So, its been a little over 2 years since I gave up blogging. So much has changed.

I mean, there was a global pandemic, I pretty much just work from home now, I was made redundant, I lost a bunch of weight, I found a new job, I cosplayed a vaguely convincing Kratos and after visiting Tasmania I decided that living in a cabin in the mountains seemed like a pretty good idea.

I haven't got my cabin yet, so while I bide my time I thought it would be a great idea to go back to shouting my thoughts into the void for whoever wants to hear.

Which would be you I assume?

But Why?

Originally I gave up blogging because I was tired.

Don't get me wrong, I had a good process going, where I would use my commute time in the mornings (~30 minutes on the train) to pull a topic from my backlog and vomit forth a variety of words on the topic until I was satisfied enough to publish it.

I did that once a week for almost 5 years and I started dreading Monday mornings. I'd told myself that I would publish a post once a week, I'd stuck to the pattern for so long that missing even one would feel terrible! The presence of dread is usually a good indication to take a step back and reflect on what you're doing.

Ignoring the general fatigue and dread inducing Monday mornings, that period of regular writing really did help me solidify my experiences. I miss that. I miss having a written record of the crazy sorts of things that happened and being able to read it later or link it to people.

Which I did. A bunch of times.

So, in an effort to make the next few years of experiences and harrowing trauma not a ghostly shade like the last two were, I'm going to start blogging again.

Ghost of Blogging Present

Obviously, this isn't my old blog.

It was a good blog. Simple. Uncomplicated. Difficult to publish content to. Impossible to find specific posts. Sometimes required me to write HTML. Required a very specific process to post blocks of code.

Actually, it probably wasn't a good blog.

So with my impending triumphant return to the theatre of the internet I thought it only appropriate that I create a new soapbox on which to stand.

That soapbox is Ghost and I'll be honest, its been pretty sweet so far.

I went for the hosted option and it was trivial to set up, has been easy to write in so far and was relatively cheap. I highly recommend it.

Funnily enough, when I was putting together my original blog back in 2014, Ghost was one of the options I looked into. I think it was ever so slightly more difficult for me to set up and host myself, so I went with Miniblog instead.

I don't have any regrets, but its nice to see that Ghost continued on and flourished.

What's In A Name?

I really enjoy doing things collaboratively, so when I was looking at returning to blogging and trying to decide on a new name, I immediately turned to the people I work with for ideas.

In the end I picked People and Pandemonium obviously, but here are some of the other options that were floating around:

• Codestipated
• Dungeons and Databases
• Domain Models and Dragons
• Test Driven Destruction
• Deadlocks and Daemons
• Toddtatership

Some good ones there, but nothing felt quite as appropriate as the name that I picked. Its got some good alliteration, it can be shortened to P&P (i.e. Pen and Paper) and I'm all about people these days, people are chaotic and Pandemonium is one of the most chaotic planes in Dungeons and Dragons. Well, except for Limbo anyway.

The last suggestion was not the first time that someone described me as a "benevolent dictator" though, which is a somewhat terrifying thought.

🎵 Where Do We Go, From Here?

You've managed to make it this far through a relatively airy and lightweight post, so I clearly have your attention. Lets talk about the future.

I'm aiming to make a post a week, just like in the old days. Posts are probably going to fall into one of three distinct categories: leadership and being responsible for people, things relating to software delivery and dungeons and dragons (or other similar tabletop games).

If this piques your interest, head over to the about page and have a read. There are more words there to help set expectations.

As for the blog itself, its pretty barebones right now, but I do have plans to get some better branding that will make it stand out. Something a bit better than gray text, a long name and the one good photo I've ever taken.

Though I suppose I also have this one...