Ian Lai
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Moving Forward

· 3 min. read

Out with the old and in with the new.

Towards the end of 2013, I decided that I was going to begin blogging more often (or at least try to) and that I was going to do so on my existing WordPress platform. It was not a decision made as part of my New Year's resolution for 2014 and indeed, it may never materialise.

I nevertheless took the first steps by removing all my old and unimportant posts as they felt like a distraction and dead weight. For the old and slightly more important posts (the ones that are bringing me traffic) I decided to update them (four actually) and to tag them as Legacy. I worked sporadically over a period of one month - as I have been busy - before I was finally satisfied to make a post about it today.

The legacy.

In computing, the term legacy is used to denote software or hardware that has been superseded but is difficult to replace because of its wide use [Oxford Dictionary]. The older versions of Internet Explorer for example, were considered legacy web browsers for some time (and I am not too sure if it is still the case) until there were major strides in the online community towards pushing for more modern alternatives including Google Chrome and Firefox - hence, their increasing market share.

I have marked four of my web design / development related posts as legacy as I do not intend on updating them anymore. Thus, the contents of the posts - be it technical or purely descriptive - may or may not be relevant today or in the near future. The WordPress code I have written for example, may no longer be usable in the near future (it should still be at the time of this post) due to WordPress rapid development cycle. Furthermore, my web design / development bookmarks may no longer be accessible or useful due to the quick evolution of technologies and of trends in the web arena.

Perhaps one day I will remove them, but for now I am keeping them as I believe it still adds some value to my barren website (and hopefully to the web community which I owe a lot to).

The unimportant.

If I recall correctly, I had previously mentioned somewhere that I was unsure of what I should do with my older posts and that I felt they should be kept as they served almost like a time capsule and an insight to my past. Well, I decided to remove them, but only from the public. I still have a backup with me, but I highly doubt I will ever go back through it. Indeed, I could not even be bothered to look at my previous two posts before I decided to write this.

They are a burden to keep and would give a misconception of who I am today. Maybe I am being a bit too pessimistic, but I am convinced humans are naturally judgmental by nature (I do care now), be it conscious or unconscious, we all judge and build preconceived notions of others to aid our everyday interaction. I intend on keeping this website professional unlike its past.

The WordPress.

The recent WordPress 3.8 update ("Parker") reminded me of why I had started with it instead of all the other solutions available. Simply, it is innovative, open and flexible. A huge time-saver as well! If there is any reasons why I am not comfortable blogging I do not think it has anything to do with the platform anymore. I was probably making excuses before (Medium is still pretty cool though). The new admin UI changes on WordPress are nevertheless absolutely stunning. Perhaps once I have developed a custom theme (not that there is anything wrong with the existing one) and switched over to Markdown - which should hopefully be included in JetPack soon - it will start to feel more like home.

Finally, going rogue.

Besides Twitter and YouTube, I just do not feel social anymore. Both online and offline. I have tried to remove myself from all of it, or at least remove my identity. I have deleted my Tumblr in the process and made private my Twitter account (to hide it from the prying eyes of a particular person, or people, I am not too sure...).

If there is anything I would like to dedicate more time to it will probably be the open source community, particularly in the web sector. Thus, I have tried to be more active on GitHub and like my legacy posts I have decided to update my old repositories as well.

Nothing relieves my stress more than coding. There are times when it can get frustrating, but I always feel like I am more in control. In our world however, it feels like there are things that we can not control and circumstances that we can not alter. If my code is not functioning the way it should, I know it is because of my incompetency and I know, I can fix it with enough persistence. It is also extremely gratifying to design and build whatever you like or whatever comes to mind with simply a computer and an internet connection.

Maybe that is why I do not feel social anymore. I do not feel in control of social situations and they simply add to my stress.

Regardless, the web is awesome.

That is all for now.

Happy new year.

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