Timewarp – I’m back

My last real post on this blog was more than two years ago (the March calendar post was a page from my static site added here for archival). It was a different time, a different site, and different blogging software. Much has changed and much as happened since then, but I though it was finally time to get back to the much postponed updating and building of my site.

I imported all the old posts into this new site for the sake of completeness, and because I thought they are still relevant. The original blog boldly stated that it was the journal about “Blender mastery and personal website re-invention”. Well, I can scarcely claim to be anywhere near a Blender master. In fact with recent leaps in Blender development, I might need to start anew. And as far as personal website re-invention goes, there is still plenty to be done, and many of my original ideas on the subject have changed and (I would like to believe) matured.

In keeping with that change, this site is now quite appropriately sub-titled “What I’m doing when I’m not doing everything else”. That is exactly what this site is about, a central repository of information and thoughts that act as a starting point to other ideas and sites. But those other sites are still to be born, and this blog will document their creation and my general rambling. Basically, I’m trying my hand at having an almost regular kind of journal blog, or at least as “normal” as I can manage.

I’m now shifting to WordPress as my content management system. Since my first foray into blogging, I have gotten much more familiar with content management systems and have used some of the major Open Source CMSs in my professional projects. Not having had a chance to implement straight-forward blog sites for clients thus far, it’s now time to try it out with my own site. Nothing like a real world situation to learn something new.

At the moment this new site (SamirBharadwaj.com) is taking over from my old one, whose main purpose was to display some of my design, illustration and photography work for potential clients to see. So the portfolio stuff will co-exist with my ramblings. But eventually the plan is to separate out my interest in design and related creative content into a separate site that will be focused on that and that alone. That will come first and similar satellite sites will soon flourish. Many ideas remain to be solidified and implemented, and this blog will journal my progress in that matter and others.

This growth into other sites is something I’ve been planning for a while and part of my general need to diversify away from freelancing as my sole activity. Freelancing has been quite eventful over the past few years but has not fulfilled all my needs. I need to do more and I hope these sites will be the starting point. I will get into more details over my projects and activities in the past few years. Above all it would be useful to me to take stock of work I have done and it might help me in work that is yet to come.

Other updates and recaps and thoughts will come. For now this is the beginning.