how i made it big
Over the course of the last few days I have been learning more about the static site generator Jekyll. As I understand it, this fairly mature open-source project fits my need to have a very small footprint blogging engine.
In fact, it's hard to even call it an engine at all. If it is anything it is a templating system, with some handy features that I will tell you about.
The minimal footprint extends beyond the underlying technology. What I really wanted was a way to compose entries in my favorite text editor, similar to the way Doogie did it back in 88. When done, I wanted the ability to deploy these new entries via the command line, because issuing commands is far more satisfying than clicking a mouse.
Jekyll will also force me to become more familiar with the version control system, git, something I've been meaning to do for awhile as well.
Once git has been properly configured, the cool advantage I will have is that deploying and committing will be roughly identical process. The need for setting up a database is eliminated, and my thoughts will remain in utf-8 text format for easy retrieval, migration or whatever.