This is the first viral(?) "challenge" I participate in ever since I started this blog. Did you ask for this? No. Can you stop me from writing it? Also no. What a beautiful free country this internet thing is!

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

In late 2022 I was in university, studying computer engineering. I was trying to set up a CLI mail client on my main Linux machine, just for fun. While looking for help online, I found a blog post detailing a tutorial procedure to solve the problems I was having.
I followed the steps and solved my problem, but I also took a moment to notice how cool that blog looked, with its minimal styling. I thought to myself "a blog would be a nice project to waste my time on", and so I started building this, from scratch. Ever since, I have probably spent most of the time tinkering the CSS, instead of actually writing content for it, but that's fine; I don't mind my time being spent tinkering.

As for the idea of actually blogging, I have always felt a (faint) need to write my thoughts and feelings. Combine this with a compulsive need to buy any cool diary/journal I see at Tiger and that is what you get: sparse and nonsensical notes on countless note taking apps, and random journals piling up in my room... until this blog happened; now the nonsensical notes are all in the same place.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

No platforms. This site is pure HTML/CSS/Javascript (btw, the code is public, you can find it on GitHub).
I use Netlify to host this, it links to my remote repository and automatically keeps track of any new change I push. It's easy and free, perfect for a static site like this one.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

No, but I did try to make other simple websites with HTML/CSS before. All failed experiments but fun to make.

How do you write your posts?

I write them in Obsidian (any editor that supports Markdown syntax would do: Notion, VS Code, even vim). I like Obsidian because it has a minimal look, and I set it up to automatically save any change in the vault to GitHub, so I can have a cloud backup of my notes/drafts.
I have a Python script that is able to convert Markdown syntax to HTML.
I also wrote a shell script that creates a new HTML file in the blog directory, sets the publication date, adds the link and title to the list of posts in the homepage (also deletes the oldest entry), in the archive, and in the tags list. The script also calculates the "reading time". Finally, it adds the link to the RSS feed.

Writing these scripts has been a lot of fun. It was also a pain but now everything's automated! And I have another script that checks that everything is in order. I set it as pre-commit hook in git so that it prevents me from committing when there are mistakes I might have overlooked.

Now that I think of it, I wish I could publish from my phone, especially the quick notes.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

When I'm trying to escape from the world. When I feel pressured and scared. When things are falling and I don't have the courage to stand my ground.
Aaaand when I'm overjoyed.
There's no in between.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

I publish immediately. I know myself: if I let it simmer I'll end up never publishing it. You have no idea how many drafts I have collected over the years. I still got them, I could even publish some of them, it's just... when time passes the idea of publishing stops making sense, I don't know how to explain it. Also, most of these drafts are not complete and I hate the idea of revisiting old work; I'm not the same person I was a few months ago, I would probably end up rewriting everything so... why bother.

What's your favourite post on your blog?

I can't pick one.
There's "Incontri in viaggio: la vecchia e la chiesa" which recounts the gothic, eerie encounter I had with what I believe to be a ghost in an old, empty church in Germany. I like it because I remember walking home from uni one winter evening, and I was so lost in thought, thinking about that encounter, that I reached home forgetting to press play on my music player — an heresy, in normal circumstances — and the walk uni-home is about 100 minutes long!
"I have no ambition" is important too. It is probably the one that got more attention and mentions on other blogs/forums around the internet.

Not to be too sentimental but... each post has a special place in my heart. Just by reading the titles I instantly remember the exact state of mind and where I was in life the moment I wrote those words. Each of them is a memory. Each of them is me. I can't possibly pick a favourite.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

A redesign? Definitely. This blog is never in its "final" form, there's always something to tweak. For example, I really don't like the dark mode color palette, I hope I can find something better soon.
As for new features... I'd like to implement a guestbook, a search functionality, and a better distinction between English and Italian content.