Hello World! From WordPress

Hello World! It’s the cry of a computer program coming to life. And, if I remember correctly, it was the first program I ever wrote in C++ over a decade ago. Fittingly, it will be the first post to my newly created blog.

I’ve spent the last few days installing, configuring, and writing a custom WordPress template in order to integrate it with my website. You don’t need to do this in order to use WordPress, or even blog. There are thousands of great looking pre-built templates already created. And, there are still other services out there, that you only need to “throw a switch” and turn on. No configuration required. My goal, however, was a bit bigger. I wanted both a custom template and to brush up on my HTML, CSS, and PHP skills. In some cases, I needed to learn and relearn completely.

Along the way (which was definitely sometimes challenging) I found some great resources for designing templates. I used this tutorial and the WordPress codex a lot. Now, with this under my belt, it is on to bigger and better things, including more challenging web development projects as well as populating this blog.

So, what do I plan to write about? Well, looking at other blogs out there, many are about people – written like their personal diaries. My goal is to avoid this. I am neither a professional writer nor blogger by trade. That said, I know what I like to read and most of it is either insights on a topic or news. There are a lot of good reporters out there, so I will let them handle the news – meaning that I am left writing something insightful.

Looking at what I know and what I am passionate about, I expect to write about technology, art, interactive design, online marketing, and budgerigars. I expect to write a post a day. I expect that this will not always be easy. But, I also expect that I will get better as time goes on.

So, enough about me. Let’s get this blog started. Hello World!