Starting Out

This isn’t the first blog I’ve had. I’ve had several over the course of my life and every one of them ended up failing. I could tell you it was a matter of sticking with it, but the real reason is that, let’s be honest, I had little to say. Over the years, though, I’ve realized I was leaving behind a lot of the things I did and would now like to remember. So I’ve decided to start a blog again — no pretensions, more of a war diary than anything else. Hence the name of this blog, Hadinapló, which in Hungarian means “war diary”, and which is intended to be a pure diary of what I do each day, provided it holds at least some interest.

And why a blog, in this day and age? Well, it’s a fair question. The truth is that lately I’ve grown more and more unhappy with the way the internet is evolving. I’m part of the generation that built the first “public” version of the internet — the internet of HTML and CSS, with FTP and open access, hosted on our own servers with, at most, 468 × 60 px banners to cover costs. Unfortunately, I’m also part of the generation that turned the internet into a walled garden where people can’t do anything without handing over their personal data. So keeping a personal blog, outside the usual platforms, is both an act of rebellion and a reminder that yes, the internet doesn’t have to be tied to corporations, and that every one of us can build something from scratch, from home, at minimal cost and without trying to make a profit from it. Something we’ve forgotten, I think.

Not much more to add: I’ll write these posts every night, covering the things I did or suffered through. I’ll talk about literature, writing, roleplaying games, teaching, programming, video games (not much — I don’t have the time) and creating maps and 3D environments in game engines. I’ll also talk nonsense, but then, I think that went without saying.