Yesterday, I uploaded my website changes, the whole local instance of it basically. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the thought I didn't want it hosted on GitHub. I dunno, maybe it's the whole open sourced sharing community and I didn't want a developer to fork my operating system, fix the bugs and release an enhanced version of me with kung fu grip—WAIT that would be awesome!

I toyed with getting Jekyll to run on my webhost, but I don't know if I lacked the patience to finish it or if it was timing out on me. I didn't have confidence in the docs I found, some of which were ELEVEN years old! "Grandpa, tell me about the good ol' days in computing back in '10." The great thing about my webhost is that it's notoriously a DIY space.

Still, it planted a seed in my head to move from an absolutely free webhost in GitHub to make my return to NearlyFreeSpeech—honestly, I'm a sucker for a good play on words! I've been prodded to a return to WordPress so that I can spend less time on mechanics and more time on creativity. And for all the love I thought I would have for a return to a 90s vibe for a website, either monitors have changed or my eyes have (the answer to both is a yes). The problem I have with most websites is that they are like staring into a flashlight. If monitors were like a Kindle display...oh, but what's next, my living on that fabled Pacific island with those mojito-serving chimps?

So under some sort of time frame maybe the next hour, maybe the next week, I'm moving my virtual planet from San Francisco back to Florida.

Well, it's LIVE, my new design for 2021, making a clean break from the Retrowave of years past. Of course, new in this context actually means old, though, honestly my newer Retrowave is based on the movement emulating the older, which was stylized on what might be new...oh NEVERMIND with tracking that thought pattern! Welcome to my...different design. And yes, it'll be different again soon, as this is just the initial release. Then it'll be old...er.

My hope is that I can achieve a direct approach for you, my friends. It's far too easy, and this speaks to the entire web, to hide content either in plain sight or to pile it atop links atop links, deep down into the desk drawer next to that rattler of Tic Tacs. Quick segue: do they still make breath spray? I seemed to always keep one in my pocket around '93 and '94 before I upgraded to a thick packet of Piggly Wiggly purchased Winterfresh gum in '95 and '96.

I brought old content back to this site, everything that I know still exists...I've lost hundreds of posts over the years, but dwell on it I cannot! But in with the old, it's also in with the new! I have plans for additional content with the image below as a kickoff.

(image removed)

As 2021 is the year for me to Restore, Retrofit and Retrowave: Outrun the Night, I thought it would be fun to do a monthly snapshot each 29th—can I still claim last year's Leap Day? And while I moved on from The Yeard, it's not completely off my radar. Once I achieve goal weight, I'd love to make another run. Gotta beat that record of 8 months!

As introduced in yesterday's post, I'm on the verge of releasing my new theme for this website. It's beginning to really feel like the websites I once knew. I broke away from the idea of a dark website since I've labored with a Retrowave style for years, though I did go so far as to capture the hex color codes from a "Wake up, Neo" screen capture. No, today, it's a white background all the way for me, to the contempt of my eyes.

I'm now left to consider whether I want that blessed Web 1.0 look or should I adopt a MLA vibe? Ultimately, the decision rests on whether I can go back to a serif body font. My astigmatism likely will have something to say at the meeting.

One delightful aspect of making a major break from my theme, is that I feel empowered to write more. In these recent years, especially 2020, I chose to basically write about my personal fitness, i.e. diet & exercise. Without more formal knowledge, I've pretty much exhausted the subject.

And as I remain injured, I'm not exactly generating new content over here! I've now got this weird thing on the same arm as my injured left elbow that I can only describe as a sudden, sharp grip on my tricep near my shoulder. Sometimes, it occurs when I stretch my arm over my head or cross it along my body, like an inside block in Taekwondo. There's gotta be some sort of correlation with the elbow, though again, I feel it in my tricep very close to my posterior delt.

Maybe it's time to write more on...well, ANYTHING, not unlike when I was younger—I'm still that guy, I've just become more guarded over the years. I think, too, that I wanted to maintain a speaker that was somewhat constant, or perhaps it can be better states as consistent. I wanted to be perfect...

But, friends, I am not a Cylon—at least not from the same make as the older, toaster models. I reserve the right to change my mind, as the weight values of information shift. It's how I've crossed the great plains as a vegan to become a carnivore. Or, how I've evolved from championing Arminianism to humbling myself to Calvinism.

And I didn't become a Memphis Tigers fan because blue is a superior color to orange!

I make mistakes. I say dumb things. I've got callouses to show for all the times I've kicked myself. The other day, I heard this quote from Dustin Poirer after his second fight with Conor Mcgregor:

"Your coach was right. I can’t forget [the first fight], but I can forgive myself and I have."@DustinPoirier didn't forget about his loss to Conor McGregor in 2014; he used it to change the outcome in 2021 💯 #UFC257 (via @ufc) pic.twitter.com/UtpJFaRKOp

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) January 24, 2021

I like that. I make mistakes and like a George Strait song, I sang, "I like to have that one back" for more situations that I'd care to admit. But, I move on as I Restore, Retrofit and Retrowave across 2021.