one-pay and standalone product, to one that is now ridiculously overpriced, requires an annual fee, and is unable to be self-hosted.  

After facing was seemed like an infinite number of roadblocks, I opted to give a standard WordPress install a go, with the hopes of modifying it enough fit my needs. However, that too failed. The resulting published product can only be described as a dumpster fire. In fact, it was so repulsive, that I sincerely contemplated parking the domains that I own. I figured that I would share the content I create exclusively on Vero and Instagram. Thankfully, after taking a step back to regain some form of clarity, I decided that solely relying on social media was not the best plan of action. So, I started to investigate alternative platforms. It took a while, as I like to be thorough with my decision making, or sometimes I tend to procrastinate, and eventually I settled on migrating my way over to Squarespace.

So far, the experience has been pleasing, at least as of this moment. The platform was relatively easy to learn, which is good, considering that I do not have a lot of free time to spend learning a new coding language. I wanted simplicity, but something that still offers customization, and this setup meets all my needs. I hope that it continues to do so for a very long time, as if it too fails me, then this site will indeed be my last rodeo. It certainly feels weird though, jumping ship from everything that I had grown used to over the years, but change was needed. What once was great, happened to age like milk, and the result was something rancid and certainly not usable.

So anyway, here's to a new year, a new start, and hopefully the first of many random entries to come. I parted ways with the bulk of my gear last year as a means to simplify my kit and start having fun again, so it only seems fitting that my online presence should also be made fun and simple.

-Tyler