»How come no comments?
»What's with the domain name?
»Who is jer_?
»What about “Those who can, do; those who can't, teach” (and those who can't teach, teach gym)?
»What's with all of the writing?
»How do I get a question put in here?
»Why didn't you just do this in WordPress or something and do away with this custom thing?
»What is a blournal?
You are probably correct.
That having been said, though, this is my “house” as it were (and in this case, ‘this’ applies to my web presence, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or whatever other places I might inhabit); as such, I will pretty much kick off my shoes and be me here. That means swearing, obscenity, crass thoughts, grossly inappropriate humor, and ideas that range from disagreeable to downright foolish. If you are likely to be offended by any of this, I'd suggest going elsewhere for your entertainment needs.
You are, of course, welcome to stick around and even to point out my potty mouth, disturbing viewpoints, or other such inanity. Such statements will be subject to a wide range of responses. If you are witty, we might banter. If you are insightful, we might debate. If you are boring, I might merely tell you to go fuck yourself. If you are persistent, I will probably devote entire posts to discouraging your behavior through verbal assault.
I used to allow comments here (driven by my LiveJournal account). When I was preparing to move away from LJ, I wrote code to manage comments and accounts. I then rewrote the code to help discourage spammers and trolls…then I wrote even more to do the same.
Ultimately, as I discussed in a blog post on the topic found here, I decided that I didn't even really WANT comments. I was putting in tons of effort for something I didn't even value. So I cut them out.
If you really want to interact with me, feel free to do so on Google+, Twitter, or (if you must) Facebook.
I'm a ($currentYear - 1976) year old father of two delightful children. I've been in the IT field for years as a network administrator, systems administrator, software developer, project manager, middle manager, and the head of IT. I've also built houses, remodeled kitchens and baths, and put roofs on homes. Both types of jobs were enjoyable in their own way, but I'm now pursuing my dream; I'm back in school so that I can get my degree and continue to teach college students how to use, program, and think about computers.
I don't have any big aspirations to live off my writing, but I would one day like to refine my writing to the point where I could be published, if for no other reason than my own vanity. Yes, even people with an ego like mine need it stroked on occasion (actually, a sad truth is that people with egos like mine need it stroked MORE often, but that's a whole post on its own.)
First, I really enjoy jerking around in html, and I use this as a way to mess around with anything new I want to learn. Pretty much anytime you see some useless widget appear somewhere on the site, it's because I'm trying to teach myself how to do that. If the server dies for a while, it's because I am messing with it.
Second, WordPress is notoriously insecure and doesn't do what I want it to. I don't mine putting in the effort to keep it secure and running for my wife, because it does what she needs. I am not going to invest time into using it if it won't even suit my requirements. My custom app works nicely for me, and affords me a venue for breaking things that a simple WordPress/Drupal/Joomla/Plone/etc install would not.
Before you ask, the other CMSes are also useless to me without significant tweaking. If I'm going to tweak heavily, I'd rather do it on my own code. I do use WP for family sites and (currently) SMOScast's website, Drupal for a work site, and other CMS packages for other purposes…they're just not great for here.
