So this is what happened today:  idle blog reading, leads to following link in the comments, leads to finding material written 4 years ago, leads to learning lots of new stuff.

I’m finding that this happens more often these days.  Gotta love the blogosphere!

I’ve learned more from idle blog reading in the years after college as I did in the years I spent sitting in those lecture halls at UCLA.

Even though I tell everyone I know to use Drupal for their web projects, I finally caved and set up my personal blog (what you’re reading now) on WordPress. I finally faced reality — using Drupal for my personal blog was overkill and added so much unnecessary complexity.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defecting. It’s not a war where Drupal and WP can’t coexist. Each CMS has its place and purpose.

For example, if I had to do it again, I would still build the Top Personal Finance Blogs directory and Money Tips Network aggregator using Drupal.

But for personal blogs, WordPress is the right way to go. I don’t need complex custom functionality. I just need a basic blogging app that makes it easy for me to post my random thoughts.

For years, I thought that as a self-respecting Drupal webmaster, I should use Drupal for all my projects. Then I started using my personal blog as a Drupal sandbox. The more I experimented, the less usable the blog became. I stopped posting because I didn’t want to deal with the mess my futzing had made.

Now I just want my blog software to just work, so I can just blog instead of spending time under the hood.

So here’s to using the right tool for the job. WordPress rocks.

My memory is terrible.  If I don’t see a record of a thought or experience, it’s like it never happened.

I’ve lived 31 years and I don’t have 31 years worth of experiences I can recall.  It troubles me that much of those 31 years are basically gone. (Afterall, other than our individual and collective memories, what life does a fleeting thought or experience have?)

There have been 1.9 quadrillion days of human experiences. More or less. [1]

How much have we humans retained?  How much has been “wasted”? [2]

That’s why I want to journal, email, blog, bookmark, twitter, tell a friend, talk out loud…  Anything that lets me read or hear it a year from now, smile and exclaim, “Yes, that’s right! I remember that. That did happen.”

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[1] 106 billion humans ever lived.   Call it 50 years average life expectancy. 106,000,000,000 * 50 * 365 = 1,934,500,000,000,000 (1.9 quadrillion)

[2] When I say “wasted”, I mean two things.  First, human experience is wasted when it’s not recorded for future generations to enjoy and learn from.  That’s why I think the Story Corps project is so awesome.  Second, I sometimes find myself solving the same problem twice.  It annoys me when that happens.  Ever have this experience?  ”Wait a minute.  I think I’ve figured this out once already.  Hmm, where’s that code…”