When I first encountered wordpress, I already had a blog package written (XIMBlog) for my own personal use. I used that blog as a lab notebook, both at home and at work (well, mylast job anyway). Maintaining yet another software package just didn't appeal to me so I switched to the much more powerful and complete WordPress. I thought, for blogging at least, that having a tool to use was better than having a software package to maintain. I still agree with that analysis.

I didn't expect my blog to be something anyone other than I would read. I needed it – I need to keep notes on what I'm doing. I'm getting old. I forget things. I can lose a notebook. I always know where I left my blog. If I forget where I left my computer, I got bigger problems than where my notes are.

Unfortunately, after spending far too much time changing the UI to be “clever”, WordPress now mostly just sits there waiting for the few moments I have to sit and spew my thoughts. Like now. It's a cyber land fill for words. Dump all at once, but don't visit often. It isn't a notebook for reference. But that's what I need it for.

I can't quite understand why I used my own blog so much for keeping daily logs but don't use my WordPress blog for the same thing. Hmmm. I suppose one reason is probably that my old blog had a remote interface – klunky, but effective. I wrote a simple perl script that shoved me into vi to make my notes and when I was done the script shoved that off to the blog via a TCP connection to a blog server. So I didn't go through a web browser. I went through an xterm/vi combination to submit logs and just used the web interface to review and search the logs. And that makes sense. I actually work from xterm's (actually, gnome-terminals these days) on an hour by hour basis. I tend to use my browser only for retrieving and viewing information. I don't see it as an input medium.

So blogging online isn't for me, even though I need the blog for reference sake. What I need is a command line interface that allows me to submit logs without having to go through the browser interface. I know WordPress has some kind of RPC interface. I could write something. But I already have a dozen other projects to keep my life far too busy to even wash my dogs.

I like blogging. But I still need a better input tool.