Questions Nobody's Asked Yet, But Could
Who are you?
You had to start with the hard questions first...
Most people who ask this question don't mean it. What they
really want to know, "
What kinds of things do you do," or "
What attributes do you have?" Is someone's identity defined by their occupation, or even their traits? It may be influenced by it, but I feel that identity goes deeper than that.
... I hold Christian beliefs. I'm older than a teenager. I am typically called James, in professional and online settings. I dabble in a lot of things, but right now my amateur foci tend to be in full-stack web design/development, and writing. Deprecated psychiatry manuals have classified me as Asperger's.
What's the point of this site?
It's a blog. My mother commanded me to start one. It would have been imprudent to disobey.
Why don't you use WordPress? (or)
Why does this site look like something out of the '90s?
The answer to both questions is that I like it this way. I suspect you were expecting a more specific answer, however, so I will provide one.
I once ran a WordPress site. I appreciated its (relative) ease of use and power. But I'm not fond of bloated software.
Many websites nowadays involve thousands of lines of markup, tens of thousands of lines of code, and millions of bytes. As someone who grew up with dial-up internet, and who tends to believe that "Less is more", this trend bothers me. And as someone who has actually tried to work on some modern websites and seen how convoluted they tend to be, I'm persuaded there must be a better way.
This website, and most others I make, are representative of that vision. They have the features I need, and the appearance I think websites should have. This tends to correlate with lower bandwidth costs, faster loading speeds, and soothing gorgeous grey backgrounds.
Why can't I comment on any of your posts?
I thought about including a dedicated 'guestbook' or 'comment' feature. So far, I've omitted it. Other aspects of the site are more important than dealing with additional security, moderation, and anti-bot measures. If you both want to get in touch with me
and see your message show up on the website, with your name on it, send me an email at
gpress@soopergrape.com. If I think it's good, I might post it up in an appropriate place.
I want to talk to you about something, but I don't want my emails shared.
That's fine. You can note that you don't want our correspondence posted up here. I may still publicly discuss things related to the email, but if so I will try to do it in an indirect sense, like "I've thought about X," or "I've heard talk about Y", or "I was in a discussion about Z". I won't identify you.
Why is mobile support so bad?
If it is
bad, let me know. I want to accommodate people when it's reasonable, and 'being usable' is reasonable.
That said, I design for desktops first, because of personal biases and beliefs. I've always liked the desktop/laptop form factors, and I've never felt that smartphones were 'real computers'. Larger screens give me the chance to lay out my vision and feature set in the way I like, and I don't like having to compromise that experience.
Besides, I'm disturbed by the way a number of people cleave to their phones when they're out in public. Maybe it's hypocritical coming from someone who stays indoors and on his stationary computer most days, but I feel contributing to mobile use is contributing to a problem. I'm not motivated to design a website for a platform that I don't feel should be prevalent in the first place.
Can you make a website for me?
Send me an email and we can evaluate the probability of that.