Often found online as alexjj. I chose alexjj handle when trying to find a gmail account back when you had to be invited to it (~2003?) and this was the shortest, simplest and accurate to my name as I could come up with. I’ve tried to keep it across all platforms, although I’ve been slow or didn’t care about some sites and so missed out on it. alexjj on twitter was gone when I first signed up. I quit twitter, but then later made another account and saw that I’d missed the opportunity to get it. Oh well.
I’ve been making websites since around 2000, and this is the umpteenth variation of this site. Around 10-11 years ago I first registered this domain and it originally started out as a tumblr blog. It jumped around a little and then ended up as a static blog. I went through a few different ones, all the time spending ages setting up a blog with a nice new theme, but rarely writing anything whatsoever.
More recently I tried using Wordpress, and that was very enjoyable for writing in. Especially including pictures. Everything is just drag and drop. It’s very nice. I’d not used Wordpress in years and years and it really is a nice experience. However, my underlying dislike for unnecessary databases, and straying from plain text (or plain HTML) makes me keep looking for something else. I really like Tiddlywiki and have used it for a long time as a wiki site. I also tried using it for this site, but it’s a little quirky and I think I want something more “normal”. Static sites are my favourite but for now I’m trying out blot.im for this site. It’s like a static site for lazy people 😅.
I like lots of things, I tend to try and do a lot of stuff but not often for a long time. Having said that, photography has been something that has stayed since I really got started with it around 2010. In addition to photography, I like to describe myself as a computer science hobbyist. This means I like lots to do with computers - whether that’s programming, hardware, building stuff, using and trying different software, running different operating systems, the internet and all it entails (although not really any social media) and generally spending time on a computer.
Contrary to this, I do like time away from a computer. Reading fiction, writing in notebooks, typing on a typewriter, and being outside. I do think I spend too much time on a computer but it’s a habit that’s hard to break. It’s likely this site will end up reflecting what I like and what I spend my time doing.
In 2023 I got my amateur radio licence and have been really into all aspects of it. You can see more on my dedicated radio blog.